Nearcade vs RomM
Nearcade
github.com
RomM
romm.appSide by side
| Figure | Nearcade | RomM |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $6.49/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 3 |
| Spec score · ROM Management Software | 7.9 (#8) | 9.0 (#1) |
| Integrations | Nearcade bundles Cloudflared and Zrok for tunneling and uses Trystero over BitTorrent trackers for signaling. | The project lists ES-DE and Pegasus exports, LaunchBox import, community apps, and a REST API. |
| Intended users | The project describes its main focus as private setups for sharing local couch co-op games with friends. | The project describes RomM as an app for people who play games on emulators. |
| Purpose | Nearcade is an open-source, self-hosted platform for playing local co-op games over the internet with friends. | RomM is a self-hosted app for scanning, enriching, browsing, and playing a ROM collection. |
| Support | The repository links setup guides, host usage instructions, API and setup documentation, and VPS server setup instructions. | Troubleshooting directs users to GitHub issues and a Discord help channel staffed by maintainers and community members. |
| What it does | Nearcade is an open-source, self-hosted platform for playing local co-op games over the internet with friends. | RomM is a self-hosted web application for scanning, enriching, organizing, downloading and playing personal ROM collections. |
Plans
In their own words
Nearcade
Nearcade is a free, open-source, self-hosted platform for playing local co-op games over the internet with friends. A host runs the game, while viewers join from a desktop or mobile web browser without installing a client. Streaming uses WebCodecs or WebRTC and peer-to-peer connections. Hosts can allow gamepad input, raw keyboard and mouse, or keyboard and mouse mapped to a virtual gamepad; mobile viewers get touch controls and a virtual joystick. Sessions can use private Cloudflare or Zrok tunnels, or appear in the public Nearcade Arcade lobby. Public Arcade sessions are limited to 80 minutes and require a verified tunneling provider. A host needs Node.js 18 or newer and Python 3. Linux also requires PipeWire and the uinput module, while Windows gamepad support requires ViGEmBus. Linux is listed as production-stable; Windows and macOS are experimental, and macOS lacks gamepad support. The project is published under GPL-3.0 and provides setup, usage, API, and VPS server documentation.
RomM
RomM is a free, self-hosted app for scanning, enriching, browsing, and playing a ROM collection. The project says it supports more than 400 platforms, including multi-disk games, DLCs, mods, hacks, and manuals. Compatible games can run in a browser through EmulatorJS and Ruffle without setup, while saves and states sync across devices with conflict resolution. Metadata providers include IGDB, ScreenScraper, LaunchBox, and MobyGames; RomM can also fetch artwork from SteamGridDB and track RetroAchievements. A built-in patcher applies ROM hacks and translations. The project lists granular per-user permissions, OIDC single sign-on, a REST API, and exports for ES-DE and Pegasus. Official clients include a Windows Playnite plugin, the Android Argosy handheld launcher, and the Linux Grout handheld client. A native iOS app is a community project, and the team says it does not regularly review community project source code. RomM is AGPL-3.0 licensed, with no tracking or paid features. Setup help and community discussion are available through Discord.