What is Amazon GameLift used for?

Amazon GameLift is Amazon Web Services' managed hosting for dedicated multiplayer game servers, used by studios that run session-based online games. It is a good fit for hosting match-based multiplayer games and scaling servers around launch spikes.

How much does Amazon GameLift cost?

Amazon GameLift is a paid product with no free plan. Usage-based game server hosting billed by instance hour; the page's examples show $0.741 an hour for a c6a.4xlarge and $0.099 for a c6a.large on demand. Network bandwidth is free on generation 6 and later instances.

Is Amazon GameLift open source?

No. Amazon GameLift is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. In the Hosting & PaaS category, open-source options include Convox, HestiaCP and Pterodactyl.

What are some alternatives to Amazon GameLift?

Amazon GameLift competes with PlayFab, Photon Engine and Unity Gaming Services.

Amazon GameLift: features, pricing and alternatives

About Amazon GameLift

Amazon GameLift is a managed hosting service from Amazon Web Services designed for dedicated game servers. Developers upload a server build, define fleets of compute capacity, and the service starts and stops game sessions as players join or leave, so studios avoid managing server hardware themselves.

It can scale capacity up and down with demand and place sessions in AWS regions close to players to reduce latency. Matchmaking is available to group players before a session starts. GameLift is an AWS-only commercial product that integrates with other AWS services, and it is aimed at developers of session-based multiplayer games such as shooters and battle arenas.

Key features

Dedicated game server hosting
Fleet scaling with player demand
Placement of sessions across AWS regions
Matchmaking to group players
Integration with other AWS services

Good fit for

→Hosting match-based multiplayer games
→Scaling servers around launch spikes

Tags: game-servers; multiplayer; aws; hosting; matchmaking; scaling; gaming

Amazon GameLift: questions and answers

What is Amazon GameLift used for?: Amazon GameLift is Amazon Web Services' managed hosting for dedicated multiplayer game servers, used by studios that run session-based online games. It is a good fit for hosting match-based multiplayer games and scaling servers around launch spikes.
How much does Amazon GameLift cost?: Amazon GameLift is a paid product with no free plan. Usage-based game server hosting billed by instance hour; the page's examples show $0.741 an hour for a c6a.4xlarge and $0.099 for a c6a.large on demand. Network bandwidth is free on generation 6 and later instances.
Is Amazon GameLift open source?: No. Amazon GameLift is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. In the Hosting & PaaS category, open-source options include Convox, HestiaCP and Pterodactyl.
What are some alternatives to Amazon GameLift?: Amazon GameLift competes with PlayFab, Photon Engine and Unity Gaming Services.