Moonlight
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 22 game streaming software
Free client for streaming PC games to other devices; works well on a LAN, though some report lag and input delay.
Free client for streaming PC games to other devices; works well on a LAN, though some report lag and input delay.
78 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 68
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 87%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 68 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Low lag on local network
“Over Wifi 7 I get basically no discernable lag, which was crazy to me the first time I tried it.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “it's absolutely perfect, I couldn't even tell in most cases it was streamed”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine” “all single-player games are fully playable without any noticeable lag”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” - Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable”
- Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Sony makes bold claim about game ownership”
Runs on many devices
“An alternative to steam link. You can use install it on the lg tv by sideloading the app.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options” “Game streaming with Sunlight works fine to Samsung TV via the TizenOS Moonlight app”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “Instead I put moonlight on my steam deck and plugged that into the tv.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Groq investor sounds alarm on data centers”
- Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable”
Remote access to home PC
“I also have Moonlight to sometimes control the PC remotely either in the house (bedroom) or externally via Tailscale”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” “I have also used it to real-time 1080p stream my gaming PC from another room using Moonlight”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Raspberry Pi 5 – 16 GB, $350” “The kids stream from them using moonlight on whatever smart device they want to play on.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)” - Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable”
- Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Half of Linux Users Stick with X11, Despite Years of Wayland Being Forced”
Plays games with anti-cheat
“I still use my old Windows PC for gaming with anti-cheat software via Moonlight and Sunshine, and it works perfectly.”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “Gaming on Linux has never been more approachable” “enables you to stream games protected with kernel level anti cheat to Linux machines”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “I spent a year on Linux and forgot to miss Windows”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lag and input delay
“Streaming with Moonlight works well enough, but there's still lag.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Sony Deletes a Bunch More Movies from the Accounts of People Who 'Bought' Them” “Sunshine/Moonlight work but the input lag is noticeable”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Measuring Input Latency on Linux: X11 vs. Wayland, VRR, and DXVK” “Moonlight is pretty slow and high latency.”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “RustDesk now supports true unattended remote access on Wayland” Weak outside the local network
“moonlight and sunshine is janky as hell outside the local network due to the fact it uses like 5 different streams”
Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “RustDesk now supports true unattended remote access on Wayland” “you can stream using Moonlight or Parsec but unless both sides are wired it isn't great”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” Needs logins or admin rights
“Sunshine / moonlight can work but you need to run them as admin.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” “You can't do that with Moonlight in Linux, I always needed to log in to my session first in person.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “didn't like having to unlock my Linux home PC to play”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” Display glitches and occasional bugs
“Moonlight and the xow driver it bundled, was nowhere near being able to provide this as a feature.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows” “I do have a once-per-run Moonlight glitch that may even be because I'm on an older version.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K” “Sunshine/moonlight seem to be close to working but weird display issues are constant.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Apple increases MacBook and iPad prices by 20%” - Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine”
Other game streaming software people recommend
The four most recommended other game streaming software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MoonlightThis page | 68 | 10 | 87% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Sunshine | 55 | 16 | 77% | 10 | — | Approved |
| RustDesk | 32 | 20 | 62% | 8 | — | — |
| Sunshine and Moonlight | 18 | 6 | 75% | 7 | 3 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Parsec | 16 | 3 | 84% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 83 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which is plenty low enough to stream the desktop to the laptop via Sunshine+Moonlight”
“I do have a once-per-run Moonlight glitch that may even be because I'm on an older version.”
“The kids stream from them using moonlight on whatever smart device they want to play on.”
“Works amazingly well over a LAN if you have a server somewhere”
“Moonlight and the xow driver it bundled, was nowhere near being able to provide this as a feature.”
“Moonlight is pretty slow and high latency.”
“moonlight and sunshine is janky as hell outside the local network due to the fact it uses like 5 different streams”
“If you have the rig already, you could also use Sunshine and Moonlight for streaming.”
“You can't do that with Moonlight in Linux, I always needed to log in to my session first in person.”
“didn't like having to unlock my Linux home PC to play”
“I set up Sunshine and Moonlight in about... 5 minutes? And it "just worked". And worked well.”
“Over Wifi 7 I get basically no discernable lag, which was crazy to me the first time I tried it.”
“Streaming with Moonlight works well enough, but there's still lag.”
“Sunshine/Moonlight work but the input lag is noticeable”
“The solution eventually ended up being Moonlight running on an Nvidia Shield TV Pro”
“I have moonlight and sunshine and also drilled through the other side of the house”
“was able to sideload the open source Moonlight client app to stream 4K HDR10+ / 60fps from my server PC”
“We run games at 4K HDR10 / 60 fps with no latency I can detect”
“I run Moonlight directly on my Apple TV and it's great!”
“sunshine + moonlight + wakeonlan is quite good if you actually set up the black magic that is wol”
“I also have Moonlight to sometimes control the PC remotely either in the house (bedroom) or externally via Tailscale”
“Sunshine / moonlight can work but you need to run them as admin.”
“all single-player games are fully playable without any noticeable lag”
“Sunshine/moonlight seem to be close to working but weird display issues are constant.”
“modern streaming software like Sunshine/Moonlight you can easily defer high performance tasks to a powerful machine at home”
“it's absolutely perfect, I couldn't even tell in most cases it was streamed”
“it was ok but very very far from perfect!”
“I have also used it to real-time 1080p stream my gaming PC from another room using Moonlight”
“Used this setup to play Doki Doki Literature Club before it was ported onto Android”
“Game streaming with Sunlight works fine to Samsung TV via the TizenOS Moonlight app”
“you can stream using Moonlight or Parsec but unless both sides are wired it isn't great”
“Pair this with Moonlight+Sunshine and you can game without issues on any remote client”
“enables you to stream games protected with kernel level anti cheat to Linux machines”
“Moonlight runs on pretty much anything and everything too.”
“Instead I put moonlight on my steam deck and plugged that into the tv.”
“An alternative to steam link. You can use install it on the lg tv by sideloading the app.”
“constantly connecting into my workstation from other devices via Moonlight”
“I still use my old Windows PC for gaming with anti-cheat software via Moonlight and Sunshine, and it works perfectly.”
“it basically does everything you'd need for realtime control in the setting of simulating human input”
“it's nice for unmodified moonlight clients to be able to connect - they have tons of them”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.