Sunshine vs Upterm
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted remote access & vpn options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Sunshine
Self-hosted game-stream host for Moonlight clients
VS
Upterm
Secure terminal sharing for pair programming and support
| Feature | Sunshine | Upterm |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 39,962 | ★ 1,273 |
| First released | 2020 | 2019 |
| Replaces | NVIDIA GameStream, Parsec | tmate |
Why pick each one
Choose Sunshine if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 40k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Choose Upterm if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Sunshine or Upterm better?
Neither is universally better. Sunshine has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Sunshine and Upterm free and open-source?
Yes. Sunshine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Upterm under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sunshine and Upterm with Docker?
Sunshine: yes. Upterm: check the project docs for container support.