Parsec vs Sunshine
Parsec
parsec.app
Sunshine
app.lizardbyte.devSide by side
| Figure | Parsec | Sunshine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Remote Play Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.4 (#19) |
| Purpose | Parsec connects people to work, games, and friends from anywhere on any device through remote access technology. | Sunshine is a self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight with low-latency cloud gaming server capabilities. |
| Support | Teams and Enterprise plans include a 24-hour first-response SLA for product support tickets. | LizardByte says Discord is its preferred support method and GitHub Discussions can be used for support, feature requests, and general discussion. |
| System requirements | The download page lists Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+ with Metal, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Desktop, Chrome web access and Android via Google Play. | The listed minimum requirements include 4 GB RAM, a supported GPU, and host and client networks using 5 GHz 802.11ac; the page says its requirements tables are a work in progress. |
Plans
Parsec
- Individuals (Warp)$8.33 a month
- Teams$30 a month
- Enterprise$45 a month
- Personal UseFree
- Personal Use (free)Free
- Guest Access credit$25, paid once
In their own words
Parsec
Parsec is a remote access app for connecting to computers from another device for work, games, or time with friends. It supports Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux, Android, and a Chromium web client; listed system requirements include Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Desktop. Its gaming design targets 60FPS UHD play with low latency, with keyboard mapping, gamepad support, and advanced settings. Users can share a link so another person can observe or control a computer. Native-app peer-to-peer traffic is encrypted end-to-end with a shared 128-bit AES key; web-client sessions use DTLS. Accounts support multi-factor authentication, and Teams can enforce SAML 2.0 single sign-on. Personal Use and Individuals are licensed for personal, non-commercial use; commercial use requires Teams or Enterprise. Individuals (Warp) costs $8.33 per user per month, billed annually; Teams costs $30 per user per month, billed annually; Enterprise costs $45 per user per month, billed annually only. A free plan and 14-day trial are listed.
Sunshine
Sunshine is a free, self-hosted game-streaming host for Moonlight clients, running on your own hardware. It supports AMD, Intel, and Nvidia hardware encoding, with software encoding also available. A web interface lets you configure the host and pair clients from a browser, including on mobile devices. Moonlight clients are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Xbox, and more. Sunshine emulates Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series, DualShock 4, DualSense, and Nintendo Switch Pro controllers. Host compatibility includes FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows, with features varying by system. Listed maximums are 4K resolution and 120 fps. Minimum requirements include 4 GB RAM, a supported GPU, and 5 GHz 802.11ac networks for host and client. Sunshine is GPL-3.0 licensed and distributed through several package sources.