Sunshine vs ttyd
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
ttyd
Share your terminal over the web
| Feature | Sunshine | ttyd |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Remote Access & VPN | Remote Access & VPN |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 39,962 | ★ 12,165 |
| First released | 2020 | 2016 |
| Replaces | NVIDIA GameStream, Parsec | PuTTY |
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 ttyd if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 12.2k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Sunshine or ttyd better?
Neither is universally better. Sunshine has the larger community, while ttyd is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Sunshine and ttyd free and open-source?
Yes. Sunshine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ttyd under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Sunshine and ttyd with Docker?
Sunshine: yes. ttyd: yes.