Side by side

kingshard vs MCUpdater

Both stand on minecraft launchers. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

kingshard

Free plan LinuxSelf-hosted

Choose kingshard for a self-hosted MySQL cluster needing SQL routing, sharding, pooling, and backend controls without a license fee. Look elsewhere if your transactions or updates routinely span multiple databases or you want a managed deployment.

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MCUpdater

Paid LinuxMacWindows

MCUpdater provides detailed control for server-owned Minecraft modpacks, including modular definitions, checksum checks and incremental updates. Its XML hosting and administration requirements make it a better fit for experienced operators.

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The facts

	kingshard	MCUpdater
Free plan	Yes	Not published
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	Linux, Self-hosted	Linux, Mac, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Not published	Not published
Plans published	None	None
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	github.com	mcupdater.com
On minecraft launchers	#71 of 76	#75 of 76

kingshard: what it does well

Free and open source under Apache 2.0
Routes reads and writes separately
Balances reads across slave databases
Supports hash, range, and date sharding
Includes connection pooling and automatic failover

What to know first

Sharded subtables require manual creation
Transactions work only within one database
Cross-database updates return errors
Deployment requires Go, Git, make, and configuration

MCUpdater: what it does well

Free and open source under Apache License 2.0
Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux
Incremental updates download only changed parts
Supports modular pack composition through imports
MD5 checksums can reject mismatched downloads

What to know first

Requires owners to create and host pack XML
Not intended for novice server administrators
Bundled Windows EXE and App are unsigned
Uses a single mod loader

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