Boosteroid vs Tencent START

Boosteroid is a cloud gaming service that runs games on remote gaming rigs and streams gameplay to users. Players launch games they already own, with access to hundreds of titles from popular platforms. Supported devices include Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, browsers, ChromeOS and smart TVs including Android TV, webOS and Samsung Tizen TV. Streaming can reach 4K resolution, and ray tracing is listed as supported. Gaming sessions have no time limits, and users can switch devices and continue playing. Gameplay can also be streamed to YouTube. Boosteroid says it does not share user data and lists no ads or lock-in contract. Online chat support is available 24/4, with responses stated as taking 1-2 minutes. There is no free plan listed. The Ultimate plan is billed €89.89 per year, equivalent to €7.49 per month; the Ultra plan costs €16.89 a month.

Tencent START streams games rendered on cloud servers to supported devices, so players can start supported titles without downloading them. The app listing says progress can continue across devices when players log in with the same account. Its library includes online, single-player, and independent games, organized with personalized categories and recommendations. Listed devices include iPhone, iPad, mobile devices, tablets, computers, and TVs; the iPhone app requires iOS 14.0 or later. Tencent describes START ENGINE as supporting real-time biological and dense plant rendering, dynamic tree simulation, and GPU-accelerated fluid simulation. Tencent Cloud says streaming uses Tencent-RTC and Tencent Mingmou encoding technology, and documents JavaScript, Android, and iOS SDKs and APIs. Its Game Streaming product is a PaaS solution for PC and mobile games, with functions migrated to application cloud rendering. Each concurrent cloud gaming instance supports one player at a time. A free plan is listed, and named paid options include a STARTvip student monthly card at 28 CNY a month, an eight-hour package at 28 CNY, paid once, and a VIP monthly card at 29 CNY a month. Other listed plans have no prices shown.