lodestone vs MCSManager
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted game servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | lodestone | MCSManager |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Game Servers | Game Servers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,308 | ★ 4,969 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | AMP, Pterodactyl | Multicraft, Pterodactyl |
What are lodestone and MCSManager?
lodestone
Lodestone is a free, open-source game server hosting tool that provides a clean web dashboard to deploy and manage Minecraft and other game servers. It is designed to be simple to install on a home server.
- Web game server dashboard
- One-click Minecraft setup
- Macro automation
- Lightweight install
MCSManager
MCSManager is an open-source web control panel for deploying and managing Minecraft and other game servers from a browser. It supports multiple instances, scheduled tasks, and a daemon-based distributed setup.
- Browser server console
- Multi-instance management
- Scheduled tasks
- Distributed daemons
lodestone vs MCSManager: key differences
Lodestone is written in Rust, while MCSManager is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for lodestone versus Apache-2.0 for MCSManager. MCSManager is the more established project (first released 2017), while lodestone arrived in 2022. MCSManager has the considerably larger community, at 4,969 GitHub stars versus 1,308.
Why pick each one
Choose lodestone if…
- Beginner-friendly
- Self-contained
Watch out for
- Fewer games than Pterodactyl
- Project pace varies
Choose MCSManager if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (5k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is lodestone or MCSManager better?
Neither is universally better. MCSManager has the larger community, while lodestone is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are lodestone and MCSManager free and open-source?
Yes. lodestone is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MCSManager under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run lodestone and MCSManager with Docker?
lodestone: yes. MCSManager: yes.