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Comparison

GameMaker vs Photon Engine

	GameMaker	Photon Engine
What it says it does	GameMakerMake a game with GameMaker, the best free video game engine. Perfect for beginners and professionals. Learn to build your own 2D indie games with our simple tutorials.	Photon EngineBuild and scale real-time multiplayer games with Photon Fusion, Quantum, Realtime, Voice and Chat. Trusted by thousands of studios. Start free.
Pricing	GameMakerFree for non-commercial use (all desktop, web, mobile and GX.games exports, no watermark); Professional $99.99 one-time commercial licence; Enterprise subscription (monthly or yearly) adds console exports and source code access (official)	Photon EngineFusion: free 20 CCU for development; free 100 CCU for one launched app; 100 CCU $95 one-time for 12 months; 500 CCU $125/mo; 1,000 CCU $250/mo; 2,000 CCU $500/mo; Premium $0.50 per CCU ($1,000/mo minimum); extra traffic $0.05-$0.10/GB (official)
Website	GameMakerhttps://gamemaker.io/en	Photon Enginehttps://www.photonengine.com/

Which tool for which job

GameMaker wins when you want a proven 2D engine with a one-time commercial licence and no royalties.

Photon Engine wins when you want managed multiplayer networking with a free tier to prototype and launch small.

Descriptions in the table come from each vendor's own site. This verdict is a fit call from those official pages as of 4 November 2026, not a shared benchmark or a hands-on score. Prices change, so confirm the pricing row on each tool page. How we review tools.

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