Parsec
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 22 game streaming software by recommenders
Low-latency remote desktop and game streaming that people rank among the best options, with a free tier; latency is worse than a direct wired connection.
Low-latency remote desktop and game streaming that people rank among the best options, with a free tier; latency is worse than a direct wired connection.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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 latency for streaming
“The latency is acceptable. I host a remote gaming rig accessed through Parsec, the extra encoding/decoding latency is minimal.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces MacBook Neo” “People report better audio latency accessing the VM through NoMachine or Parsec”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything” “it's quite high image quality, low single digit latency, so quite usable”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Two computers, one monitor, zero fiddling – Alex Plescan” - Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Xbox wants you to pay 24 to 40 cents per hour to stream games you bought”
- Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab”
Widely used remote desktop option
“using Apollo/Artemis/Moonlight/Parsec; anything”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine” “RDP or parsec are probably the gold standard”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab” “Parsec.app is also really good and free.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Latency worse than wired connections
“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” “It's low latency, sure, but a direct Thunderbolt connection would be lower!”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” “Much less hassle to setup than Parsec (latency isn't as good though)”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “I Traced My Traffic Through a Home Tailscale Exit Node” Sometimes fails to connect
“sometimes if using a commercial VPN Parsec is unable to connect”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “Tried parsec to my desktop PC and it was failing that as well.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “As AI gobbles up chips, prices for devices may rise”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonlight | 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 |
| ParsecThis page | 16 | 3 | 84% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
17 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a Remote Desktop tool designed for low latency”
“GeForce now in my experience has worked better than either of those options”
“sometimes if using a commercial VPN Parsec is unable to connect”
“It's low latency, sure, but a direct Thunderbolt connection would be lower!”
“If that doesn't work because they fucked it up again, Parsec.”
“using Apollo/Artemis/Moonlight/Parsec; anything”
“People report better audio latency accessing the VM through NoMachine or Parsec”
“RDP or parsec are probably the gold standard”
“it's quite high image quality, low single digit latency, so quite usable”
“you can stream using Moonlight or Parsec but unless both sides are wired it isn't great”
“I wish they would use Perl6/Grammer or Haskell/Parsec or similar and write better parsing scripts.”
“Much less hassle to setup than Parsec (latency isn't as good though)”
“Parsec.app is also really good and free.”
“The latency is acceptable. I host a remote gaming rig accessed through Parsec, the extra encoding/decoding latency is minimal.”
“Tried parsec to my desktop PC and it was failing that as well.”
“Try and make a comparison with Parsec of even the Steam's own streaming. You will notice a big difference if the issue still exists.”
“maybe barring Parsec, that also doesn't allow for Linux hosts”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.