brainCloud vs PlayFab
brainCloud
getbraincloud.comPlayFab
developer.microsoft.comSide by side
| Figure | brainCloud | PlayFab |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | $99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | 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 | — |
| Plans published | 15 | 5 |
| Spec score · Game Leaderboard Software | 9.4 (#2) | 8.9 (#6) |
| Spec score · Game Backend Services | 9.4 (#2) | 8.8 (#8) |
| Spec score · Game LiveOps Software | 9.4 (#3) | 8.9 (#6) |
| Analytics | Analytics includes a DAU dashboard, sales-at-a-glance views and event data streaming. | PlayStream supplies a real-time and historical event stream with rules, filtering, search and exports to Azure Blob Storage or Amazon S3. |
| Integrations | Documented integrations include Amazon GameLift, Kafka, SAML, Segment, SendGrid, Slack and WebPurify. | The product page lists integrations for Xbox, Steam, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, Apple App Store and Google Play. |
| Licence | The hosted brainCloud service is proprietary, while official client repositories such as the Unreal plugin and C# library use Apache-2.0 licensing. | The hosted PlayFab service is proprietary under Microsoft terms, while many SDK and sample repositories are publicly available under Apache 2.0 or MIT licenses. |
| Multiplayer | Multiplayer capabilities cover real-time shooters and MMOs, card battlers, base builders and asynchronous send-a-turn games. | PlayFab offers matchmaking and dedicated multiplayer servers with dynamic scaling, Azure regions, monitoring and DDoS protection. |
| Product | brainCloud is a cloud-based backend-as-a-service platform for games, apps, and other digital services. | PlayFab provides backend services for live games and connects players across platforms. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.3 out of 5 from 11 reviews | 5.0 out of 5 from 1 review |
| SDK coverage | Client libraries are provided for C++, Dart, Godot GDScript, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, Swift, Unity C# and Unreal C++/Blueprint, among others. | Microsoft documents SDKs and tools for C/C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Unity, Unreal, Cocos2D-x, Postman and an SDK generator. |
| SDK platforms | The help center lists client libraries for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and web JavaScript, with support for Unity and Unreal platforms. | The PlayFab Services SDK documentation lists Windows, iOS, macOS, Android, Linux, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch support, with GDK support for Xbox and Windows. |
| Security | The security overview describes a shared responsibility model in which brainCloud covers public platform infrastructure, availability, and platform security controls while customers secure their applications and integrations. | Microsoft says developer sign-in migration adds MFA, conditional access, encryption and single sign-on through Microsoft accounts. |
| Support | The maker lists free best-effort developer support through chat and forums, with paid support options that add response commitments and guidance. | PlayFab describes ticketed support and 24/7 emergency escalations, with real-time service health at status.playfab.com. |
| What it does | brainCloud is a hosted backend service for games, applications and other connected products, combining APIs, SDKs and a browser design and debugging portal. | PlayFab is a managed backend platform for games combining game services, real-time analytics and live-operations management. |
Plans
brainCloud
- Developer supportFree
- DevelopmentFree
- DevelopmentFree
- Development Plus$5 a month
- Lite$15 a month
- Lite$15 a month
- Lite Plus$25 a month
- Standard$30 a month
- Standard$30 a month
- Standard Plus$50 a month
PlayFab
- Free to StartFree
- Standard Plan$99 a month
- Premium Plan$1,999 a month
- Enterprise PlanPriced on request
- Pay-as-you-goFree
In their own words
brainCloud
brainCloud is a cloud-based backend-as-a-service platform for games, apps, and other digital services. It provides cloud data, multiplayer, leaderboards, tournaments, push notifications, chat, in-app purchases, inventory management, analytics, and Cloud Code. Client libraries are listed for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and web JavaScript, with Unity and Unreal support. Named multiplayer technologies include AWS GameLift, Unity Netcode, and Unreal Engine Networking; developers can also use Edgegap game-server orchestration from the developer portal. The free Development plan costs nothing and is limited to 100 daily active users and 1,000 accounts; it includes one million free API calls, 100 MB of storage, and 1 GB of transfers, but no live in-app purchases. Lite costs $15 a month and Standard costs $30 a month. Paid subscriptions include a base API-call allotment, with additional use charged by consumption. Private licenses provide managed instances in a customer's cloud environment.
PlayFab
PlayFab provides managed backend services for live games and connects players across platforms. Its player services include identity, groups, friends, chat, profiles, stats, game saves and shared data, alongside competitive leaderboards and multiplayer networking. Live-operations tools support remote gameplay tuning, real-time player segmentation and A/B testing. Economy and user-generated-content tools cover virtual economies, live offers, monetization and built-in moderation. Game Data Stream can monitor player activity, analyze retention and revenue, and export raw data. The product lists Unreal and Unity SDKs, custom-engine language support, and integrations including Xbox, Steam, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, App Store and Google Play. Development Mode is free and permits up to 1,000 lifetime player account creations per title, with up to 10 titles per account. Free to Start costs nothing. Standard Plan costs $99 a month; Premium Plan costs $1,999 a month.