Steam Alternatives
Steam is described as 'digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation' and is a leading Game Store in the social & communications category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Steam for a variety of platforms, including Online / Web-based, Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. The best alternative is GOG.com, which is free. Other great apps like Steam are itch.io, Humble Bundle, Epic Games Store and Lutris.
Steam is mainly a Game Store but alternatives to it may also be Game Library Managers or App Stores. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Steam.Steam
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- Free • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- Windows Phone
- iPad
- SteamOS
- 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 other systems.
- Free • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
GOG.com vs Steam opinions
you own your games for real and there is better quality control.stardust_will DRM Free games, that's already a lot!s20 The curated content means that there's significantly less absolute crap than you'll find on Steam. DRM free means no DRM treating you like a pirate when you're just trying to play the game you bought. I love GoG Galaxy 2.0 as a launcher, since it can also add in games from other services, although I am sad that there's no native Linux client yet. Overall, just great stuff.cd projekt red. Good consumer practices, no drm, ethical threatment of developersGOG is a store where you actually buy game, while Steam is a store where you rent game, most people sadly don't know that and think they own their Steam game. GOG cares about game, Steam cares about copyright and money.knoeien_met_strooi 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.somegirlfromit GOG offers the exact same software you get on Steam... except bundled with mystery software that you can't opt out of. - itch.io gives you the ability to design a page where people can download games you have uploaded. You can optionally put a minimum price on your game (which can be 0), giving people the opportunity to pay you what they think you deserve. All files and images are hosted on itch.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- Android Tablet
itch.io vs Steam opinions
Quite possibly the best place available to lose an afternoon digging through both free and paid indie games ever since Desura kicked the bucket.Lots of free and paid games and most don't require installers so you don't need admin.thebenmix11 In my experience, it's one of the few that are both user-friendly and developer-friendly at the same time.somegirlfromit A bunch of unvetted shovelware titles, many of which have only minutes of gameplay if that - Buy a bundle of games, you decide the price, and support charity in the process.
- Paid • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- Android Tablet
Humble Bundle vs Steam opinions
Cheap drm-free games. also for charity.imh1kiko 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.andrewpetz Humble Bundle is not a platform to play games like Steam, it is only a platform to buy them.tvgoing1 humble bundle requires steam and other stores websites, i do not think its an alternative to steam or other platforms that sell games/software.somegirlfromit 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).Just a games distributor, mainly sells steam keys - 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 receive 88% of the money you spend, versus only 70% elsewhere.
Epic Games Store vs Steam opinions
s20 While it has a ways to go UI and UX-wise, the Epic store has a good game selection, is significantly more picky than Steam's We'll Take Anything attitude that leads to boatloads of crapware, and does a better job of supporting developers. Sure, it's a front for aa huge corporation, but it's not like Steam is much better.alanmaccormak Whatever you said Steam is just more easy to use and more widespread than Epic Games, but EGS itself is quite goodbraky Epic Games forces games (not all) who were announced to release on other distribution platforms to release exclusively on their storefront.Anipe different games and encourages competition in the industry, its goodpasha88pas Good bye Steam Hello EGS!wusteldru Great alternative to Steam, as paying out more revenue to developers. - Lutris is an open source gaming platform for GNU/Linux. It allows you to gather and manage (install, configure and launch) all your games acquired from any source, in a single interface.
- Free • Open Source
- Linux
- Online
Lutris vs Steam opinions
ab1 Many Installers are broken and users are welcomed to guess which and how... Mix of minefield and junkyard in practice. Just save your time.UltraProgrammer Lutris isn't exactly a store, the way Steam is, but it's great for managing large game libraries, and even supports seamless emulation. - Origin is your new digital playground. It’s where you go to find the best that EA has to offer.
Origin vs Steam opinions
IGotNoExp it costs very little (£20) for a year pass on origin, the year pass gives you a lot of EA games and 10% off any purchases in-game. It also has very clean UI. Overall a great service.It has game that Steam hasn'tshelehovchanin Small library of games. Uncomfortable chat. Extra launcher, which is only needed for EA, not to pay third-party companies for promotion.somegirlfromit Even years later, Origin just isn't a good software manager, with installations often breaking and needing to be reinstalled from a known good state, occasionally destroying folders unrelated to Origin, frequent remote code exploits, and credit card leaks.It's just not Steam. Honestly at this point in time using any other method is better than using Steam. - Google Play (formerly the Android Market) is an online store by Google for Android devices. Browse and search for apps, books, and movie rentals from your web browser or Android device.
- Free • Proprietary
- Online
- Android
- Chrome OS
- Android Tablet
Google Play Store vs Steam opinions
ab1 Very decent and no need to install it for most phoneslupuleasai Only for mobile games. Steam is only for PC games (until Steam Deck becomes available)Anipe Only for mobile and isnt game orianted, also lacks everything besides buying apps - 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.
- Ubisoft Connect (before Uplay) is Ubisoft's PC games portal, where you can find all your games on PC.
Ubisoft Connect vs Steam opinions
somegirlfromit 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. - 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.
Game Jolt vs Steam opinions
sparkydev Most of indie titles are born here before going to steam