Sunshine and Moonlight
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 22 game streaming software by recommenders
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.
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.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 3 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Smooth performance, better than RDP
“Sunshine/Moonlight runs circles around RDP in terms of performance and includes audio.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “People keep flocking to Linux, not just to escape Windows” “how fast Moonlight + Sunshine is for using a remote desktop. Much smoother than RDP.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “The only system I've found comparable to sunshine/moonlight in terms of performance”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” - Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra”
- Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything”
Clients on many devices
“using my iPad to remote into both my MacBook Pro M1 Max and my racked Linux workstation at home using Jump and moonlight/sunshine”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “New Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra” “Works great for non twitch games, and there are clients available for pretty much every platform.”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “I am giving up on VM Gaming” “works surprisingly well on Quest 3 for remote desktop to linux”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Termux” - Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight”
- Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent”
Plays Steam and non-Steam games
“I can now play Windows games on my Linux desktop from my MacBook”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Tailscale Peer Relays is now generally available” “I'm able to run both steam and non steam games pretty well.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I don’t need a Steam Machine” Works right off the bat
“It was pretty painless and worked right off the bat.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “the streaming just works anywhere & is easy”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard setup and tinkering
“I never got decent results despite following tutorials that were supposed to make it all very easy.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “Setting up Moonlight Sunshine in the early days was such a headache.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I made StarDesk, P2P low latency remote desktop built for game and work” “it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Any window from your Mac, on your iPhone and iPad” - Comment from 14 Aug 2026 in “RustDesk now supports true unattended remote access on Wayland”
Crashes and breaks often
“90% of the time I'm hit with endless weird issues, configuration problems, breaking changes in updates.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Any window from your Mac, on your iPhone and iPad” “Moonlight/sunshine has only ever crashed”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Steam Machine” Needs strong PC or fast network
“that option requires you to have a pretty beefy game PC or server w/ decent GPU next to your Linux machine”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton” “it does work great but then I got a 4K 120Hz HDR TV that only has 100Mbps ethernet”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable”
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.
See all 22 game streaming software, rankedWhat people said
27 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it required a lot of tinkering and breaks half the time”
“Feels about as responsive as if I was sitting at the desk using the tower directly.”
“using my iPad to remote into both my MacBook Pro M1 Max and my racked Linux workstation at home using Jump and moonlight/sunshine”
“I had a heck of a time ever getting that to work”
“The only system I've found comparable to sunshine/moonlight in terms of performance”
“I use Sunshine/Moonlight between my desktop and PS Vita.”
“On a big screen TV with the upscaled graphics made it feel a lot less like retro-gaming too.”
“Sunshine/Moonlight kind of works and in the desktop it works fine but when I open a game the display scales wrong on my client device”
“It was pretty painless and worked right off the bat.”
“90% of the time I'm hit with endless weird issues, configuration problems, breaking changes in updates.”
“I stream with sunshine/moonlight to my phone”
“I never got decent results despite following tutorials that were supposed to make it all very easy.”
“you can get better/more customizable results with Sunshine/Moonlight”
“sunshine + moonlight is the streaming stack”
“it does work great but then I got a 4K 120Hz HDR TV that only has 100Mbps ethernet”
“the streaming just works anywhere & is easy”
“You will get ultra smooth low latency 4k@120fps streaming to and from linux.”
“Works great for non twitch games, and there are clients available for pretty much every platform.”
“I can now play Windows games on my Linux desktop from my MacBook”
“works surprisingly well on Quest 3 for remote desktop to linux”
“Setting up Moonlight Sunshine in the early days was such a headache.”
“how fast Moonlight + Sunshine is for using a remote desktop. Much smoother than RDP.”
“that option requires you to have a pretty beefy game PC or server w/ decent GPU next to your Linux machine”
“Sunshine/Moonlight runs circles around RDP in terms of performance and includes audio.”
“Sunshine/Moonlight are worth the trouble”
“I'm able to run both steam and non steam games pretty well.”
“Moonlight/sunshine has only ever crashed”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.