Alternatives to Steam for all platforms with any license

  • GOG.com

    GOG.com (Good Old Games) sells classic PC games through their download service at a low price, without DRM, and updated to run on the latest versions of Windows and...

    • you own your games for real and there is better quality control. Guest • Jan 2018 • 12 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • DRM Free games, that's already a lot! stardust_will • Aug 2019 • 6 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Having the standard of only selling DRM free products is great. Also I believe many older games have been made compatible with modern OS's because the efforts and funds of gog, which is an effort I very much appreciate. knoeien_met_strooi • Apr 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • Separate installers for multiple computers, GOG galaxy app is more UI friendly, games are patched to work with modern OSes unlike steam which requires you to figure it out for the end user and can take hours. Guest • Jul 2017 • 6 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Lack of DRMs, no requirements to stay online during playing, offline installers that you can keep forever, and they let you specify any target location for game files. You are legally allowed to redownload and install all games on unlimited number of computers in your household. Optional Steam-like client is available. Atoshi • Dec 2016 • 14 agrees and 5 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • GOG offers the exact same software you get on Steam... except bundled with mystery software that you can't opt out of. somegirlfromit • Sep 2019 • 0 agrees and 9 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • No DRM! You actually own your installs unlike Steam's "Long period rent" format. Like literally any game you buy on GoG you can launch from their Client or download the actual installer and put it on a memory stick for safe keeping/ later installation no client required. Plus as well they are not a money-hungry, industry stifling, greed fuelled, global corporation that cares not for their customers but just for the $£. Guest • Nov 2017 • 3 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • DRM Free Games, great Deals, european data privacy jonas21 • Mar 2018 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Freemium Mac Windows Linux Web Software as a Service (SaaS)

    DRM Free Achievements Ad-free Import from Steam ... Optional launcher/overlay Community based European data privacy Gaming Giveaways Integrated Chat Lightweight Privacy Protected Add a feature

    GOG.com icon

  • GOG GALAXY

    The gaming Client designed for a convenient purchasing, playing and updating DRM-free games, as well as an online play between gaming platforms, GOG GALAXY is also built...

    • Best for what they do for gaming communities and creativity, I hope to see a larger service in the future, with big games and brands on it. Very socially conscious brand and culture, I totally am abandoning Steam for what they do in forums and lack of moderation professionals... it's just an abuse monologue. Guest • Mar 2019 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • The client for Gog.com so naturally this has all the awesome benefits of using GoG. Guest • Nov 2017 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • There are many games that are not listed on steam Guest • Aug 2017 • 3 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It has its own store, contains hundreds of older games that run perfectly on newer hardware and, unlike Humble Bundle, doesn't require Steam to use. Guest • Jun 2017 • 2 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Mac Windows Snapcraft

    DRM Free Gaming Achievements Auto update ... Cloud sync Community based Game launcher Group chat Update notifier Add a feature

    GOG GALAXY icon

  • Humble Bundle

    Buy a bundle of games, you decide the price, and support charity in the process. Each game is normally DRM-free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux!

    • Not only is there sales for games, but also books and software. And if you keep an eye out, you can get a lot of games for dirt-cheap. Usually upon buying games, you get key for them. There are exceptions, where you have to download, or can download additional content. You can also freely choose how much of the money goes to the charity, devs etc. imh1kiko • Oct 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • Be careful when purchasing - vendors can choose to either sell DRM-free copies (most common), Steam keys (also common), or keys for other less common platforms (uPlay, Origin, Battle.net, and proprietary vendor launchers among them). somegirlfromit • Sep 2019 Disagree   Agree
    • Humble Bundle is not a platform to play games like Steam, it is only a platform to buy them. andrewpetz • Oct 2017 • 11 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Just a games distributor, mainly sells steam keys Guest • Jun 2018 • 4 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Cheap drm-free games. also for charity. Guest • Mar 2017 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Commercial $ $ $ Mac Windows Linux Web Android ... Android Tablet

    DRM Free Loot subscription Gaming Games library Add a feature

    Humble Bundle icon

  • itch.io

    An online game marketplace and community. Also an app which manages downloading and updating of games acquired through the website.

    • A bunch of unvetted shovelware titles, many of which have only minutes of gameplay if that somegirlfromit • Sep 2019 • 2 agrees and 4 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Quite possibly the best place available to lose an afternoon digging through both free and paid indie games ever since Desura kicked the bucket. Guest • Oct 2016 • 8 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Lots of free and paid games and most don't require installers so you don't need admin. Guest • Dec 2018 • 1 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Web Android ... Android Tablet

    DRM Free DRM Free Electron based Gaming ... Open Revenue Sharing Add a feature

    itch.io icon

  • Epic Games Store

    The Epic Games store is now open, featuring games from other developers. Epic's goal is to bring you great games, and to give game developers a better deal: they...

    • Epic Games forces games (not all) who were announced to release on other distribution platforms to release exclusively on their storefront. braky • Aug 2019 • 16 agrees and 10 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Great alternative to Steam, as paying out more revenue to developers. wusteldru • Feb 2019 • 8 agrees and 38 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Mac Windows Web

    Gaming Free Games Game launcher Add a feature

    Epic Games Store icon

  • Playnite

    Video game library manager and launcher with support for 3rd party libraries like Steam, GOG, Origin and Uplay, providing one unified interface for your games.

    Free Open Source Windows

    API Integration Auto update Customizable Extensible by Plugins/Extensions ... Front End Emulation Games library Multiple Account support Scripting Game launcher Import from Epic Games Launcher Metadata Search Portable Community based Free to play Full controller support Import from GoG Import from Steam Patreon Integration Pull requests Quick development Support multiple game stores Add a feature

    Playnite icon

  • Uplay

    Uplay is Ubisoft's PC games portal, where you can find all your games on PC.

    • Almost purely used for the Ubisoft catalog (Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, etc.) but a much tighter offering than it was when it launched in 2009. somegirlfromit • Sep 2019 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Windows

    Multi-platform support Gaming Add a feature

    Uplay icon

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  • Game Jolt

    Game Jolt, where all the best free Indie Games are at! Browse through thousands of free Indie Games ready for you to play. This is Indie.

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Web

    Chat API Integration Add a feature

    Game Jolt icon

Platforms

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License

4.4 out of 5 with 25 ratings

Steam Comments

Comment by karlblass
about Steam · Mar 2017 · Helpful Not helpful 4 Helpful Report as spam

To me much better alternative than this EA and Microsoft crap.

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Comment by Elvar
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful 2 Helpful Report as spam

The best way for game delivering software.

Sadly the client has some problems sometimes. Every once in a while I just cant connect to steam, its a problem that comes every now and then and solves itself somehow. Loads of other people have the same problem. All steam/valve does is blame the ISP's.

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Comment by nepcwtch
about Steam · Jun 2019 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

lots and lots of sales - esp seasonal ones. random sales with games for free, etc.
every game has to be greenlit, so its just harder for games to get into steam, longer wait compared to say, itch.io, for example. i think that if you want a game and its on steam, get it on steam, but not for full price. the games are not drm free, so steam runs whenever you play them, which isnt a hefty cpu load exactly.

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Linux version of steam

Comment by MisteRibi
about Steam · Nov 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

On the page, I can read that steam are on windows mac & linux, but I can't find the linux versions anywhere o.O Can you help me to find it please :D

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OmgItsTheSmartGuy · Nov 2011

There's no native Linux version of Steam, but here are a few methods that you can use to get Steam running anyways.

RemovedUser · Aug 2013

It is now :)

aguy · Aug 2013

http://steamcommunity.com/linux


Comment by Kissaki
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

Steam has become THE Standard in digital distribution, and that is because of good management. The service itself is free, has a good community integration with profiles, chat and voice-chat, groups, recommendations, and more. Also provides development framework for steam integration to developers resulting in games using the steam community, achievements, cloud storing of settings and save-games, server browsing.
The only drawback is: Steam is DRM. A game bound to your account will be bound to it, permanently. You can play games offline and deny updating, but you’ll probably stay online and up-to-date with its nice auto-updating.
Valves (creator of steam) distribution policy is not too coplex and not unfair allowing for publishers and indie companies to publish their games in fair terms. For the users there have been and will be an infinite amount of weekend deals and Summer and Winter-deals where you can buy countless games for a hell of a price.

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Comment by gavomatic57
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

May have to update this soon, as Steam is coming to the Mac on 12th May http://store.steampowered.com/news/3569/ and rumour has it, Linux as well http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=steam_linux_script&num=1

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Comment by Alcedema
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

This is amazing! Gone are the days of visiting shops for games, trawling maker's sites for updates etc. They are always releasing bug fixes. Only wish this was separate from Valve (game maker) and therefore could be used by more than just game distributers (all-in-one and one-for-all programme distribution system anyone?)

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Comment by mk3000ss
about Steam · Feb 2020 · Helpful Not helpful -1 Helpful Report as spam

simple, brings actual gaming to Linux.

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Comment by SaltyMarshmellow
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful -2 Helpful Report as spam

The deals makes gaming affordable again, which is the main reason I like it. Also I have had to buy Diablo 2 about 3 times now, and this takes care of things like that for me.

Also, the community aspect has come a long way, and you can now host and share videos, screenshots etc. through Steam.

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Comment by Aaron
about Steam · Jun 2011 · Helpful Not helpful -2 Helpful Report as spam

The last time I tried Steam was when I got the Orange box to play Portal, but I had to install Steam. The problem is that you CANNOT play the games offline. You have to login into steam online, and pick your game from that and then you can play your game. I prefer games that I can play offline, because usually when I want to play I am not online.

Now maybe this has changed in newer releases but I don't think it has. So if there is a way to play the games offline, I would love to know how?? Otherwise I try to avoid any steam based games, and just get games that I can play ANYTIME I want. I have the old version of Halflife 1 which was not a steam based game. So I enjoy the fact that I can play it anytime.

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just dota

Comment by maurokeita95
about Steam · Sep 2016 · Helpful Not helpful -3 Helpful Report as spam

I´m only using steam for dota and its great, but there are not other good free games in the program and that sucks.

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