Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Steam Workshop VS Unity Asset Store

Compare Steam Workshop VS Unity Asset Store and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Steam Workshop logo Steam Workshop

Create, discover, and download content for your game Start browsing below to find player-created content for your games. Interested in creating content? Click <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshopsubmitinfo/">here</a> to learn more.

Unity Asset Store logo Unity Asset Store

Unity's asset marketplace for game makers.
  • Steam Workshop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-02
  • Unity Asset Store Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-31

Steam Workshop features and specs

  • User-Generated Content
    Steam Workshop allows users to create and share their own custom content for games, which can enhance the gaming experience with new levels, models, weapons, and more.
  • Community Engagement
    The platform fosters a strong community by allowing users to rate, comment, and share content, which can lead to a more connected and active player base.
  • Easy Integration
    For developers, integrating Steam Workshop into their games can offer a relatively easy way to increase longevity and replayability by enabling mod support.
  • Automatic Updates
    Subscribed mods are updated automatically, ensuring that users always have the most current version without needing manual intervention.
  • Broad Accessibility
    Being integrated into Steam, the Workshop is accessible to a large user base globally, providing developers and content creators a vast audience.

Possible disadvantages of Steam Workshop

  • Quality Control
    With an open platform for user-generated content, there's a wide variance in quality, and users may encounter poorly made or buggy mods.
  • Moderation Challenges
    Managing and moderating content can be difficult, potentially leading to issues with inappropriate or infringing content being uploaded.
  • Dependency Conflicts
    Mods can sometimes conflict with each other or with the base game, leading to technical issues that can be difficult for users to resolve.
  • Revenue Limitations
    While there's an option for monetizing content through Steam Workshop, many creators might find the revenue split with Valve and other stakeholders less favorable.
  • Storage and Bandwidth Usage
    Downloading large amounts of mods can take up significant storage space and bandwidth, which might be a concern for users with limited resources.

Unity Asset Store features and specs

  • Wide Variety of Assets
    The Unity Asset Store offers a vast collection of assets, including 3D models, textures, scripts, and plugins, catering to various game development needs.
  • Time and Cost Efficiency
    By purchasing ready-to-use assets, developers can save significant time and resources, allowing them to focus on the unique aspects of their projects.
  • Quality Assurance
    Many assets on the store are reviewed and rated by other users, providing insights into their quality and usability for developers.
  • Integration with Unity
    Assets from the store are designed to work seamlessly with Unity, ensuring compatibility and ease of integration into projects.
  • Community Support
    A large and active community around the Unity Asset Store means developers can find support, tutorials, and forums discussing various assets and their uses.

Possible disadvantages of Unity Asset Store

  • Variable Quality
    While there are many high-quality assets, there are also less-polished options, which can vary widely in terms of quality and usability.
  • Dependency on External Code
    Relying on third-party assets can introduce dependencies, which might complicate future updates or troubleshooting if the asset developer discontinues support.
  • Licensing and Legal Issues
    Developers need to be aware of licensing terms for assets, as improper use can lead to legal issues or problems in distribution.
  • Potential Overuse
    Popular assets might be used frequently across different projects, potentially leading to a lack of uniqueness in the final product.
  • Costs Can Accumulate
    Although individual assets can be affordable, buying multiple assets for one project can add up quickly and impact the overall budget.

Steam Workshop videos

Steam Workshop Review of 2018

More videos:

  • Review - Let&#39;s review some Planet Coaster Steam Workshop rides
  • Tutorial - Steam Workshop | How To / Tutorial - Downloading &amp; Playing Content

Unity Asset Store videos

Unity Asset Store: Spring 2020

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Steam Workshop and Unity Asset Store)
Games
100 100%
0% 0
Game Development
0 0%
100% 100
Group Chat & Notifications
Social Media Apps
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Steam Workshop and Unity Asset Store. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Unity Asset Store should be more popular than Steam Workshop. It has been mentiond 47 times since March 2021. 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.

Steam Workshop mentions (13)

  • Steam Deck OLED
    > Destroying nearly every mod and skin community What on earth is this referring to? Steam doesn't inhibit moding at all. Heck, it has built in mod support that's used by games like Oxygen Not Included and Rimworld and it's huge ( https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/ ). Steam also doesn't bat an eye at mods from outside of the client and there's no shortage of mod managers that work with steam - Vortex,... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • How hard is it to add mods to games in the steam deck?
    Depends on the game, really. Some games use the Steam Workshop, that's as easy as it gets. Just subscribe to a mod and it gets downloaded and installed by Steam. Most other methods are easy on PC but a bit harder on Steam Deck. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Valve really needs to get rid of the "Scheduled Downloading" crap for the Workshop
    May be it, difficult to say. Though Valve has not done much with the Workshop platform for almost a decade now (oh god time really flies). Particularly shows that the last news entry was in 2016. A few niche bugs have shown up over the years, so your observation isn't wrong. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Steam Deck’s Greatness Makes It Hard to Go Back to the Switch
    I'd argue Nintendo is less behind and more that Steam has been stupidly ahead of pretty much all other app stores for awhile now. I mean what other store has an entire section[0] dedicated to defiling you're programs integrity in a way that would make your average walled garden security user cry? [0]https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Is modding legal?
    See also: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Unity Asset Store mentions (47)

  • Advice on where to start
    A lot of sifting through content on both itch.io and the unity asset store. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How to get Unity assets from the Asset Store to Unity?
    I'm running the AUR unityhub package and I want to be able to get apps from the store to Unity. How can I do that? Source: about 2 years ago
  • Which should I learn/do first?
    No problem. Free assets can always be found on the Unity Asset Store and you can get animations / models from Mixamo. You can also look at Booth for 3d assets. Good luck. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Looking for tips/worlds/avatars for vrchat wedding?
    Another place you can look for more general assets and prefabs (decoration, furniture, plants, etc.) is the Unity Asset store itself https://assetstore.unity.com/ and you can filter for free assets if you'd like. A similar option is https://vrcassets.com/ which will allow you to search for assets from thousands of vrchat gumroad creators. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Where can I download free 3D characters for my game?
    There are a LOT of free assets on sites like unity asset store or unreal store. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Steam Workshop and Unity Asset Store, you can also consider the following products

Nexus Mods - The Nexus Sites are a large network of community driven websites that support the free and open...

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

Mod DB - Mod DB covers game development and modding on Windows, Mac and Linux with downloads of the best user generated content.

Kenney Assets - We've created over 40,000 images, audio files and 3D models for you to use in your projects. Thanks to our public domain license you're even allowed to use them in commercial projects!

Nexus Mods Vortex - Vortex is the new, modern mod manager from Nexus Mods.

GameDev Market - GameDev Market is a marketplace for high quality, affordable 2D, 3D, GUI & Audio game assets, handcrafted by talented creators around the world.