P
Photon Engine
Cloud multiplayer service with generous free tier
freemium 20 CCU free; paid plans from $95/month Solo-dev friendly
Photon is a popular cloud-based multiplayer networking service. Handles real-time synchronization, matchmaking, and lobbies. SDKs for Unity, Unreal, and more. 20 CCU free tier is enough for development and small launches.
Highlights
- + 20 CCU free tier — enough for development
- + Battle-tested by thousands of shipped games
- + Multiple products (PUN, Fusion, Quantum) for different needs
- + Global server infrastructure
Limitations
- − Costs scale with concurrent users
- − Vendor lock-in — Photon-specific APIs
- − Free tier too small for any real player base
Platforms
Windows macOS Linux Web Mobile