How is this gaming ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 8 approved gaming listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for students?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

How much does gaming software cost?

Across the 8 gaming tools listed here, paid plans start between $2.99 and $1,850 a month, with a median entry price of $6.99. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $1,850 a month (Unreal Engine). 3 of 8 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest gaming software?

Among the ones that charge, Discord Nitro has the lowest published entry price at $2.99 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free gaming software?

Yes, 3 of 8 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. Each of those also sells paid tiers above the free plan. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

How is gaming software usually billed?

subscription (4), freemium (2), counted across the 8 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not.

How many pricing tiers do gaming tools offer?

4 of 8 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 2 tiers. 1 of 8 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many gaming tools are listed on Softwr?

8 approved gaming listings appear on this page, including Discord, Discord Nitro, Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/gaming, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Gaming · ranked shortlist

Best Gaming software for Students in 2026

8 approved gaming listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

Tools ranked: 8
Entry price range: $2.99-$1,850
Publish a $0 plan: 3 of 8

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved gaming listings, capped at 20 per page; 8 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the gaming category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Discord
Highest rated here
Your place to talk and hang out
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $4.99 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $9.99.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
voice-chat, gaming, community, Free
Discord breakdown Compare with Discord Nitro
#2
Discord Nitro
Upgrade your Discord experience
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $2.99 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $9.99.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
discord, gaming, communication, premium
Discord Nitro breakdown Compare with Nintendo Switch Online
#3
N
Nintendo Switch Online
Online play, classic games and more
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Nintendo Switch Online breakdown Compare with PlayStation Plus
#4
P
PlayStation Plus
Monthly games, online multiplayer and more
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
PlayStation Plus breakdown Compare with Steam
#5
S
Steam
The ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Steam breakdown Compare with Twitch
#6
Twitch
Where gaming lives
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $8.99 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
live-streaming, gaming, entertainment, content-creation
Twitch breakdown Compare with Unreal Engine
#7
Unreal Engine
The world's most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $1,850 a month.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
game-engine, 3d, real-time, epic-games
Unreal Engine breakdown Compare with Xbox Game Pass
#8
X
Xbox Game Pass
Play together with friends, new games and classic favorites
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Xbox Game Pass breakdown

What gaming software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 8 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $2.99Discord Nitro
Median entry price: $6.99across 4 priced
Dearest entry price: $1,850Unreal Engine
Publish a $0 plan: 3of 8

Paid gaming plans in this set start anywhere from $2.99 a month for Discord Nitro to $1,850 for Unreal Engine. The median entry price across the 4 tools that publish one is $6.99, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

3 of 8 publish a $0 plan, and every one of those also sells a paid tier above it. 1 tool has no free tier of any kind.

Discord Nitro pricing Unreal Engine pricing Unreal Engine plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 8 gaming listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

subscription: 4
freemium: 2

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

3 of 8 gaming tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line.

Read the spread before you read the features

$2.99 to $1,850 is a $1,847.01 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $1,850 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

1 of 8 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 2 of them. The advertised price is the first rung. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 2 billing models: subscription on 4 listings, freemium on 2, and nothing else. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare gaming tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Discordpricing alternatives
Discord Nitropricing alternatives
Nintendo Switch Onlinepricing alternatives
PlayStation Pluspricing alternatives
Steampricing alternatives
Twitchpricing alternatives

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about gaming software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this gaming ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 8 approved gaming listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for students?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.
How much does gaming software cost?: Across the 8 gaming tools listed here, paid plans start between $2.99 and $1,850 a month, with a median entry price of $6.99. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $1,850 a month (Unreal Engine). 3 of 8 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest gaming software?: Among the ones that charge, Discord Nitro has the lowest published entry price at $2.99 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free gaming software?: Yes, 3 of 8 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. Each of those also sells paid tiers above the free plan. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
How is gaming software usually billed?: subscription (4), freemium (2), counted across the 8 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not.
How many pricing tiers do gaming tools offer?: 4 of 8 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 2 tiers. 1 of 8 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many gaming tools are listed on Softwr?: 8 approved gaming listings appear on this page, including Discord, Discord Nitro, Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/gaming, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Discord

Discord Nitro

Nintendo Switch Online

PlayStation Plus

Steam

Twitch

Unreal Engine

Xbox Game Pass