Agones
Agones is a free, open-source platform for deploying, hosting, scaling, and orchestrating dedicated game servers for large multiplayer games on Kubernetes.
What Agones is
Agones is a free, open-source platform for deploying, hosting, scaling, and orchestrating dedicated game servers for large multiplayer games on Kubernetes. Teams can run and update server fleets without shutting down servers that have active players. Its integrated game server SDK handles lifecycle work such as health checks, state management, and configuration, while autoscaling, metrics, and log aggregation support operations. Documented SDKs cover Unreal Engine, Unity, C++, C#, Node.js, Go, Rust, Python, and REST. Supported Kubernetes environments include Google Kubernetes Engine, Azure Kubernetes Service, Amazon EKS, and Minikube. Agones 1.61 supports Kubernetes 1.34, 1.35, and 1.36. Linux amd64 is stable; Linux arm64 and Windows amd64 are alpha. Game servers must integrate an Agones client SDK. The self-hosted platform is intended for cloud or on-premises teams managing multiplayer infrastructure, with security dependent on cluster configuration.
Good
- Free and open source
- Updates fleets without stopping active-player servers
- Provides lifecycle SDK, autoscaling, metrics, and logs
- Supports many game-engine and programming SDKs
- Works with several listed Kubernetes environments
Watch out
- Requires Kubernetes and self-hosted operations
- Game servers must integrate an Agones client SDK
- Linux arm64 and Windows amd64 support is alpha
- Features may be alpha, beta, or stable
Who it suits
Agones suits teams hosting multiplayer game servers on Kubernetes in cloud or on-premises environments. It is aimed at operators willing to integrate its client SDK and manage cluster configuration.
Verdict
Agones provides fleet management and lifecycle tooling for dedicated multiplayer servers on Kubernetes. Teams should account for SDK integration, cluster security, and varying feature maturity.
Plans and prices
From Agones's own pricing page, checked 4 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Agones | Free | Free and open source · runs on Kubernetes · Linux game servers |
The facts
Each one read from Agones's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Autoscaling and observability
- Agones includes autoscaling capabilities, metrics, and log aggregation for game server sessions.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Cloud integrations
- The installation guide lists Google Kubernetes Engine, Azure Kubernetes Service, Amazon EKS, and Minikube as supported Kubernetes environments.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Community support
- Users can get community help through Slack, a user mailing list, and community meetings.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Container support
- Linux amd64 is stable, while Linux arm64 and Windows amd64 are listed as alpha support.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Feature maturity
- Agones features may be alpha, beta, or stable; alpha features may be buggy, can be dropped without notice, and are recommended only for short-lived test clusters.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Fleet management
- It can run and update fleets of game servers without shutting down servers that have active players.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Integration requirement
- Game servers must integrate an Agones client SDK to manage game server state and health checking.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- Agones is for teams hosting multiplayer game servers who want to manage their game server infrastructure on Kubernetes in cloud or on-premises environments.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Kubernetes requirement
- Agones 1.61 supports Kubernetes versions 1.34, 1.35, and 1.36; self-managed clusters require the MutatingAdmissionWebhook and ValidatingAdmissionWebhook admission controllers.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Lifecycle SDK
- The integrated game server SDK supports lifecycle management, including health checks, state management, and configuration.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Operational limit
- The FAQ recommends clusters no larger than 500 nodes as a rule of thumb and advises load testing for a game's workload.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Pod security
- The SDK sidecar is compatible by default with Kubernetes' restricted Pod Security Standard, but the game server and other pod containers need their own compliant security contexts.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Agones is an open source platform for deploying, hosting, scaling, and orchestrating dedicated game servers for large scale multiplayer games on Kubernetes.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Security
- The project says deployment security depends on correct cluster configuration, including RBAC, network policies, allocator TLS, and node isolation.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Supported SDKs
- The documented SDKs cover Unreal Engine, Unity, C++, C#, Node.js, Go, Rust, Python, and REST.checked 4 Oct 2026
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