SHSelfHostIndex

Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess vs Nakama

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?
LI Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess Self-hostable chess server playing multiple chess variants VS NA Nakama Open-source game server for realtime multiplayer and social features
FeatureLichess Board Note - chessground alt pychessNakama
CategoryGame ServersGame Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 805★ 13,121
First released20062017
ReplacesChess.comPlayFab, Firebase

Why pick each one

Choose Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess if…

  • Variant-rich
  • Mature project
Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess details

Choose Nakama if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 13.1k GitHub stars
Nakama details

Frequently asked questions

Is Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess or Nakama better?

Neither is universally better. Nakama has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess and Nakama free and open-source?

Yes. Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Nakama under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess and Nakama with Docker?

Lichess Board Note - chessground alt pychess: check the project docs for container support. Nakama: yes.

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