Photon is the most widely used multiplayer service for Unity games. GameRelay is built only for browser games written in JavaScript. If your game is a web page rather than a Unity WebGL build, the two feel very different to work with.
The short version
| GameRelay | Photon | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Browser games in JavaScript or TypeScript | Unity first; also native SDKs and a JavaScript SDK for Realtime |
| Server code | None | None for Realtime, Fusion and Quantum on Photon Cloud; self-hosted Photon Server is also available |
| Web support | An npm package or a script tag, MIT licensed | A JavaScript SDK for Realtime, Chat and Voice; Fusion and Quantum reach the browser only as Unity WebGL builds |
| Syncing state | Entities with owners, smoothed for you; host handover built in | Realtime: rooms and raw events, you write the sync. Fusion and Quantum: full netcode stacks, in Unity |
| Built in | Rooms, quick match, parties, chat, saves, leaderboards, webhooks, MCP servers | Rooms, lobbies, matchmaking, webhooks; Chat and Voice as separate products |
| Scale | Up to 64 players a room | Very large games, many regions, enterprise plans |
| Pricing | Free plan (1 game, 16 players online), Basic at $3.99/month for 500 players online | Free for development (20 players online); 100 players online for $95 for 12 months; 500 for $95/month |
Photon on the web
Photon's strength is Unity. Its high-level netcode, Fusion and Quantum, runs inside Unity, so a browser game gets it only as a Unity WebGL build. For a game written in JavaScript, Photon offers the Realtime SDK: rooms, matchmaking and events. Moving players smoothly, handing over the host and catching up late joiners are left to you.
GameRelay starts from the JavaScript side. You declare entities and who owns them, and the SDK does the sending, smoothing, handover and cleanup. It's about 30 KB and has no dependencies.
Pricing
Both price by players online at once. Photon's free tier is for development, and its paid Realtime plans start at 100 players online for $95 a year. GameRelay's free plan can run a small live game, and Basic covers 500 players online for $3.99 a month. See our plans and Photon's.
Choose Photon when
- Your game is made in Unity and the web is one of several platforms.
- You need deterministic rollback netcode (Quantum) or a large competitive game at scale.
- You need enterprise support, many regions or an SLA.
Choose GameRelay when
- Your game is a web page: Phaser, Three.js, Kaplay, PixiJS or plain canvas.
- You want smoothing, host handover and late joiners handled, not just a channel to send events on.
- You're a small team or a solo developer and want a free plan that runs a live game, and low prices after it.
- An AI assistant writes your code: GameRelay has a guide written for models and MCP servers.
Sources
Checked on October 3, 2026 from Photon's pricing and SDK pages. Products change; if something here is out of date, tell us at support@gamerelay.io and we'll fix it.
Try it
GameRelay has a free plan, no card needed. Get a public key, then follow the quickstart, or point your AI coding agent at llms.txt.