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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Cross Platform Desktop Development
  5. Photon vs PlayFab

Photon vs PlayFab

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Photon
Photon
Stacks32
Followers89
Votes0
GitHub Stars10.1K
Forks573
PlayFab
PlayFab
Stacks37
Followers88
Votes0

Photon vs PlayFab: What are the differences?

Photon and PlayFab are both popular services for developing and managing online multiplayer games. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between the two platforms.
  1. Deployment: Photon provides a dedicated server architecture that allows developers to host and manage their game servers independently. On the other hand, PlayFab offers a managed service that takes care of hosting and scaling game servers automatically. This difference gives developers more control over server infrastructure in Photon, while PlayFab simplifies server management.
  2. Networking: Photon emphasizes low-latency and real-time networking, making it suitable for fast-paced multiplayer games. It provides a powerful networking engine that allows for reliable communication between clients and servers. PlayFab, on the other hand, focuses more on providing backend services for game development, such as player management and matchmaking. While PlayFab also supports networking, it may not offer the same level of performance and flexibility as Photon.
  3. Development Environment: Photon offers a wide range of client SDKs and plugins, making it compatible with multiple platforms and game engines. It provides extensive documentation and examples to facilitate development. PlayFab, on the other hand, integrates well with popular game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, providing native plugins and APIs for easier integration. This difference allows developers to choose the development environment that best suits their needs.
  4. Pricing Model: Photon offers a tiered pricing model based on the number of concurrent users and data usage, allowing developers to choose a plan that matches their expected player base. PlayFab, on the other hand, follows a usage-based pricing model, charging developers based on the number of API calls and server resources consumed. This difference in pricing models gives developers more flexibility in choosing the most cost-effective option.
  5. Integration with Existing Services: PlayFab provides built-in integrations with popular services like Xbox Live, Steam, and Google Play, making it easier for developers to leverage existing platforms and services. Photon, on the other hand, offers more flexibility in integrating with custom backend systems and databases. This difference allows developers to choose the level of integration with external services that suits their game's requirements.
  6. Community and Support: Photon has a large and active community of developers, with extensive forums and documentation available. It also offers professional support for its services. PlayFab also has a well-established community and support system, with forums, tutorials, and documentation to assist developers. However, with its focus on backend services, PlayFab's community and support may have more emphasis on broader game development topics rather than low-level networking.

In summary, Photon and PlayFab differ in their deployment options, networking capabilities, development environments, pricing models, integration with existing services, and community and support systems. These differences allow developers to choose the platform that best suits their specific needs as they build and manage their online multiplayer games.

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Detailed Comparison

Photon
Photon
PlayFab
PlayFab

The fastest way to build beautiful Electron apps using simple HTML and CSS. Underneath it all is Electron. Originally built for GitHub's Atom text editor, Electron is the easiest way to build cross-platform desktop applications.

It unlocks a new world of creativity for game developers by providing a cross-platform "backend-as-a-service" built exclusively for games. We give game developers the tools, technologies, and know-how they need to have a trouble-free launch day, and profitable day-to-day operations after that.

-
Game Services; LiveOps; Analytics
Statistics
GitHub Stars
10.1K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
573
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
32
Stacks
37
Followers
89
Followers
88
Votes
0
Votes
0
Integrations
Electron
Electron
Android Studio
Android Studio
Java
Java
Unity
Unity
HTML5
HTML5
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa Touch (iOS)

What are some alternatives to Photon, PlayFab?

Firebase

Firebase

Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.

Socket.IO

Socket.IO

It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

PubNub

PubNub

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

Pusher

Pusher

Pusher is the category leader in delightful APIs for app developers building communication and collaboration features.

Electron

Electron

With Electron, creating a desktop application for your company or idea is easy. Initially developed for GitHub's Atom editor, Electron has since been used to create applications by companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Slack, and Docker. The Electron framework lets you write cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It is based on io.js and Chromium and is used in the Atom editor.

SignalR

SignalR

SignalR allows bi-directional communication between server and client. Servers can now push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR supports Web Sockets, and falls back to other compatible techniques for older browsers. SignalR includes APIs for connection management (for instance, connect and disconnect events), grouping connections, and authorization.

Ably

Ably

Ably offers WebSockets, stream resume, history, presence, and managed third-party integrations to make it simple to build, extend, and deliver digital realtime experiences at scale.

Syncano

Syncano

Syncano is a backend platform to build powerful real-time apps more efficiently. Integrate with any API, minimize boilerplate code and control your data - all from one place.

NATS

NATS

Unlike traditional enterprise messaging systems, NATS has an always-on dial tone that does whatever it takes to remain available. This forms a great base for building modern, reliable, and scalable cloud and distributed systems.

SocketCluster

SocketCluster

SocketCluster is a fast, highly scalable HTTP + realtime server engine which lets you build multi-process realtime servers that make use of all CPU cores on a machine/instance. It removes the limitations of having to run your Node.js server as a single thread and makes your backend resilient by automatically recovering from worker crashes and aggregating errors into a central log.

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