Colyseus vs Multiplayer API
Colyseus
colyseus.ioMultiplayer API
api.michitai.comSide by side
| Figure | Colyseus | Multiplayer API |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15/mo | $25/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 3 |
| Spec score · Game Leaderboard Software | 9.3 (#3) | 8.1 (#16) |
| Spec score · Game Matchmaking Software | 9.3 (#3) | 8.0 (#17) |
| Open-source license | Colyseus describes the framework as MIT licensed and free for commercial games. | The server source code and SDKs use the MIT No Attribution license, which the maker says permits commercial use without attribution. |
| Rooms and matchmaking | Room definitions create multiple match instances with visibility controls, lobbies and ranked queues. | The API supports game rooms, realtime actions, lobbies, join requests, password-protected matches, and direct joins. |
| Self-hosting | Colyseus runs as a standard Node.js application and can be deployed on cloud providers or bare metal. | The project can be self-hosted under its MIT-0 license; for self-hosted instances, the operator's own deployment and privacy policy apply. |
| Support | The Open Source plan includes community support, while Colyseus Cloud includes support by email. | The maker directs users to [email protected] for questions, bug reports, and feature requests. |
| What it does | Colyseus is an open-source Node.js framework for authoritative multiplayer game servers with real-time synchronization and matchmaking. | Multiplayer API is a hosted backend for online games, providing player accounts, rooms, matchmaking, leaderboards, and realtime state updates. |
Plans
In their own words
Colyseus
Colyseus is an open-source Node.js framework for building real-time multiplayer games, with built-in matchmaking and state synchronization. Its authoritative server design has clients send inputs while the server decides game outcomes. Developers define game state on the server, and Colyseus synchronizes it to clients without manual serialization. The framework creates rooms and matches players automatically; rooms can be distributed across processes or machines. The site says this can scale from 10 to 10,000+ concurrent users. SDKs or integrations are listed for JavaScript, Unity, Godot, GameMaker, Defold, Haxe, C, and Construct 3. The MIT-licensed framework is free for commercial games and can be self-hosted as a standard Node.js application on cloud services or bare metal. Colyseus Cloud provides deployment, scaling, and monitoring across 32 global locations. Its Cloud plan starts at $15/mo and includes email support, while the free Open Source plan includes community support. Cloud has no free tier or automatic scaling; heavier workloads require upgrading deployment resources through the dashboard.
Multiplayer API
Multiplayer API has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.