What is Nakama used for?

Nakama is an open-source game backend server that provides multiplayer, matchmaking, leaderboards, chat, and social features for games. It is a good fit for building social multiplayer games, and adding matchmaking and leaderboards to games.

Is Nakama open source?

Yes. Nakama is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at heroiclabs/nakama and is written mainly in Go.

Yes. Nakama is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Nakama?

Yes. Nakama can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Nakama an alternative to?

Nakama is an open-source alternative to AccelByte, Photon Engine, PlayFab and Unity Gaming Services. Other open-source alternatives to AccelByte include SpacetimeDB and Supabase.

Is Nakama actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Nakama was on 8 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.41.0, published on 18 September 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.

Nakama: open-source alternative to AccelByte, Photon Engine

About Nakama

Nakama is a scalable open-source game backend server designed for building social multiplayer games. It includes features such as multiplayer, matchmaking, leaderboards, chat, and social capabilities.

The software is part of the Heroic Game Stack and can be deployed on Heroic Cloud, a managed or private cloud platform. It is trusted by over 1 million developers.

Key features

Multiplayer support
Matchmaking
Leaderboards
Chat
Social features

Good fit for

Building social multiplayer games
Adding matchmaking and leaderboards to games

Built with: Go tools; C# tools; .NET tools; JavaScript tools; TypeScript tools
Tags: game backend; multiplayer; matchmaking; leaderboards; chat; social

Nakama: questions and answers

What is Nakama used for?: Nakama is an open-source game backend server that provides multiplayer, matchmaking, leaderboards, chat, and social features for games. It is a good fit for building social multiplayer games, and adding matchmaking and leaderboards to games.
Is Nakama open source?: Yes. Nakama is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at heroiclabs/nakama and is written mainly in Go.
Is Nakama free?: Yes. Nakama is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Nakama?: Yes. Nakama can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Nakama an alternative to?: Nakama is an open-source alternative to AccelByte, Photon Engine, PlayFab and Unity Gaming Services. Other open-source alternatives to AccelByte include SpacetimeDB and Supabase.
Is Nakama actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Nakama was on 8 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.41.0, published on 18 September 2026. The project has 14k stars on GitHub.