What is Moonlight used for?

Moonlight PC is an open-source client for streaming games from an NVIDIA GameStream or Sunshine host to Windows, macOS and Linux machines. It is a good fit for playing PC games on another device at home and remote desktop access to a gaming PC.

Is Moonlight open source?

Yes. Moonlight is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. Moonlight is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Moonlight?

Yes. Moonlight can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Moonlight an alternative to?

Moonlight is an open-source alternative to GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Shadow PC and Boosteroid. Other open-source alternatives to GeForce NOW include Sunshine and Foundation Sunshine.

Is Moonlight actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Moonlight was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.1.0, published on 17 September 2024. The project has 19k stars on GitHub.

Moonlight: open-source alternative to GeForce NOW

About Moonlight

Moonlight PC is an open-source desktop client for NVIDIA GameStream and Sunshine. It receives a stream of a remote computer's screen and audio, so games and desktop apps running on a host PC can be played from another device. Mobile versions exist for Android and iOS, and this repository is the Qt-based PC client.

The client uses hardware-accelerated video decoding on Windows, Mac and Linux and supports H.264, HEVC and AV1 codecs, where AV1 needs Sunshine and a capable host GPU. It also handles HDR streaming, 7.1 surround sound, gamepads with force feedback and motion controls for up to 16 players, and either pointer capture for games or direct mouse control for remote desktop use.

Builds are published for Windows, macOS, Steam Link, Snap, Flatpak, AppImage, Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, and several ARM and other Debian-based targets. Moonlight is licensed under GPL-3.0, with development discussion on Discord and translations handled on Weblate.

Key features

Hardware-accelerated video decoding
H.264, HEVC and AV1 codec support
HDR streaming and 7.1 surround sound
Gamepad support for up to 16 players
Pointer capture or direct mouse control
Builds for desktops, Steam Link and Raspberry Pi

Good fit for

→Playing PC games on another device at home
→Remote desktop access to a gaming PC

Built with: C++
Tags: game-streaming; moonlight; sunshine; nvidia-gamestream; remote-play; qt; steam-link; gaming

Moonlight: questions and answers

What is Moonlight used for?: Moonlight PC is an open-source client for streaming games from an NVIDIA GameStream or Sunshine host to Windows, macOS and Linux machines. It is a good fit for playing PC games on another device at home and remote desktop access to a gaming PC.
Is Moonlight open source?: Yes. Moonlight is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt and is written mainly in C++.
Is Moonlight free?: Yes. Moonlight is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Moonlight?: Yes. Moonlight can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Moonlight an alternative to?: Moonlight is an open-source alternative to GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Shadow PC and Boosteroid. Other open-source alternatives to GeForce NOW include Sunshine and Foundation Sunshine.
Is Moonlight actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Moonlight was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.1.0, published on 17 September 2024. The project has 19k stars on GitHub.