Best Self Hosted Alternatives to NVIDIA GeForce NOW

Sunshine is a self-hosted game and desktop streaming host designed to work with Moonlight clients. It streams your PC over the network with low latency using hardware-accelerated video encoding, and provides a web interface for configuration.

Key Features

• Works with Moonlight clients using NVIDIA GameStream-compatible protocols
• Hardware-accelerated encoding support (varies by platform/GPU), with software fallback
• Web-based administrative UI for configuring apps, inputs, and streaming settings
• Host-side “apps” launcher concept (define games/programs to start via the client)
• Multi-platform host support (commonly used on Windows; also available on Linux)
• Supports gamepad/controller input passthrough from client to host

Use Cases

• Stream games from a powerful desktop to a low-power device (TV box, laptop, handheld)
• Remote desktop-like access for personal use with high frame rate and low latency
• In-home LAN streaming as an alternative to proprietary vendor streaming stacks

Limitations and Considerations

• Client side is typically Moonlight (Sunshine is the host); feature set depends on client capabilities
• Best performance requires a supported GPU/driver stack for hardware encoding; otherwise quality/latency may degrade

Sunshine is a popular choice for users who want a modern, actively developed GameStream-compatible host with a convenient web UI. It is especially suitable for low-latency in-home streaming and remote play when paired with Moonlight on the client side.