Long list of networking solutions for Unity

Unity Engine
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I browsed through the entire Tools-Network category on the Asset Store and looked around for off-the-store networking solutions and made notes.

This list is a summary of what’s out there and what I perceive as popular or worthy of checking out, not specifically recommendations and certainly not a feature comparison matrix.

Primarily I sorted entries based on “last update” and categorized them into those that seem active and those that aren’t (anymore). All entries have links to the store or homepage.

UnityNetworkingSolutions.xlsx

TL;DR;
Unsurprisingly, the top most-mentioned solutions are:

  • Netcode for GameObjects
  • Mirror
  • Fish-Net
  • Photon Fusion

There are some noteworthy findings, for instance Netick is brand-new and looks really well done! Could be up-and-coming but hard to predict if it can survive in the contested networking market which also has high friction of changing solutions.

While TNet 3 is said to be a “gem in hiding” and I have to agree because it was just by chance that I ran into it after I was done researching, probably due to its title “Networking and Serialization Tools” as well as the severely lacking description. But users seem to love it.

Let me know if you have corrections and additions to the list.

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Not all solutions are in the Asset Store, so you may be missing a few.
It’s very very hard to compare the solutions to one another because they focus on some things and leave out others. How well one works for you, does not only depend on a single feature. It’s also the approach to networking, coding and many other bits and pieces.

1 Like
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If you noticed any missing, let me know. Photon’s are in there for sure. :wink:
I think I found one or two that don’t have a store asset but didn’t look around intensively.

And like you said, comparing is difficult thus I didn’t even try.