Greenlight vs Moonlight Game Streaming

Greenlight is a free, open-source client for Xbox Cloud Gaming and streaming from Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles. It carries console video and audio, with gamepad and keyboard controls; rumble is supported on xCloud. An online friends list shows which friends are currently online. Greenlight is made with JavaScript and TypeScript, and runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its WebUI can also make the client available over a network to devices using Chromium-based browsers. Downloads are offered as Flathub installations and precompiled release binaries. The V2 release is in maintenance mode: its developers plan critical bug fixes but no new features. Version 2.4.0 changed authentication from XAL to MSAL and added English, Russian, and Ukrainian localization; German was added in version 2.4.2. The application is reported to work on Steam Deck, with some small bugs and side effects. Greenlight says it is not affiliated with Microsoft, Xbox, or Moonlight.

Moonlight Game Streaming sends games from a gaming PC to supported devices for remote play. It is a free, open-source implementation of NVIDIA's GameStream protocol; the listed plan costs nothing, with no subscriptions or paid versions with extra features. Clients are available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Apple TV, ChromeOS, Steam Link, and Raspberry Pi. On a capable client, Moonlight can stream a full Windows desktop at up to 4K with HDR. Its PC client supports up to 120 FPS and can disable V-Sync for lower latency. Users can host their own gaming server using options such as port forwarding, IPv6, ZeroTier, Tailscale, and NordVPN Meshnet. Moonlight recommends Sunshine as a host; GeForce Experience is also listed as compatible, though NVIDIA is discontinuing its GameStream feature. Wolf can stream games and applications running in Docker containers. There is no pure web client because the protocol requires raw TCP and UDP sockets that browsers do not support. The project began as a 2013 hackathon project by Case Western Reserve University students.