RetroFE vs RomM
RetroFE
retrofe.nl
RomM
romm.appSide by side
| Figure | RetroFE | RomM |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $6.49/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Game launchers | 8.5 (#15) | 9.4 (#2) |
| Spec score · Game Library Managers | 7.9 (#13) | 8.7 (#6) |
| Intended users | The maker says RetroFE is free and open-source software and describes its common use as game emulation. | The project describes RomM as an app for people who play games on emulators. |
| Metadata | RetroFE’s game information database can contain information such as year, manufacturer, genre, and player count. | Metadata providers listed include IGDB, ScreenScraper, LaunchBox, and MobyGames. |
| Purpose | RetroFE is a front end for displaying, selecting, and launching games, videos, and programs, commonly for game emulation. | RomM is a self-hosted app for scanning, enriching, browsing, and playing a ROM collection. |
| Support | The maker describes RetroFE as supported by an active and helpful community and points users to its forums. | Troubleshooting directs users to GitHub issues and a Discord help channel staffed by maintainers and community members. |
Plans
In their own words
RetroFE
RetroFE is a free, open-source front end for displaying, selecting and launching games, videos and programs, commonly used for game emulation. Collections arrange games and menu items into systems and submenus, and can show media such as box art, screenshots, logos and videos. Layouts set the front end’s appearance, with the option for collections to use their own layouts. Launcher configuration specifies an executable and arguments for starting an emulator, application or game; per-game launcher settings can override a collection’s default. Controls such as up, down, select and back are configured in a controls file. Its game information database can hold details including year, manufacturer, genre and player count. Setup involves editing global settings and controls files, then adding or editing collections. Full releases include a 32-bit Windows executable and a 64-bit Linux executable. Windows requires a recent Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio; some Linux distributions may require compiling from source. macOS users need to compile their own executable. Community-made themes are available for installation in the layouts directory, and the maker points users to forums and describes community support.
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.