Asobi vs Photon Realtime
Asobi
asobi.dev
Photon Realtime
photonengine.comSide by side
| Figure | Asobi | Photon Realtime |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $0.29/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 8 |
| Spec score · Game Matchmaking Software | 8.8 (#7) | 8.8 (#9) |
| Game modes | It supports ephemeral matches and persistent worlds with lazy-loaded zones. | It supports synchronous and asynchronous turn-based gameplay, with room rejoin after disconnection. |
| Headquarters | Uppsala, Sweden | Hamburg, Germany |
| Integrations | Official client SDKs are listed for Unreal, Unity, Godot, Defold, TypeScript/JavaScript, Dart/Flutter, and Lua. | The documented Realtime SDK variants are for Unity and .NET, and Photon’s SDK downloads also include JavaScript and native platform packages. |
| Product | Asobi is an open-source multiplayer game backend built on Erlang/OTP. | Photon Realtime is a cloud-hosted networking service for building cross-platform real-time multiplayer games. |
| Self-hosting | The project is Apache-2.0 licensed and can be run locally with Docker Compose or self-hosted as a Docker container. | Realtime Core can connect to a self-hosted Photon Server by supplying a custom name-server address. |
| Support | The maker invites users to ask questions and share projects in its Discord community. | Photon offers public Discord, email contact and an authenticated support form. |
Plans
Photon Realtime
- 20 CCU Development OnlyFree
- Development Only — 20 CCUFree
- Premium Cloud$0.29 a month
- 100 CCU$95, paid once
- 500 CCU$95 a month
- 1000 CCU$185 a month
- 2000 CCU$370 a month
- Enterprise CloudPriced on request
In their own words
Asobi
Asobi is an open-source multiplayer game backend built on Erlang/OTP for solo developers and small teams making indie 2D games. It provides authentication, matchmaking, real-time sync, leaderboards, a virtual economy, social features, cloud saves, and an admin dashboard. Developers can build ephemeral matches or persistent worlds with lazily loaded zones. Lua match logic can be changed while a match runs, with updates taking effect on the next tick. Official client SDKs are listed for Unreal, Unity, Godot, Defold, TypeScript/JavaScript, Dart/Flutter, Lua, and LÖVE. Monitoring includes OpenTelemetry integration, structured logging, and telemetry events for matches, queues, and connections. The Apache 2.0 core can run locally with Docker Compose or be self-hosted as a Docker container. Asobi Cloud is hosted on Hetzner in Germany and uses EU-only infrastructure subprocessors, but is invite-only while studios are onboarded. The project is single-node by design and pre-1.0, so minor breaking API changes may occur before 1.0.
Photon Realtime
Photon Realtime has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.