Sunshine
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 22 game streaming software by recommenders
Free host that streams your PC's games and desktop to devices running Moonlight, with low latency and good image quality. Common caveat: setup takes fiddling, especially on Linux.
Free host that streams your PC's games and desktop to devices running Moonlight, with low latency and good image quality. Common caveat: setup takes fiddling, especially on Linux.
71 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 55
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not 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
- 55 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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 and good image quality
“by using modern game streaming protocols you can actually get great image quality, low latency and 60+ fps”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” “I've played remotely from a different country with unnoticeable input lag”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Measuring Input Latency on Linux: X11 vs. Wayland, VRR, and DXVK” “We run games at 4K HDR10 / 60 fps with no latency I can detect”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” - Comment from 6 May 2026 in “The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility”
Works with Moonlight clients on many devices
“Pair this with Moonlight+Sunshine and you can game without issues on any remote client”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating” “Then I use Sunshine[1] on my desktop to stream to Moonlight on the Shield.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal” “I use similar setup (CachyOS, Apple TV, Moonlight/Sunshine)”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “My Steam Machine Is a 50ft HDMI Cable” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Groq investor sounds alarm on data centers”
Easy to set up
“I set up Sunshine and Moonlight in about... 5 minutes? And it "just worked". And worked well.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “It works on Linux (Ubuntu desktop) for me out of the box”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “sunshine streaming headless to my laptop without issues”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” Works with headless machines
“I have a headless sever with Sunshine and a Wayland desktop and can stream it remotely with great quality and minimal latency.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility” “I do it with basic sunshine connecting to a headless display, though.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “which is plenty low enough to stream the desktop to the laptop via Sunshine+Moonlight”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch” - Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs an HDMI dummy plug
“The downside is that you need an HDMI dummy plug to turn off your desktop's monitor without putting the GPU into standby.”
Comment from 30 May 2026 in “Acer's launching a Linux handheld for streaming your PC games” “it didn't require hdmi connector that simulated a monitor”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” Setup is fiddly and hard
“it took me a couple days of fiddling to get a stream to work at all through sunshine, and it is choppy”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Was my $48K GPU server worth it?” “It was way too difficult to figure out how to make it work the last time I tried and I gave up”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “it was too much pain and not so effortless”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” Input lag is noticeable
“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” “sunshine introduces a lot of input lag on NVIDIA”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “I got an Nvidia GH200 server for €7.5k on Reddit and converted it to a desktop” Linux and HDR support lacking
“frustration with Sunshine's many flaws on Linux”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “Sunshine can't do any resolution on Linux.”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight” “trying to properly set up HDR in Sunshine was rough”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K”
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 |
| SunshineThis page | 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 78 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”
“the way Steam encodes the stream is reportedly lower quality than Sunshine”
“trying to properly set up HDR in Sunshine was rough”
“how is remoting performance e.g. via VNC/RDP or particularly via Moonlight+Sunshine”
“use sunshine instead of Hyper-V manager for viewing the screen at full refresh rate”
“If you have the rig already, you could also use Sunshine and Moonlight for streaming.”
“Sunshine was significantly easier for me to get working using a dummy plug.”
“Sunshine can't do any resolution on Linux.”
“I'd rather run both sunshine and steam in a container nice and decently isolated”
“It works on Linux (Ubuntu desktop) for me out of the box”
“sunshine streaming headless to my laptop without issues”
“frustration with Sunshine's many flaws on Linux”
“it was too much pain and not so effortless”
“use Sunshine, there's tons of guides and online information and it will likely work fine for you.”
“I do it with basic sunshine connecting to a headless display, though.”
“it didn't require hdmi connector that simulated a monitor”
“Sunshine sees it as a real display so I can unplug everything from the box”
“I set up Sunshine and Moonlight in about... 5 minutes? And it "just worked". And worked well.”
“allowed me to stream emulated, upscaled SSX Tricky (PS2 game) from my desktop to an (at least 7 year-old) Android streaming box as smooth as silk”
“It was way too difficult to figure out how to make it work the last time I tried and I gave up”
“I've played remotely from a different country with unnoticeable input lag”
“Sunshine/Moonlight work but the input lag is noticeable”
“I have moonlight and sunshine and also drilled through the other side of the house”
“We run games at 4K HDR10 / 60 fps with no latency I can detect”
“sunshine + moonlight + wakeonlan is quite good if you actually set up the black magic that is wol”
“Sunshine will solve your problem, the computer does not need to be unlocked once the service run.”
“I use similar setup (CachyOS, Apple TV, Moonlight/Sunshine)”
“modern streaming software like Sunshine/Moonlight you can easily defer high performance tasks to a powerful machine at home”
“i've used moonlight/sunshine a handful of times and it's absolutely perfect”
“Then I use Sunshine[1] on my desktop to stream to Moonlight on the Shield.”
“Up there with Sunshine for "Sit down for a great hour-long ambiance"”
“The downside is that you need an HDMI dummy plug to turn off your desktop's monitor without putting the GPU into standby.”
“it took me a couple days of fiddling to get a stream to work at all through sunshine, and it is choppy”
“I have a headless sever with Sunshine and a Wayland desktop and can stream it remotely with great quality and minimal latency.”
“Pair this with Moonlight+Sunshine and you can game without issues on any remote client”
“by using modern game streaming protocols you can actually get great image quality, low latency and 60+ fps”
“I use Sunshine on the workstation and Moonlight on the client to access it.”
“that is not the case for me and i use it extensively both for work and games”
“sunshine introduces a lot of input lag on NVIDIA”
“I still use my old Windows PC for gaming with anti-cheat software via Moonlight and Sunshine, and it works perfectly.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.