Software Alternatives & Reviews

itch.io VS Playnite

Compare itch.io VS Playnite and see what are their differences

itch.io logo itch.io

An online game marketplace and community.

Playnite logo Playnite

Source code generated using layoutit.com
  • itch.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-22
  • Playnite Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05

itch.io videos

What is… ITCH.IO & GAMEJOLT?! - Softlocked

More videos:

  • Review - Top 10 FREE Games on Itch.io
  • Review - ITCH.IO FREE Games Jampack Review!!! [23 reviews]

Playnite videos

Checking out the Playnite 5.5 Update and it's damned good

More videos:

  • Review - Is the best Launcher even BETTER? - Playnite 5 Review
  • Review - Playnite games launcher Quick Look and Impressions
  • Demo - Youtube.com

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to itch.io and Playnite)
Games
89 89%
11% 11
Gaming
0 0%
100% 100
Online Games
76 76%
24% 24
Comparison
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using itch.io and Playnite. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare itch.io and Playnite

itch.io Reviews

The best Steam alternatives for PC gamers
The independent PC gaming platform, equivalent to the eccentric bric-a-brac shop selling obscurities from stuffed animals to crystal skulls. Itch.io is exclusively committed to indie games, and there’s a good chance that some of your favourite indie titles on Steam actually started life on Itch.io before growing to become fully-fledged commercial products. This makes it one...
The 7 Best Steam Alternatives
Itch.io has a strange name but a great premise: a place for independent PC game developers to sell their work with a pay-what-you-want model. Some games come with minimum prices, but you can pay more than this amount to help support the creators. Many free games are also available, which you can pay nothing or as much as you want for. Itch.io does offer some indie titles you...
10 Alternatives to Steam for Buying Cheap PC Games
Itch.io is all about the indies. Though most of the games offered on the site and download client are free (thanks to a mobile-style open submission policy), developers can add a price to their games, and many popular independent developers now use Itch.io as a primary distribution platform. There are zero games to be had from major publishers, but anyone who appreciates a...

Playnite Reviews

Best Free Game Launcher for Windows PC
Presenting you, Playnite, a game launcher, containing a nice set of features. In this, you can scan the games on your device, get a nice combination of features with a user-friendly UI. You will not only get a launcher but also emulators.
Top 6 best launcher games to launch and organize PC games
This is due to the open source of the project. Playnite has many contributions and so it grows quickly. In addition to the launcher, Playnite also supports many emulators, it can handle retro games effectively.
Source: tipsmake.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, itch.io seems to be a lot more popular than Playnite. While we know about 7498 links to itch.io, we've tracked only 286 mentions of Playnite. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

itch.io mentions (7498)

  • Featured Mod of the Month: Phil Ashby
    Publishing on platforms like itch.io are a great way to get feedback (but see comments about comments earlier!) and to see if an idea is worth pursuing. Self-published mini-games are also a good way to scratch that gamedev itch when it isn't your day job too - I should push a couple myself actually! - Source: dev.to / 9 days ago
  • I randomly got MK11 booster when I haven't played the game for almost 4 years. Is my account compromised or something?
    This guy might not be farming. I'm not, but I have hundreds of cheap games from early humble bundles, huge itch.io fund raiser bundles, etc. Source: 5 months ago
  • [SUGGESTION] If you liked The Painscreek Killing and Obra Dinn...
    I just found this game on itch.io and it's SO GOOD! Source: 5 months ago
  • System Suggestions
    Combat is as gritty as the GM makes it. Healing is TOUGH out of the box, so by default it is already pretty gritty. In fact, part of the crew premise is players can have a few 'cast of characters' that sub in when a PC is in a rough spot. You as the GM choose what type of physical harm to give out, and how often - so it's pretty controllable. Like I said, look at itch.io for some alternate healing ideas if you... Source: 5 months ago
  • Civitai dropped by its cloud computing provider after reports of possible CSAM
    I have just registered at itch.io and paid $10 for kudos. I don't have a GPU-equipped PC, I am just curious about the Horde system. Downloaded the client to my Windows laptop and ran it to generate a 512x512 picture of Julia fractal (my test prompt) with the Midjourney model, there seemed to be no SDXL models to choose from. It took about a minute to generate. The 2nd generation (with the same prompt), which took... Source: 5 months ago
View more

Playnite mentions (286)

  • I wrote an app for myself to filter my library by HLTB
    I've done something similar before with Playnite (an open-source PC game library manager), which has an HLTB plugin. Source: 5 months ago
  • Tags no longer register and i've finally had it with galaxy 2.0. Any recommended alternatives?
    Playnite: The one with the most features and libraries available via addons and has a lot of options for customization. In my opinion the best one available for this purpose. Source: 5 months ago
  • What tools do I install?
    As for my LGO, the only other app I've installed outside of the standard launcher was Playnite to consolidate all games into one place as Legion Space doesn't detect everything I have installed and I don't want to manage manually adding games to their launcher. Source: 5 months ago
  • Login in to various stores when launching games
    Use playnite instead of the individual launchers. Source: 5 months ago
  • Steam Deck OLED
    Here is where I come in and recommend everyone check out Playnite: https://playnite.link/ When I care about supporting a developer or publisher and they offer their product on their own storefront DRM-free, I will often go there to buy. Or I buy from GoG which takes a smaller cut. Playnite lets me launch my Steam and non-Steam games in a seamless fashion. Steam still does a great job as a game installer/patch... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing itch.io and Playnite, you can also consider the following products

GOG.com - DRM-free game store, selling both new and old titles. No clients required.

LaunchBox - LaunchBox is a portable, box-art-based games database and launcher for DOSBox, emulators, arcade cabinets, and PC Games. Download it free!

OpenGameArt.org - A site dedicated to sharing artwork & other assets for game development.

RetroArch - RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

IsThereAnyDeal - "When the price is right, you will play all night."

Lutris - Lutris is an open source gaming platform for GNU/Linux.