Ploud versus the others
Every page first explains when the other service is the right choice, and means it. A player who signs up only to find the comparison was misleading leaves.
All ten options, on a single page
Each row links to its page, which starts by saying when the other service is the right choice. Prices checked on 28 August 2026, sources at the bottom of each page.
| Service | What it is | Price | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ploud | A dedicated physical PlayStation 5, hosted in France, played from a browser | From €2.68 per hour | Hours credit with no expiry, no subscription |
| GeForce Now | A service that streams your Steam, Epic and Battle.net PC games from NVIDIA servers | €10.99 per month for Performance, €21.99 for Ultimate | Monthly subscription, capped at 100 hours since January 2026 |
| Shadow | A Windows 11 computer, rented by the month and accessible from any screen | €32.99 per month for PC, €44.98 for Power | Monthly subscription, unlimited use |
| Boosteroid | A Ukrainian service that streams your PC games, with no session length limit | €12.89 per month, €14.89 for Ultra Pro | Monthly subscription, with no hours cap |
| Xbox Cloud Gaming | Streaming a catalogue of Xbox games in a browser, tied to Game Pass | €8.99 per month for Essential, €12.99 for Premium | Monthly subscription, access to a rotating catalogue |
| PlayStation Plus Premium | Sony's premium subscription, streaming a selection of games | €16.99 per month | Subscription, catalogue chosen by Sony and publishers |
| PlayStation Portal | An eight-inch portable screen with DualSense controls, which displays the picture from a PS5 | €249.99 to buy, since the price rise on 2 April 2026 | One-off purchase, PlayStation 5 console required |
| le Remote Play | The remote play feature built into the PlayStation 5, free | Free, PlayStation 5 console required | System feature, no charge |
| acheter une PS5 | Buying a console, sitting at your home | €649.99 with disc drive, €599.99 for the Digital Edition, €899.99 for the Pro | One-off purchase, you own the machine |
| Amazon Luna | Amazon's cloud gaming service, with a subscription catalogue | €9.99 a month | Subscription, catalogue chosen by Amazon and its partners |
The fundamental difference is not the price, it is the nature of the service. GeForce Now, Shadow and Boosteroid stream a Windows PC: they cannot run a title that only exists on console. Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation Plus Premium and Amazon Luna stream a catalogue chosen by their publisher. The PlayStation Portal and Remote Play require you to already own a PlayStation 5. Ploud assigns you a whole console on which you install your own games.
The pages, one per service
Ploud or GeForce Now
GeForce Now streams the PC games you already own from servers equipped with RTX cards. Ploud rents a physical PlayStation 5 by the hour. The difference is not quality, but kind: one needs a PC version to exist, the other does not.
ReadPloud or Shadow
Shadow rents an entire Windows PC in a data centre, with its desktop, files and software. It is more than a gaming service. That is also what prevents it from running any PlayStation game.
ReadPloud or Boosteroid
Boosteroid streams your PC games with no hours cap, from €12.89 per month. This is the feature that fuelled its growth in 2026, when NVIDIA capped GeForce Now. There is still one game it cannot stream, and it is the one arriving on 19 November.
ReadPloud or Xbox Cloud Gaming
Xbox Cloud Gaming is the only major service that streams console games rather than PC games, making it the closest to Ploud in principle. Everything else sets them apart: a licensed catalogue on one side, your own library on the other.
ReadPloud or PlayStation Plus Premium
PlayStation Plus Premium is Sony's own streaming service, at €16.99 per month. It gives you access to a selection of PlayStation titles. The key word is selection: it is not your library, and new releases are not added.
ReadPloud or PlayStation Portal
PlayStation Portal is a screen with controllers, sold for €249.99 since April 2026. It does no processing: it displays the picture from a PlayStation 5 that you must own. Comparing them therefore means comparing an accessory with a service.
ReadPloud or Remote Play
Sony's Remote Play technically does what Ploud does: it films a PlayStation 5 and sends you the picture. It's free, it's good, and it assumes you already have the console. That's the only difference, and it's worth €649.99.
ReadPloud or buying a PS5
It's the only comparison that really matters, and it's arithmetic. A PlayStation 5 Slim has cost €649.99 since April 2026. Rented at €2.68 an hour, the same console works out cheaper as long as you play fewer than 240 hours a year.
ReadPloud or Amazon Luna
Amazon Luna streams a games catalogue for €9.99 a month, in the browser and on Fire TV devices. Its strength is simplicity and family play. Its limit is the same as every catalogue: it doesn't contain what you already own.
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