BackendGen.dev compared

Every online game, app or business system needs a backend: accounts, saved data, leaderboards, payments, an admin panel. There are three ways to get one. Here's how they compare, honestly, including when BackendGen.dev isn't the right choice.

Option 1

A hosted backend platform

Services like PlayFab, Firebase, Unity Gaming Services or BACKND. They run the servers for you, with a free tier and then charges based on how much your players use them.

Option 2

Build it yourself

Write your own server from scratch. Total control, but weeks or months of work before your game or business can rely on it, and it's all yours to secure and maintain.

Option 3

Generate it with BackendGen.dev

Choose your settings and download the complete source code of a ready-made backend. You run it on your own server, pay for the licence once, and can change any line.

Side by side

Hosted platform Build it yourself BackendGen.dev
How you pay Free to start, then usage-based charges (players, requests, storage, bandwidth), and on some platforms optional monthly plans. Costs grow as your game or business grows. Your own time (or a developer's), plus hosting. A one-time licence, plus your own hosting. A small VPS is enough for most projects. No per-player or per-request fees.
Source code Closed. You use their API and SDKs. Yours. Yours: plain, readable Node.js and Express. Change anything, keep it forever.
Where your data lives On the platform's servers. Wherever you host it. On your own server, in your own database (SQLite, or PostgreSQL with Advanced).
Moving away later Usually means rewriting the parts of your game that talk to the platform and migrating your data out. Nothing to move away from. Nothing to move away from. The backend doesn't depend on BackendGen.dev to run.
Time to a working backend Quick to start with their SDK; more time as you learn each service and its limits. Weeks to months, plus testing. Minutes to generate and run on your PC. Putting it online takes longer; step-by-step guides are included.
Running the servers They do it for you. You do. You do, with help: automatic database backups, a self-test, ready-made hosting set-ups, and update packages that back up, update and roll back by themselves.
Game engines Official Unity SDKs, and often Unreal. Godot support is often community-made, if there is any. You write your own client. Generated clients for Unity (C#, works in WebGL and IL2CPP builds) and Godot 4 (a GDScript plugin), an Unreal Engine 5 plugin (Blueprint nodes and C++, plus game-server nodes with Advanced), a JavaScript client and an OpenAPI description. Unreal guide.
Real-time gameplay (netcode) Some platforms sell relay networking or game-server hosting as extra services. You choose a networking library and build the rest around it. Works alongside it: use Mirror, Netcode for GameObjects or Fish-Net for gameplay. Your backend runs the accounts, rankings, matchmaking and game-server fleet around it (matchmaking and the fleet need Advanced). Guides: Mirror, Fish-Net, Netcode for GameObjects and Godot 4 multiplayer.
Scaling up Handled for you (and billed by usage). You design it. With Advanced: PostgreSQL, multiple servers, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes and nginx load balancing. Tested on one 8-core cloud server: 50,000 players connected at once and 76,000 real-time room messages delivered a second, 95% within 32 ms (the numbers).
Small businesses General-purpose building blocks you assemble yourself. You build it. A Business generator: staff portal with roles and your own records, plus an online shop (Stripe and/or PayPal) and bookings with Advanced.

Scroll the table sideways to see all three.

Which one fits you?

A hosted platform is the better choice if…

  • You never want to run or look after a server.
  • You need things BackendGen.dev doesn't do, like hosting your dedicated game servers or persistent MMO-style worlds, relay networking, voice chat or an official Unreal SDK.
  • Your free tier will cover your players, and you're happy with usage-based bills if it grows.

Building it yourself makes sense if…

  • Your backend is mostly unusual logic that no template covers.
  • You have the time, and backend development is something you want to do.

Even then, a generated backend can be a head start: it's plain code you can rewrite piece by piece.

BackendGen.dev fits if…

  • You want to own your code and your data, with no lock-in.
  • You'd rather pay once than pay more every month as you grow.
  • You're comfortable running a Node.js server, or happy to learn with the included guides.
  • You need the usual pieces (accounts, leaderboards, ranking, matchmaking, an admin panel, a shop or bookings) working quickly.
Running your own server is real work. You're responsible for keeping it online, updated and backed up. BackendGen.dev makes that as easy as we can (automatic backups, a self-test, update packages that roll back if anything goes wrong) but it doesn't run the server for you.

Questions about cost

Is there a self-hosted alternative to PlayFab?

Yes. BackendGen.dev generates the backend's full source code (Node.js, with SQLite or PostgreSQL) for you to run on your own server: player accounts and saved data, plus leaderboards, cloud saves, matchmaking, an economy and a live-ops dashboard with the Advanced licence. You pay once instead of a monthly or per-player bill, and the backend never depends on us. (PlayFab itself is free in development for up to 1,000 players per game, then bills by usage after launch, with optional plans from $99 a month.)

Will Firebase get expensive for a multiplayer game?

Often not for a small game: Cloud Firestore's free allowance is 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day. Above it, every read, write and download is billed, so the bill grows with your players and with how often your game talks to the database, and Firebase's budget alerts warn you rather than stop the spending. A self-hosted backend has no per-request charges: you pay for the server you rent, and move to a bigger one when you need to, so a busy weekend doesn't change the price. Our cost guide works it through with real prices.

How many players can a self-hosted backend handle?

It depends on your server and your game, so here is what we measured. On SQLite, the database every licence gets, one desktop-class server comfortably answered 2,200 requests a second: about 66,000 players online if each calls the backend once every 30 seconds. For real-time chat and lobbies (Advanced), one rented 8-core cloud server (about €0.27 an hour) kept 50,000 players connected at once, and six backend servers sharing rooms through Redis delivered 76,000 room messages a second, 95% within 32 ms. Hosted platforms scale for you and bill by usage; here you add servers yourself, and each one costs the same whether your players are busy or not. See the load test and the real-time test.

What does it cost to run a self-hosted game backend?

The licence once, then your hosting. A small VPS from a few dollars a month is enough for most indie games, and you can start on your own PC for free. With the Advanced licence you can scale out to PostgreSQL and several servers when you grow.

See it for yourself

Take the walkthrough with screenshots, or go straight to pricing. One-time licence, unlimited projects.

See how it works See pricing

Hosted platforms' features and pricing change over time; this page describes how they work in general, as of November 2026. Check their own websites for current details. PlayFab is a trademark of Microsoft; Firebase is a trademark of Google; Unity Gaming Services is a trademark of Unity Technologies; BACKND is a product of AFI, Inc.