Migration

/

Hathora

Published

Published

Published

Last reviewed for accuracy

Last reviewed for accuracy

Last reviewed for accuracy

Migrate from Hathora with zero impact on your players

Migrate from Hathora with zero impact on your players

Hathora closed its game hosting service in May 2026.

Your container does not have to change: keep the image you already ship, re-point one allocation call, and deploy to automated Private Fleets for cost-effective hosting. When demand runs past your fleet, hybrid orchestration bursts to our Edge Cloud network of 615+ locations worldwide, so players get coverage you never had to buy in advance.

No credit card required. Free tier includes the resources to deploy a real game server.

No credit card required. Free tier includes the resources to deploy a real game server.

What changes (and doesn't change)

Changes to expect, at a glance

Changes to expect, at a glance

A Hathora migration is a hosting change, not a rewrite. Here's what to expect from your migration.

A full feature-by-feature breakdown is in Step 3: Identify & Replace features below.

What Remains the Same

Your netcode and transport

Edgegap never touches your transport, serialization or tick loop. The container runs the same server binary you build today.

Containerize

You already ship a container to Hathora, so the artifact is unchanged. Push the same image to our registry, or keep the one you use today.

Your client connect flow

Your client still receives an address and a port and connects to it. Only where that address comes from changes.

Engine, versions & CI

Same engine, same version, same build pipeline. Nothing in your CI needs a new step beyond pushing the image.

What Changes

The CLI goes away

There is no server SDK to strip out, because Hathora never required one, and Edgegap does not either. What goes is the hosting CLI and the upload step around it: you push an image to a registry and create a Version, from the Dashboard or the API.

One deploy call replaces the room

Where your backend called CreateRoom and then asked for that room's connection info, you POST once to the deploy endpoint and get back an FQDN and port. Rooms become deployments, and processes become deployment status and webhooks.

Regions stop being a purchase decision

You no longer buy capacity region by region. Every deployment is placed at the best of 615+ locations at request time for Edge Cloud.

Reserved capacity becomes an option

Hathora billed you per running server and offered nothing underneath it. Private Fleets add egress-free dedicated hardware for your steady load, resized as your traffic curve moves, with everything past it deploying on Edge Cloud.

Expected Timeline

Five simple steps

Most studios reach end-to-end validation in under two weeks, including parallel running while traffic rolls out.

Most studios reach end-to-end validation in under two weeks, including parallel running while traffic rolls out.

Total: under 1 week

Total: under 1 week

Step 1

Point your backend at Edgegap

Replace room creation and connection-info calls with one deploy request. No game server code changes.

~2 hours

Step 2

Containerize

Your server already runs as a container on Hathora, so this step is a check rather than work.

Already done

Step 3

Push to a Registry

Edgegap's registry is available for free, or keep ECR, DockerHub, GitLab, etc.

~30 min.

Step 4

Swap the Allocation Call

One HTTP request replaces room creation and connection info.

~1 day

Step 5

Deploy Globally

Deploy globally on Edge Cloud, and optionally cut cost further with egress-free hosting on Private Fleets.

Instant Rollout

Detailed migration steps

1

The migration steps, in detail, with the code

Make sure to refer to our Switch from Hathora documentation for the latest updates to this process.

Before getting started, we expect that: you currently use, or recently used, Hathora, and you have a working game server container.

Step 1:

Re-point your allocation call

Edgegap does not require an SDK to integrate, and neither did Hathora, so nothing comes out of your game server. The work is in your backend. Wherever it created a room and then asked for that room's connection info, it now makes one deploy request to Edgegap and receives the address and port in the response. Deployment status and webhooks replace the process lifecycle you polled, and your client keeps connecting to an address and a port exactly as it does today.

2

Step 2:

Containerize your game server

Your game server already runs as a container, so this step is a check rather than a rebuild. Confirm the image builds and starts locally, then push it to Edgegap's free registry, or keep ECR, DockerHub, GitLab or any other OCI-compatible registry. If you want to rebuild from scratch, the quickstart tools for Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot take 5 to 20 minutes on a development project.

3

Step 3:

Identify & Replace features

Hathora - Feature

Edgegap - Feature

Authentication

Optionally, add fine-grained access controls:

Hosting CLI

No CLI required! Use our Dashboard or automate builds with API.

Create a Build

Try our quickstart tools - Unity / Unreal Engine.

Hathora Lobbies

Group Up for Matchmaking or Reserve Seat in Server Browser.

Fleet

Private Fleets with Persistence and Cloud Overflow. Optionally add later on, or default to Match-Bound cloud.

Eager Caching (Pro, Enterprise) - 3 seconds deployments

Active Caching (Pay as you Go) - 0.5 second deployments

Ping Service (Regions)

Ping Beacons (automated in engine-specific SDKs)

Telemetry (Analytics)

Deployment Analytics and Matchmaking Analytics.

4

Step 4:

(Optional) Setting up Fleets

Edgegap also offers an optional feature similar to Hathora's fleets and Elastic Metal: Private Fleets of persistent servers on bare metal, with egress-free hosting and automatic overflow to Edge Cloud when demand runs past the fleet.

Pricing

Price Comparison

Discover how Edgegap's orchestration is cost effective versus what you were paying Hathora.

Driver 1: idle capacity

Hathora

Edgegap

Billed. Per-region, fleet-based billing meant idle capacity was charged.

Not billed on Edge Cloud, where zero active deployments costs $0, and rightsized monthly on Private Fleets.

Driver 2: what's included

Hathora

Edgegap

IPv4 addresses billed as an extra.

IPv4 included, single worldwide price, pay per use at $0.00115 per vCPU per minute, fractionable from 0.25 vCPU.

Driver 3: region purchasing

Hathora

Edgegap

Capacity chosen and paid for per region across 14 regions, 5 of them in the United States.

Private Fleets for your baseline, bursting onto Edge Cloud at the best available location at request time.

(Hathora figures as published in our comparison and migration guide, March 2026.)

Pricing

Optimize costs and performance with hybrid orchestration

Optimize costs and performance with hybrid orchestration

Optimize costs and performance with hybrid orchestration

Edge Cloud

On-Demand

$0.00115

/ vCPU

/ MINUTE

Billed by the Minute, Only on Usage

Pay only when players play. 0 active servers = $0

Deploy game servers worldwide, per instance, to all 615+ edge cloud locations. Zero commitment.

Simply add a credit card.

Edge Cloud

On-Demand

$0.00115

/ vCPU

/ MINUTE

Billed by the Minute, Only on Usage

Pay only when players play. 0 active servers = $0

Deploy game servers worldwide, per instance, to all 615+ edge cloud locations. Zero commitment.

Simply add a credit card.

Private Fleet (Bare Metal)

Reserved Capacity

$0.0256

/ vCPU

/ HOUR

Billed Monthly, Always On

$280 per host/month (12 mo rate), or $350 monthly

Optimize the cost effectiveness of your game server with egress-free hosting of Private Fleets.

Persistent, available 24/7, exclusive to your studio.

Private Fleet (Bare Metal)

Reserved Capacity

$0.0256

/ vCPU

/ HOUR

Billed Monthly, Always On

$280 per host/month (12 mo rate), or $350 monthly

Optimize the cost effectiveness of your game server with egress-free hosting of Private Fleets.

Persistent, available 24/7, exclusive to your studio.

Your bill varies per rate and usage; which can vary per game type, player count, & more.

Your bill varies per rate and usage; which can vary per game type, player count, & more.

Model your usage with our estimate calculator ->

Model your usage with our estimate calculator ->

Edgegap's features & price: detailed comparison between Edge Cloud & Private Fleets

Edgegap's features & price: detailed comparison between Edge Cloud & Private Fleets

COMPARE

Free Trial

Edge Cloud

Private Fleets

FEATURES

Analytics & Monitoring

Billing Alarms

Click to Expand

28 more rows

Unlocks

Capabilities are unlocked when a credit card is added to the account.

COMPARE

Free Trial

Edge Cloud

Private Fleets

FEATURES

Analytics & Monitoring

Billing Alarms

Click to Expand

28 more rows

Unlocks

Capabilities are unlocked when a credit card is added to the account.

COMPARE

Free Trial

Edge Cloud

Private Fleets

FEATURES

Analytics & Monitoring

Billing Alarms

Click to Expand

28 more rows

Unlocks

Capabilities are unlocked when a credit card is added to the account.

Features Comparison

Features Comparison

Full comparison available here: "Edgegap vs Hathora".

Clients

Learn more from clients who migrated to Edgegap

15 case studies are available from studios that moved to Edgegap from another platform.

Key reasons why they chose Edgegap

Key reasons why they chose Edgegap

Discover the impact of Edgegap's automated game server orchestration for a flawless multiplayer experience.

Methodology

How we measured

Each metric states what is measured, over what window, and what is excluded. Benchmark results are dated to the test that produced them and are not restated as current figures.

Orchestration Platform Scale

Where servers can run, and how many we have run.

Inventory

Global Edge Cloud locations

615+locations

Distinct deployment targets where a game server container can be scheduled on demand.

Platform inventory
How we measure this
Live

Private Fleet locations

58locations

Locations where a studio can reserve dedicated bare-metal or VM hosts for its exclusive use.

Published live
How we measure this
Cumulative

Game server deployments to date

135million deployments

Total game server deployments orchestrated since February 2019, including deployments that failed to start, the same basis our competitors use.

Since February 2019
How we measure this

Performance Under Load

How fast our orchestration delivers a server, and what it sustains under test.

Rolling 30d

Server deployment time

2seconds · median

From cold start: provisioned from scratch, not allocated onto an already-running server. Measured to container ready, before the game engine starts.

Rolling 30-day window
How we measure this
Benchmark

Sustained deployment rate for each game

40per second

Started deployments per second, averaged over a continuous 60-minute benchmark. Available to each game from confirmed studios with live traffic.

November 2023 benchmark
How we measure this
Benchmark

Concurrent capacity for each game

14million concurrent

Concurrent sessions reached on real game server containers, at 100 players per server.

November 2023 benchmark
How we measure this

Reliability

What we commit to contractually for our orchestration, and what the monitors record.

Committed

Availability

99.99%SLA commitment

Committed under our SLA. Trailing 90-day measured uptime: 99.999%.

Trailing 90 days
How we measure this
Inventory

Provider redundancy

17+providers

Cloud and bare-metal providers under contract and carrying production traffic. Failover is automatic.

Platform inventory
How we measure this

Live component status is published at status.edgegap.com.

How We Measure

One entry per metric: what is measured, how, and over what window.

Global Edge Cloud locations

A location is a distinct deployment target: one datacenter site at one of our infrastructure providers, in which a game server container can be scheduled on demand. Sites are counted once each regardless of how many providers operate in the same metro, and count only while accepting deployments.

Back to the metric ↑
Private Fleet locations

The subset of the 615+ where a studio can reserve dedicated bare-metal or VM hosts for its exclusive use rather than deploying into shared on-demand capacity. Published live on the Fleet Manager page. This is also the number that carries the included-egress allowance.

Back to the metric ↑
Game server deployments to date

Counted as total deployment records since February 2019, including deployments that failed to start, the same basis our competitors use.

Back to the metric ↑
Server deployment time

From cold start: provisioned from scratch, not allocated onto an already-running server. Measured to container ready, before the game engine starts.

Back to the metric ↑
Sustained deployment rate for each game

The orchestrator started real game server containers continuously for 60 minutes, averaging 40 started deployments per second over the full hour, counted at deployment start rather than at ready state. Measured across 550+ locations and 17 providers in November 2023. The benchmark ran for a single game. Capacity is allocated per game, so every game on the platform can scale to this level independently and at the same time.

Back to the metric ↑
Concurrent capacity for each game

In November 2023, the platform sustained 40 game server deployments per second for 60 minutes across 550+ locations and 17 providers, reaching 14 million concurrent sessions at 100 players per server. Game servers were real containers; player clients were simulated. The benchmark ran for a single game. Capacity is allocated per game, so every game on the platform can scale to this level independently and at the same time.

Back to the metric ↑
Availability

Availability is committed at 99.99% under our SLA and measured continuously against five independently monitored components: Container Registry, Dashboard, Public API, Public Documentation and Website. Trailing 90-day measured uptime: 99.999%. The live figure is published on status.edgegap.com.

Back to the metric ↑
Provider redundancy

Distinct suppliers under contract and carrying production traffic, counted at corporate-entity level. Failover across providers is automatic; it is the premise of the multi-cloud architecture.

Back to the metric ↑

How We Keep This Current

What gets reviewed, on what cadence, and what carries its own date.

Platform figures on this page are reviewed and refreshed quarterly. Metrics drawn from live sources (availability and game server deployments) carry their own as-of dates and are updated as measured. Benchmark results are dated to the test that produced them and are not restated as current figures.

Last updated
Next reviewor earlier

Frequently Asked Questions

Edgegap is the hosting & orchestration experts. Our platform is tailor built to help you speed up your development process, which allows you focus on what you excel at - development.


Hathora already shut down. Is it too late to move?

No, but your situation decides the first step. If your game is still running somewhere, the migration is the ordinary one described on this page: your container is already a container, and the work is re-pointing one allocation call. If your servers are already dark, the path is the same with the order reversed: get the image deployed on Edgegap first, then re-point the backend. Either way, nothing about your build or your netcode has to be rewritten to get players back online.

I was offered a transition to another platform. Why look at Edgegap?

Because a transition offered to you is still a migration, and the two paths cost different amounts of engineering. The transition path published for Hathora customers asks you to integrate a server SDK into your game server for lifecycle signalling, ready, allocate and shutdown, and to order its allocation service separately if your backend requests servers on demand, as the CreateRoom API did. Hathora asked for no server SDK in your game server. Neither do we: your container stays as it is, and your backend makes one deploy call. Weigh that alongside published pricing and self-serve access.

My server already runs in a container. What actually changes?

Less than on any other migration we publish, and we would rather say so than invent work. Hathora was container-based, so the artifact you push is the artifact you already build. What changes is the vocabulary and one call: rooms become deployments, processes become deployment status and webhooks, and the CLI is replaced by the Dashboard or the API. Your engine, your netcode and your client connect flow are untouched.

What replaces Hathora Lobbies?

There is no single drop-in, which is the honest answer: Lobbies bundled three things and Edgegap separates them. For DevOps and testing, the Deployment Status API tells you what a deployment is doing. For backend automation, the Deployment Webhook pushes those events to you. For the player-facing part, Server Browser handles search and browse, with Group Up for matchmaking or Reserve Seat to hold a spot. Most teams end up using two of the three.

I was on Elastic Metal. What is the equivalent?

Private Fleets, and they are a closer match than the name suggests: persistent servers on dedicated hardware, with lower egress, and cloud overflow when traffic goes past what the fleet covers. The difference is what you maintain. Scaling is automated rather than a per-region configuration you keep in tune, and you rightsize monthly as your traffic curve moves instead of committing ahead of a season. Worth checking on any option you compare: a buffer of pre-started servers is capacity you run and pay for between sessions. On Edge Cloud there is no buffer to size.

Does my game backend still work?

Yes. Every backend Hathora supported is supported here: Epic Online Services, PlayFab, Unity Gaming Services, Nakama by Heroic Labs, Pragma (see our joint case study), Beamable, and custom backends. Edgegap also integrates with BrainCloud, LootLocker, Invokation Games, XSOLLA and Network Next, among others. If your backend is the part you were most worried about, it is usually the part that moves with the least work.

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