Sunshine

What is Sunshine?

Sunshine is a game streaming app for macOS that turns your Mac into a host for Moonlight clients on other devices. It is designed for users who want to stream games, apps, or a full desktop session across a local network or over a remote connection they manage themselves. Sunshine provides a browser-based web interface for setup, pairing, and configuration, so you can manage the host without digging through command-line options for everyday use. On macOS, it uses native screen capture and can use VideoToolbox or software encoding depending on the hardware and configuration. It is especially useful for people building a self-hosted remote play setup, testing streaming workflows, or accessing a desktop from another device with low latency. Sunshine is published by LizardByte.

Key features

• Stream games and desktop sessions to Moonlight clients
• Configure the host and pair devices through a web interface
• Use hardware video encoding when supported on the host
• Connect from a wide range of client devices
• Add and manage launchable apps for remote streaming
• Run a self-hosted streaming setup on your own hardware

Safety overview

Status: Mostly safe

Sunshine is legitimate remote streaming software, and its screen recording and microphone access on macOS are consistent with its purpose. It can run in the background while hosting streams and opens a local web interface for configuration, so you should keep it updated and limit access to devices and networks you trust. On macOS, gamepad support is not currently available, and streaming system audio may require extra audio-routing software.

Recommendation: Keep Sunshine if you use Moonlight or want a self-hosted game streaming host on your Mac. If you no longer stream from this Mac, you can remove it and revoke its screen recording and microphone permissions in macOS settings.

Common paths

• /Applications/Sunshine.app

Related apps

• Moonlight

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