FanRealms vs itch app

FanRealms is a web marketplace and community for indie game creators, built with Godot creators in mind but open to everyone. Members can join free and browse or download assets at no cost. Listings can include sprites, tilesets, shaders, plugins, UI kits, fonts, animations, 3D models, music, sound effects, templates, and complete projects for any engine. Creators upload asset packs for sale, choose a platform fee from 1% to 5% per sale, and pay no monthly or listing fees; the default fee is 5%. Stripe handles payment processing, with a stated fee of about 2.9% + 30¢, and Stripe Connect sends creator earnings automatically to a bank. FanRealms also lists indie games, jobs and gigs for developers, artists, and designers, plus a forum and devlogs. Creators retain ownership and can delete listings. Digital products are usually final sale, though broken or inaccurately described items may receive case-by-case refunds. Payments are secured by Stripe.

The itch app is a desktop client for downloading and running games and software from itch.io. Its built-in browser lets users browse creator pages and install titles, while the library keeps downloads together and updates installed games automatically. Users can access collections, bundles, purchases and installed games in the app. Browser-based games can be synced for offline play, and games using itch.io command-line tools can receive delta patches that download only changed data. The client is available for Windows, macOS and Linux, with Windows 7 or newer required, and it is open source and offered in over 20 languages. Creators can provide an app manifest to define launch targets and integrate with the app API. The app registers itch:// and itchio:// links and can create Steam library shortcuts for installed games. Its sandbox limits file access, isolates home directories for Linux games and runs Windows games as less-privileged users. Compatibility problems can still occur, especially on Linux when games do not follow best practices. The listed plan is free.