# beam vs Sunshine

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | beam | Sunshine |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60/100 | 84/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #31 of 125 in AI | #2 of 22 in Remote Desktop |
| GitHub stars | 1 834 | 42 754 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +47 | +1 238 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 364 ✓ | 86 |
| Latest release | gateway-0.1.837 · 26 Oct 2026 | v2026.1028.122642 · 28 Oct 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Advanced | Easy ✓ |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes ✓ |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Go | C |

## Which one should you pick?

Sunshine scores 84/100 against 60/100 for beam, so it is the safer default.

beam ships more often: 364 stable releases in the past year, against 86 for Sunshine.

If you want the quickest setup, Sunshine is easier to run; beam needs more configuration.

Sunshine is growing faster right now (+1 238 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [beam](https://selfhost.directory/project/beam) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/beam.md)
- [Sunshine](https://selfhost.directory/project/sunshine) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/sunshine.md)

---
Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/beam-vs-sunshine