# Sunshine and Moonlight

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Sunshine and Moonlight and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 3 years (4 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free software that streams a PC's games and desktop to other devices, often smoother than RDP. Most common caveat: setup takes tinkering and breaks at times.

## Why people recommend it

- Smooth performance, better than RDP (5 comments): "Sunshine/Moonlight runs circles around RDP in terms of performance and includes audio." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46104054)) "how fast Moonlight + Sunshine is for using a remote desktop. Much smoother than RDP." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46460805)) "The only system I've found comparable to sunshine/moonlight in terms of performance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975910))
- Clients on many devices (5 comments): "using my iPad to remote into both my MacBook Pro M1 Max and my racked Linux workstation at home using Jump and moonlight/sunshine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49435329)) "Works great for non twitch games, and there are clients available for pretty much every platform." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48433032)) "works surprisingly well on Quest 3 for remote desktop to linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46862172))
- Plays Steam and non-Steam games (2 comments): "I can now play Windows games on my Linux desktop from my MacBook" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47063590)) "I'm able to run both steam and non steam games pretty well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45950777))
- Works right off the bat (2 comments): "It was pretty painless and worked right off the bat." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974852)) "the streaming just works anywhere & is easy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48684683))

## What people warn about

- Hard setup and tinkering (4 comments): "I never got decent results despite following tutorials that were supposed to make it all very easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974567)) "Setting up Moonlight Sunshine in the early days was such a headache." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46703118)) "it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115352))
- Crashes and breaks often (3 comments): "90% of the time I'm hit with endless weird issues, configuration problems, breaking changes in updates." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48974847)) "it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115352)) "Moonlight/sunshine has only ever crashed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45909645))
- Needs strong PC or fast network (2 comments): "that option requires you to have a pretty beefy game PC or server w/ decent GPU next to your Linux machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46209914)) "it does work great but then I got a 4K 120Hz HDR TV that only has 100Mbps ethernet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48693571))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Moonlight](https://hackerapproved.com/p/moonlight.md): 68 recommend
- [Sunshine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sunshine.md): 55 recommend
- [Parsec](https://hackerapproved.com/p/parsec.md): 16 recommend
- [Steam Remote Play](https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam-remote-play.md): 10 recommend
- [Wolf game streaming server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wolf.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Sunshine and Moonlight", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sunshine-and-moonlight/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).