Nakama
Nakama — Open-source game backend by Heroic Labs with social graph, matchmaking, leaderboards, and real-time chat.
Our Verdict
The leading open-source game backend, great if you want control, painful if you want zero-ops.
Pros
- Open-source, self-hostable game backend
- Strong social and matchmaking features
- Active Heroic Labs commercial backing
- Good Unity and Unreal SDKs
Cons
- Self-hosting takes real ops effort
- Managed cloud pricing adds up fast
- Customization requires Go or TS plugins
- Learning curve beyond basics
Best for: Game studios wanting an open-source, self-hostable backend with commercial support available
Not for: Indie devs wanting zero-ops managed service with minimal learning curve
When to Use Nakama
Good fit if you need
- Open-source game backend with social graph and leaderboards
- Multiplayer matchmaking and real-time chat for game studios
- Self-hosted backend for Unity or Unreal game projects
- Social friends, groups, and notifications for live-service games
- Lua or TypeScript server code for custom game logic in Nakama
Lock-in Assessment
Low 5/5
Lock-in Score 5/5
Pricing
Price wrong?Nakama Pricing
- Pricing Model
- freemium
- Free Tier
- Yes
- Entry Price
- —
- Enterprise Available
- No
- Transparency Score
- —
Beta — estimates may differ from actual pricing
1,000
1001K10K100K1M
Estimated Monthly Cost
$25
Estimated Annual Cost
$300
Estimates are approximate and may not reflect current pricing. Always check the official pricing page.
Used in these stacks
Curated setups that include Nakama.
Community Discussion
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