Cut infrastructure costs to zero

What is the best free alternative to Photon Engine? SyncPlay replaces expensive server bills with efficient P2P networking.

Solution

Architecture

Annual Cost (10k CCU)

Photon Engine

Client-Server

~$36,000 / yr

Amazon GameLift

Dedicated Servers

~$24,000 / yr

SyncPlay

Host Authority P2P

$0 / yr

Host Authority Flow

A modern approach to WebRTC and WebSocket P2P networking.

1. Input

Client sends actions

2. Predict

Local simulation

3. Reconcile

Host resolves conflicts

4. Broadcast

Delta updates sent

Developer Experience

import { SyncPlay } from 'syncplay';

// Initialize host authority
const host = new SyncPlay({
  mode: 'host',
  maxPlayers: 4,
  tickRate: 60
});

// Start accepting connections
await host.listen();
console.log(`Lobby code: ${host.lobbyId}`);

Everything you need

Host Authority

Elect a host to manage authority, automatically migrating if the host disconnects.

Client Prediction

Immediate visual feedback for local actions while waiting for host confirmation.

Delta Compression

Only transmit what changed. Efficient binary packing reduces bandwidth by 90%.

Interpolation

Smooth out remote entities to handle jitter and varying packet delivery times.

Lobby System

Built-in matchmaking and NAT traversal via our lightweight STUN/TURN relays.

Voice Chat

Integrated WebRTC audio streams mixed directly with your game loop.

BSL 1.1 License

Free for non-commercial and early-stage. Paid for scale.

Indie

$349

Perpetual license for teams under $100k revenue.

Studio

$2,499

Unlimited seats. Priority support. Custom signaling.

Enterprise

$12,999

Source access. SLA guarantees. Integration support.

Multiplayer sync.Zero servers.P2P authority.