Sunshine vs Selkies
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Sunshine
Self-hosted game-stream host for Moonlight clients
VS
Selkies
Low-latency WebRTC remote desktop streaming
| Feature | Sunshine | Selkies |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 41,479 | ★ 2,194 |
| First released | 2020 | 2019 |
| Replaces | NVIDIA GameStream, Parsec | Parsec |
What are Sunshine and Selkies?
Sunshine
Sunshine is an open-source, self-hosted game streaming host compatible with Moonlight clients. It streams desktop and games with low latency and hardware encoding.
- Low-latency game streaming
- Hardware encoding
- Moonlight client compatible
- Cross-platform host
Selkies
Selkies is an open-source platform for streaming Linux desktops and apps to a browser over WebRTC with low latency. It supports GPU acceleration for demanding workloads.
- WebRTC desktop streaming
- GPU acceleration support
- Low-latency input
- Kubernetes ready
Sunshine vs Selkies: key differences
Sunshine is written in C++, while Selkies is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Sunshine versus MPL-2.0 for Selkies. Sunshine is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Selkies. Sunshine has the considerably larger community, at 41,479 GitHub stars versus 2,194.
Why pick each one
Choose Sunshine if…
- Low-latency streaming
- Hardware encoding support
- Works with any GPU
Watch out for
- Requires Moonlight clients
- Network tuning often needed
Choose Selkies if…
- Released under the MPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Sunshine or Selkies better?
Sunshine is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Selkies if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Sunshine and Selkies free and open-source?
Yes. Sunshine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Selkies under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sunshine and Selkies with Docker?
Sunshine: yes. Selkies: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Sunshine or Selkies?
Sunshine has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Selkies. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.