OpenEmu vs Provenance
OpenEmu
openemu.org
Provenance
provenance-emu.comSide by side
| Figure | OpenEmu | Provenance |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · TurboGrafx-16 Emulators | 8.1 (#8) | 8.5 (#5) |
| Spec score · SNES Emulators | 8.1 (#8) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Spec score · Game Boy Advance Emulators | 8.0 (#8) | 8.5 (#2) |
| Spec score · Nintendo 64 Emulators | 8.0 (#8) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Spec score · Multi-System Emulators | 8.0 (#23) | 8.5 (#8) |
| Spec score · Game Gear Emulators | 8.0 (#14) | 8.4 (#7) |
| Spec score · Sega CD Emulators | 8.0 (#11) | 8.4 (#7) |
| Controllers | Generic HID-compliant USB or Bluetooth game controllers can work out of the box, with automatic button mapping for recognized devices. | Apple TV support includes MFi, Xbox, and PlayStation gamepads. |
| Documentation | The project wiki provides getting-started material, BIOS guidance, supported-system information, release notes and troubleshooting resources. | The community wiki includes installation, importing, controllers, skins, saves, shaders, cheats, multiplayer, RetroAchievements, troubleshooting and contribution guides. |
| Game library | It organizes game backups into a unified library, adds box art, and lets users create collections across consoles. | The library can show automatically downloaded box art, screenshots, release information, ratings, and scanned manuals. |
| Licence | The OpenEmu-Silicon project says the original application and SDK largely retain BSD 3-Clause headers, while individual cores can have different licences. | The Provenance project uses a permissive custom licence that allows source and binary redistribution with attribution and prohibits commercial use of its branding; bundled cores have separate licences. |
| Praise: interface | Trustburn reviewers repeatedly describe the interface as clean, elegant, intuitive and appealing. | Some App Store reviewers describe the interface as attractive and easy to use, especially for Atari and Game Boy systems. |
| Purpose | OpenEmu is open-source video game emulation software for Mac. | Provenance is a free, open-source multi-system retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms. |
| Supported systems | The repository lists cores for systems including Atari, NES, Game Boy, GameCube, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, Sega systems, PlayStation, PSP, Super Nintendo, TurboGrafx, Vectrex, Virtual Boy and WonderSwan. | The project advertises support for more than 50 systems, including NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, 3DS, PlayStation, PSP, Saturn and Dreamcast. |
| System requirement | The official repository lists macOS Mojave 10.14.4 as the minimum operating system. | The App Store listing requires iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or later, macOS 13 with an Apple M1 or later Mac, or visionOS 1 or later. |
| What it does | OpenEmu is an open-source macOS application that emulates many classic video-game systems through a single native front end. | Provenance is a multi-console emulator frontend for playing games from classic Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony and other systems. |
Plans
Provenance
- FreeFree
- Monthly$3.99 a month
- Annual$39.99 a year
- Lifetime$99.99, paid once
In their own words
OpenEmu
OpenEmu is free, open-source video game emulation software for macOS. It organizes game backups into a unified library, adds box art and supports collections spanning consoles. Users drag and drop backups for scanning and organization. Modular cores from open-source projects emulate systems including Atari, Game Boy, Nintendo, Sega, Sony PlayStation and Super Nintendo; the project lists 31 supported systems. Generic HID-compliant USB or Bluetooth controllers can work immediately, with automatic mapping for recognized devices. OpenEmu is intended for games users already own, and BIOS files are required. The wiki describes an experimental arcade core plugin that is strictly unsupported. The latest release page identifies OpenEmu 2.4.1 binaries as Intel-only. The official site offers a macOS (OS X) application, but the version requirement was not rendered. The project lists save states, CD audio and cheat support, while online netplay is not available.
Provenance
Provenance is a free, open-source retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms, available for iOS and macOS. It supports more than 38 console systems, including systems from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. Its library can display automatically downloaded box art, screenshots, release details, ratings, and scanned manuals. Listed emulation features include save states, cheats, fast forward, shaders, visual filters, controller support, RetroAchievements, and multiplayer. Apple integration includes native tvOS, Apple TV TopShelf, Siri Remote, Spotlight search, Siri shortcuts, and iCloud sync; Apple TV supports MFi, Xbox, and PlayStation gamepads. Nearly all CD-based cores support CHD disc images, and the native Mednafen core has a custom CHD implementation. The source is published on GitHub under the BSD license. Installation options include the App Store, sideloading with AltStore or SideStore, and building from source. The free plan includes emulation features when sideloaded or built from source. Plus adds iCloud sync and priority support.