# Nakama

> Nakama is Heroic Labs' Apache-2.0 open-source game server for accounts, multiplayer and social features, self-hosted or managed on Heroic Cloud.

Source: https://metavert.io/nakama  
Published: 2026-10-07  
Updated: 2026-10-07

**Nakama** is an open-source game server from Heroic Labs that provides the common online features of a game (accounts, storage, social graph, chat, matchmaking, real-time and turn-based multiplayer, leaderboards and tournaments) as a single server a studio can run itself or rent as a managed service. The server is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, and Heroic Labs also sells commercial licences. Among [gaming backends](https://metavert.io/gaming-backends) it is the best-known option for teams that want to own and inspect the code their game depends on.

The project's GitHub repository describes it as a "scalable open-source game backend server" and showed about 13,500 stars when checked in October 2026. Heroic Labs states that Nakama handles more than one trillion requests per month across its customers and has been load-tested to two million concurrent users; both are vendor-reported figures.

### What the server does

Nakama is written in Go and stores its data in PostgreSQL or a PostgreSQL wire-compatible database such as CockroachDB. Out of the box it handles authentication by device, email or social sign-in, a storage engine organised into collections, friends and groups, persistent one-to-one and group chat, parties, in-app purchase validation, notifications, and both relayed and server-authoritative multiplayer with a built-in matchmaker. An administrative console and metrics are included.

Custom game logic runs inside the server through a runtime that accepts Go, TypeScript or Lua, which is a structural difference from API-only platforms: a studio's code is loaded into the same process that serves its players and can query the database directly. Official client libraries cover [Unity](https://metavert.io/unity), [Unreal Engine](https://metavert.io/unreal-engine), Godot, Defold, Cocos2d-x, JavaScript, C++ and Java, all under Apache-2.0.

### Satori and Hiro

Heroic Labs sells two products that sit around the open-source core. **Satori** is its [LiveOps](https://metavert.io/liveops) platform: audiences built from player properties, feature flags and remote configuration, multi-variant experiments, scheduled live events, messaging, and retention and funnel analytics. Its documentation summarises the model as "events → player properties → audiences → personalized experience." Satori is proprietary, with open-source client SDKs, and it can be used with or without Nakama.

**Hiro** is a library of pre-built metagame systems on top of Nakama, including a virtual store, inventory, wallets, energy timers, achievements, teams, event leaderboards and store bundles. It is a commercial product licensed per developer per year, not open source. In practice Nakama supplies the engine, Hiro supplies ready-made [economy](https://metavert.io/game-economy-design) and progression features, and Satori supplies targeting and measurement.

### Self-hosting versus Heroic Cloud

| Dimension | Self-hosted Nakama | Heroic Cloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 open source | Plans include a Nakama Enterprise licence |
| Operations | Studio runs the server and database; a Docker Compose quickstart starts both | Managed database, backups, monitoring, scaling, load balancer and SSL |
| Cost basis | Own infrastructure and staff time | Priced by CPU cores for Nakama and its database, with no DAU, MAU or CCU limits |
| Support | Community, or a paid support package | Support packages listed from $2,000 per month (Studio Basic) |

Heroic Cloud prices are as listed on the Heroic Labs pricing page in October 2026; managed Satori is listed from $600 per month with event-based ingestion pricing. In February 2026 Heroic Labs released Heroic Cloud 2.0, which reorganised the service around game titles and added SSO and SAML support, teams and role-based permissions. The same update named *Highguard* by Wildlight Entertainment as a cross-platform launch using Nakama for matchmaking and Satori for LiveOps.

### Where it fits

Nakama fits studios with backend engineers who want control: the ability to read the source, run the server in their own cloud or region, write authoritative game logic next to the data, and avoid per-player pricing. Capacity-based pricing on Heroic Cloud is easy to forecast for a game with steady traffic and less forgiving for one that sizes its cluster badly.

The cost of that control is responsibility. A self-hosted deployment needs someone to operate the database, upgrades and scaling, and the higher-level LiveOps and economy tooling arrives as separate paid products. Teams that prefer a fully managed, API-first service often compare [PlayFab](https://metavert.io/playfab), [AccelByte](https://metavert.io/accelbyte), [Unity Gaming Services](https://metavert.io/unity-gaming-services) or [Beamable](https://metavert.io/beamable); teams interested in newer database-centric designs look at [SpacetimeDB](https://metavert.io/spacetimedb).

## Related Topics

- [Gaming Backends](https://metavert.io/gaming-backends) — the category Nakama belongs to
- [PlayFab vs Nakama](https://metavert.io/compare/playfab-vs-nakama) — managed service versus open-source server
- [Nakama vs SpacetimeDB](https://metavert.io/compare/nakama-vs-spacetimedb) — two open approaches to game server state
- [LiveOps](https://metavert.io/liveops) — the practice Satori is built for
- [Open Source](https://metavert.io/open-source) — the licensing model behind the Nakama server
- [Multiplayer Networking](https://metavert.io/multiplayer-networking) — relayed and authoritative play
- [PostgreSQL](https://metavert.io/postgresql) — the database Nakama stores state in
- [PlayFab](https://metavert.io/playfab) — Microsoft's managed alternative
- [Beamable](https://metavert.io/beamable) — another game backend platform

## Further Reading

- [Nakama product page](https://heroiclabs.com/nakama/) — Heroic Labs, checked October 2026
- [heroiclabs/nakama source repository](https://github.com/heroiclabs/nakama) — GitHub, checked October 2026
- [Heroic Cloud pricing](https://heroiclabs.com/pricing/) — Heroic Labs, checked October 2026
- [Satori LiveOps product page](https://heroiclabs.com/satori/) — Heroic Labs, checked October 2026
- [Satori concepts: introduction](https://heroiclabs.com/docs/satori/concepts/introduction/) — Heroic Labs documentation, checked October 2026
- [Hiro game development kit](https://heroiclabs.com/hiro/) — Heroic Labs, checked October 2026
- [February 2026 newsletter: Heroic Cloud 2.0](https://heroiclabs.com/blog/feb-2026-newsletter/) — Heroic Labs, February 2026
- [Install Nakama with Docker Compose](https://heroiclabs.com/docs/nakama/getting-started/install/docker/) — Heroic Labs documentation, checked October 2026