Lichess vs Mineclonia

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureLichessMineclonia
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageScalaLua
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM4,096 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 18,557★ 300
First released20102020
ReplacesChess.comMinecraft

Why pick each one

Choose Lichess if…

  • Full-featured chess platform
  • Completely ad-free
Lichess details

Choose Mineclonia if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in Lua
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Mineclonia details

Frequently asked questions

Is Lichess or Mineclonia better?

Neither is universally better. Lichess has the larger community, while Mineclonia is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Lichess and Mineclonia free and open-source?

Yes. Lichess is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Mineclonia under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Lichess and Mineclonia with Docker?

Lichess: yes. Mineclonia: check the project docs for container support.

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