What is Photon Engine used for?

Photon Engine supplies multiplayer game networking and a realtime backend for Unity and other engines, used by studios building online and co-op games. It is a good fit for co-op and competitive games built in Unity, and real-time sync for mobile multiplayer titles.

Is Photon Engine free?

Yes. Photon Engine has a free plan, and paid plans start at $95 as a one-time payment.

Is Photon Engine open source?

No. Photon Engine is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Photon Engine include SpacetimeDB.

Can I self-host Photon Engine?

Yes. Although Photon Engine is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.

What are some alternatives to Photon Engine?

Photon Engine competes with PlayFab, Unity Gaming Services and AccelByte. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Photon Engine alternatives.

Photon Engine: features, pricing and alternatives

About Photon Engine

Photon Engine is a commercial networking platform for multiplayer games, developed by Exit Games. It provides SDKs and hosted infrastructure so game developers can synchronize players, handle matchmaking into rooms and exchange state in real time without writing their own netcode from scratch.

The product line includes different networking frameworks suited to different game styles, along with services for text chat and voice. It is especially popular with Unity developers but also offers support for other engines. Developers can use Photon's hosted cloud, or run the Photon Server software on their own machines when they need more control over hosting and data location.

Key features

Room-based multiplayer networking
SDKs for Unity and other game engines
Matchmaking into game rooms
Hosted cloud for connecting players
Self-hosted Photon Server option
Chat and voice services

Good fit for

→Co-op and competitive games built in Unity
→Real-time sync for mobile multiplayer titles

Tags: multiplayer; game-networking; unity; realtime; matchmaking; game-backend; sdk

Photon Engine: questions and answers

What is Photon Engine used for?: Photon Engine supplies multiplayer game networking and a realtime backend for Unity and other engines, used by studios building online and co-op games. It is a good fit for co-op and competitive games built in Unity, and real-time sync for mobile multiplayer titles.
Is Photon Engine free?: Yes. Photon Engine has a free plan, and paid plans start at $95 as a one-time payment.
Is Photon Engine open source?: No. Photon Engine is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Photon Engine include SpacetimeDB.
Can I self-host Photon Engine?: Yes. Although Photon Engine is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers, and the vendor also offers a hosted version.
What are some alternatives to Photon Engine?: Photon Engine competes with PlayFab, Unity Gaming Services and AccelByte. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Photon Engine alternatives.