Gameye vs. Hathora

What Is Gameye?

Gameye is a managed orchestration platform built exclusively for multiplayer games. Started hosting games in 2019.

It provides:

Sub-second container scaling (0.5s average)
Zero egress fees (included in pricing)
Multi-provider redundancy with automatic failover
Global bare metal + cloud infrastructure
Anti-DDoS protection included (Gcore, OVHCloud)
7 years of game launches, 120M+ sessions

What Is Hathora?

Hathora started as a YC-backed game server hosting platform in 2023.

It provides:

Container-based game server hosting
Autoscaling and matchmaker integration
DDoS protection
Global regions

But recent developments raise questions:

November 2025: Launched AI inference platform (models.hathora.dev)
Homepage now reads “Compute orchestration across GPUs and CPUs”
Gaming moved to a subpage (/gaming)
Blog posts increasingly focused on LLM inference latency
Pricing not publicly available (“schedule a call”)
Egress fees apply (unlike Gameye’s included model)

Key Differences

Here’s a breakdown of the key differences between Gameye and Hathora:

Feature	Gameye	Hathora
Company Focus	100% games	Games + AI inference
Track Record	7 years, 120M+ sessions	~3 years, limited public data
Container Start Time	0.5 seconds	“Seconds” (nodes: under 2 min)
Egress Fees	None (included)	Yes (per GB)
Pricing Transparency	Capacity-based, clear	“Schedule a call”
Infrastructure	Multi-provider (bare metal + cloud)	Cloud + bare metal option
Anti-DDoS	Included (Gcore, OVHCloud)	Included
Failover	Automatic cross-provider	Single provider per region

The Pivot Problem

In November 2025, Hathora launched models.hathora.dev—an AI inference platform for voice agents, ASR, TTS, and LLMs. Their blog now features posts like “A Deep Dive into LLM Inference Latencies.”

This isn’t necessarily bad—but it raises questions for game studios:

Where’s the focus? When engineering resources split between games and AI, which gets priority?
What’s the roadmap? Are new features for games or AI inference?
What happens if AI takes off? Does gaming become the legacy business?
Startup risk: VC-backed companies pivot to chase growth. Will games still matter in 2 years?

Gameye has one business: multiplayer game infrastructure. Our roadmap, our engineering, and our support are 100% focused on helping studios ship games. No side projects. No distractions.

Customer Results

Doborog Games reduced server costs by over 60% after switching to Gameye.

“It’s reassuring to know that we could scale up indefinitely as we prepare for platform events and sales.”
— Brian Jordan, Co-founder & CTO, Doborog Games

Chivalry 2 launched with 250,000 players in the first 30 minutes—zero infrastructure downtime.

“We felt there was a personal relationship, and if there was a problem, we knew Gameye would be there.”
— Rasmus Löfström, Game Director, Torn Banner Studios

Verdict: Who should use Gameye vs. Hathora?

Use Gameye if:

You want a partner 100% focused on games
You need proven scale (120M+ sessions)
You want predictable costs without egress surprises
You value pricing transparency
You need multi-provider failover

Use Hathora if:

You’re building something that spans games and AI
You prefer a newer platform with startup energy
You’re comfortable with less public track record
You don’t mind egress fees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hathora still focused on games?

Hathora still offers game server hosting, but their strategic direction has shifted. Their homepage now emphasizes “compute orchestration across GPUs and CPUs,” and they’ve launched an AI inference platform. Gaming is now one of multiple use cases rather than their sole focus.

Does Hathora charge egress fees?

Yes. Hathora charges for egress bandwidth in addition to vCPU usage. Their documentation mentions “Egress (GB) per player” as a billing factor. Gameye includes all data transfer in its capacity-based pricing.

How does scaling speed compare?

Gameye starts new containers in 0.5 seconds on average. Hathora’s documentation states their autoscaler “spins up nodes in under 2 minutes.” For sudden player spikes, this difference can impact player experience.

Is Hathora a risky choice because it’s a startup?

All startups carry some risk. Hathora is VC-backed (YC, $7.6M raised), which means they need to grow—and pivots happen when growth stalls. Their AI pivot may signal where they see their future. Gameye has been operating profitably for 7 years with 120M+ sessions, focused solely on games.

Can I migrate from Hathora to Gameye?

Yes. Both platforms are container-based, so migration is straightforward. Your Docker images work on Gameye with minimal changes. Our team can help you run both platforms in parallel during transition.

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Last updated: January 26, 2026