Open-source game servers, ROM libraries and streaming hosts

Self-hosted software for players and the people who run servers for them: multiplayer server hosting, retro collections you play in a browser, and streaming from your own gaming PC.

7 open-source projects, checked against GitHub on 12 November 2026.

All 7 games & game servers projects

Showing all 7, ordered by health score.

  1. 84 Active
    Sunshine

    Self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight.

    GPL-3.0
    Setup
    Builds
    Stars
    43.3k
    Release
    15 September 2026
  2. 79 Active
    Pelican Panel

    Free, open source game server management panel built on Laravel and Docker.

    AGPL-3.0 CLA
    Setup
    1 of 5
    Stars
    2.4k
    Release
    22 October 2026
  3. 74 Active
    RomM

    A beautiful, powerful, self-hosted ROM manager and player.

    AGPL-3.0
    Setup
    2 of 5
    Stars
    14.3k
    Release
    22 October 2026
  4. 71 Active
    LinuxGSM

    The command-line tool for quick, simple deployment and management of Linux dedicated game servers.

    MIT
    Setup
    From source
    Stars
    4.9k
    Release
    8 November 2026
  5. 56 Active
    Pterodactyl

    Pterodactyl® is a free, open-source game server management panel built with PHP, React, and Go. Designed with security in mind, Pterodactyl runs all game servers in…

    MIT
    Setup
    2 of 5
    Stars
    9.5k
    Release
    21 October 2026
  6. 56 Active
    Retrom

    A centralized game library/collection management service with a focus on emulation

    GPL-3.0
    Setup
    3 of 5
    Stars
    2.1k
    Release
    14 June 2026
  7. 54 Active
    PufferPanel

    PufferPanel is an open source game server management panel, designed for both small networks and personal use

    Apache-2.0 relicensed 2018
    Setup
    Docker
    Stars
    1.8k
    Release
    14 July 2026

Our picks by use case

  • Hosting multiplayer game servers

    Pterodactyl gives gaming groups and hosting companies a web panel for Minecraft, Rust, Terraria, ARK and voice servers, with each server isolated in its own Docker container.

  • A library for a retro collection

    RomM scans your ROMs, fetches artwork and metadata from IGDB and Screenscraper, and runs many titles in a browser tab through EmulatorJS.

    • RomMAGPL-3.0health 74

  • PC games on the couch or a phone

    Sunshine streams games from your own computer to Moonlight clients, with video encoded on AMD, Intel or Nvidia graphics hardware.

  • Saves that follow you between devices

    RomM syncs saves and states across a PC, Android handhelds and custom-firmware devices, resolves conflicts and tracks RetroAchievements progress.

    • RomMAGPL-3.0health 74

How to choose a self-hosted game tool

These projects solve different problems, so start by naming yours. A panel such as Pterodactyl runs dedicated servers for other players, RomM organizes ROM files you already own, and Sunshine sends the screen of one PC to your other devices.

Server panel, game library or streaming host

Pterodactyl manages servers that other players connect to, RomM manages ROM files and plays them in the browser, and Sunshine shares a single gaming PC with your other screens. They seldom replace one another, and one home server can run more than one of them.

Hardware and network

Sunshine needs a graphics card with hardware video encoding, or falls back to a slower software encoder, plus a fast local network: its README asks for 5 GHz Wi-Fi at minimum and wired Ethernet for 4K. Pterodactyl and RomM do not stream video, so that requirement does not apply to them.

Setup weight

Pterodactyl has two parts, the PHP panel and the Wings daemon on each game machine, with MySQL and Redis next to them. RomM runs from Docker Compose with MySQL and Redis. Sunshine comes as ready-made builds for Windows, macOS and Linux and is configured on a browser admin page.

Licenses and upkeep

Pterodactyl is MIT, RomM is AGPL-3.0 and Sunshine is GPL-3.0, and none of them keeps paid parts in its repository. Pterodactyl's stable line moves slowly, with v1.15.2 in October 2026 and a v2 beta on a separate branch, while RomM is under busy development.

Drafted with AI from the projects’ READMEs and our data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

Which of these are really open source?

Fully open source (7)OSI-approved license, no paid parts in the repository
Sunshine, RomM, Pterodactyl, LinuxGSM, Pelican Panel, Retrom, PufferPanel
Open source with paid parts (0)OSI license, but some features are under commercial terms
None
Not OSI open source (0)Code is public, use is restricted
None
License changesNewest first
PufferPanel: GPL-3.0 → Apache-2.0, 2018

Read automatically from each repository’s license files every day. How we read licenses

Questions about open-source games & game servers

What are the most popular open-source games & game servers projects?

By GitHub stars: Sunshine (43.3k), RomM (14.3k), Pterodactyl (9.5k). By our health score, the most actively maintained are Sunshine (84), Pelican Panel (79), RomM (74).

Which games & game servers projects are fully open source?

7 of the 7 use an OSI-approved license with no paid parts in the repository, including Sunshine, RomM, Pterodactyl.

Which are the easiest to self-host?

Judged by the services in their compose files, RomM, Pterodactyl, Pelican Panel need the least setup.

Which projects have changed their license?

PufferPanel (to Apache-2.0 in 2018). Each project page links to the commit that made the change.

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