If you're looking for a free leaderboard API for your game, or an open source solution you can self-host, your options are better than they used to be. There are almost too many, in fact, and they're more varied than a simple search might suggest. The tradeoffs between them aren't always obvious.

This guide covers what's actually available, what "free" and "open source" mean in practice for each option, and how to pick the right approach for your situation.

What "free" actually means

"Free" in game backends usually means one of two things: a free tier or trial on a paid service (watch for usage thresholds), or open source self-hosted (no licence fees, but you handle infrastructure). A combination of the two also exists where a managed service makes their code open source and available for self-hosting, giving you flexibility and an exit path. Understanding which flavour you're looking at saves surprises later.

Platform-native leaderboards

It's likely that the store or platform where you plan to release your game - e.g. Steam, Epic, Google Play Games, Apple Game Center, Xbox Live - will provide leaderboard functionality or APIs. Often this comes at no additional cost if you're already shipping on that platform. The main catch is lock-in. Your leaderboards only exist within that platform's ecosystem.

Say you ship on Steam and later want to release on mobile, or you have a successful jam game on itch.io that you want to release on both Steam and Epic stores, or you build a mobile game with Android and iPhone versions; without a dedicated leaderboard tool you would need to maintain a separate leaderboard system per-platform and in doing so segregate your player base. Not only is this an administrative headache, but it becomes architecturally painful in your game's code too.

There's also the question of incentives. When leaderboards are bundled free with platform distribution, they're not the product. You're the product. These platforms have little competitive pressure to innovate on leaderboard features specifically, which is why most platform-native leaderboards remain underwhelming sorted lists with minimal configuration options, limited anti-cheat & moderation tools, and few of the quality-of-life features that dedicated services provide.

For a single-platform release these can be the path of least resistance. For anything else, they can rapidly become more hassle than they are worth.

General-purpose databases

Though frequently suggested as a solution, neither Firebase nor Supabase is a leaderboard service. They're general-purpose backends with real-time databases that people frequently use to build leaderboards.

Firebase's Realtime Database and Firestore are popular choices, and Google's free tier is generous for small projects. The documentation is extensive and there's no shortage of tutorials. The downside is that you're building the leaderboard logic yourself: ranking queries, pagination, anti-cheat, filtering, management tools. Firebase gives you a database, not a leaderboard. There's also the cold start problem: serverless Firebase functions can take several seconds to spin up after periods of inactivity, which means your players might experience noticeable delays when fetching leaderboard data if your game doesn't have constant traffic.

Supabase is the open source alternative to Firebase, built on PostgreSQL. It's a solid choice if you want SQL semantics and the option to self-host. The same caveat applies: you get database primitives, not leaderboard features. Implementing efficient ranking at scale (especially "around me" queries or time-windowed boards) requires real engineering knowledge and effort.

Both are viable if you want full control and don't mind building the leaderboard layer yourself. If you'd prefer to focus on building your game, keep reading.

Full game backends (managed)

PlayFab

Microsoft's PlayFab is an enterprise-grade LiveOps-capable backend and genuinely powerful. It includes leaderboards alongside multiplayer servers, economy systems, content management, real-time analytics, and much, much more. Major studios use it.

PlayFab's pricing is consumption-based rather than a simple per-user model. They offer a "Free to Start" plan for development and up to 100,000 players. There's also a pay-as-you-go tier with no monthly minimum, a $99/month Standard plan, and a $1,999/month Premium tier for larger titles. Working out what your game will actually cost requires understanding their metering system, which tracks API calls, storage, and various service-specific metrics.

For indie developers, the complexity is the real barrier. The learning curve is steep, the documentation assumes familiarity with live-service game architecture, and the pricing model requires a spreadsheet to understand. If you need everything PlayFab offers, it's worth the investment. If you just need leaderboards, it's overkill.

LootLocker

LootLocker positions itself as a more indie-friendly alternative to PlayFab. The pricing is simpler, the onboarding is smoother, and the feature set is more approachable.

The 30-day free trial covers up to 1,000 monthly active users but beyond that pricing is not transparent, and self-hosting is only possible with a (probably enterprise-priced) Enterprise License. We do love that there is a non-commercial licence available for students, game jam entries, and hobby projects though.

LootLocker is a reasonable choice if you've got the budget and need for a managed backend that provides in-game stores, account-linking, game config and cloud save, as well as leaderboards.

Beamable

Beamable is a Backend-as-a-Service focused on LiveOps, multiplayer and web3 integration. It offers leaderboards alongside cloud saves, in-game commerce, social systems, player authentication and more.

The pricing is API-call based, with a free tier of 100,000 API calls for building and testing. Beyond that, costs depend on your usage patterns and the specific plan you're on. Beamable also offers a $2,500 credit programme for studios getting started, which could go quite far.

Like PlayFab and LootLocker, Beamable is a full game backend where leaderboards are one feature among many. If you're building a live-service game with seasonal events, tournaments, and payment systems, it's worth considering. If you just want leaderboards, you're paying for and learning a lot of functionality you won't use.

Open-source game backends

Nakama

Nakama, from Heroic Labs, is a fully open-source game server licensed under the Apache 2.0 licence meaning you can self-host anywhere you like. It has a multiplayer focus and covers authentication, matchmaking, real-time networking, leaderboards, and more.

The codebase is mature and well-documented - with an impressive 12,000+ stars on GitHub. If you have the infrastructure expertise to run it and you need the full feature set, Nakama is a serious option. The managed cloud service (Heroic Cloud) exists if you'd rather not self-host, with pricing starting at $600/month.

The caveat is scope. Nakama is a comprehensive game server, not a focused leaderboard service. If all you need is leaderboards, you're deploying and maintaining a lot of machinery you won't use.

Talo

Talo is another open-source game backend, MIT licensed, with an indie developer focus. It includes leaderboards alongside player management, cloud saves, live config, events & analytics, and multiplayer networking.

We have a lot of respect for what Talo is building. Like LEADR, it's a modern, community-first project that's open source and self-hostable, with a managed cloud option for developers who'd rather not deal with infrastructure. The philosophy of data ownership and transparency aligns closely with our own. Talo offers a free tier including all features for up to 10,000 players, paid plans ($24.99/month, $79.99/month) for higher limits, and SDKs for both Godot and Unity.

The difference is scope. Talo is a general-purpose game backend that includes leaderboards as one of many features. If you need player authentication, cloud saves, events, and leaderboards all in one package, Talo is worth serious consideration. If you specifically want great leaderboards and don't need the rest, you might find a more focused tool fits better.

Leaderboard-specific

LEADR

We're the creators of LEADR, we know leaderboards and we're only a little bit biased. </disclaimer>

LEADR is a specialist in leaderboards. Technically it's a backend, but our ruthless focus compared to other "backends-as-a-service" in the space would more accurately be described as "leaderboards-as-a-service".

The core of LEADR is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence and frequently updated. You can read the code, understand how it works, and self-host it if you want full control. Our leaderboards have built-in anti-cheat prevention, live-updating web pages, replay storage and unbeatable flexibility. LEADR boards support periodic refreshes for seasons or daily challenges (with data archiving), short-lived boards for tournaments and events, counter and ratio boards (e.g. win % or kill-death ratio), invite-only boards for streamers and communities, and much more. Our roadmap goes even further. LEADR SDKs exist for Unity and Godot, with more engines planned, that work whether you're self hosting or using the cloud service.

LEADR's cloud service - which is hosted in the EU and GDPR compliant - offers a free tier for smaller games and handles hosting, scaling, and maintenance so you don't have to. Higher tiers give you production-grade confidence with data retention and backups, syncing with store leaderboards, custom branding, advanced anti-cheat and higher usage limits.

The difference from Nakama and Talo is focus. LEADR does leaderboards and the social features around them. It doesn't try to be your authentication provider, your cloud save system, your economy backend, and your matchmaking service. Our ethos is that doing one thing well is more useful than doing ten things adequately. This leaves you free to pick the best tools for your other needs.

Whether LEADR is the right choice depends on what your game needs. If you want a full game backend, Nakama or Talo might serve you better. If you want great leaderboards with open-source transparency, LEADR is worth evaluating.

SimpleBoards

SimpleBoards is a newer entry focused specifically on leaderboards. As per the name, their selling point is simplicity of integration and they offer a handful of a simple REST APIs with moderate leaderboard features like time-based resets (daily, weekly, seasonal) and score metadata. There's a Godot plugin available, but otherwise a heavy emphasis on the REST API.

The free tier covers one leaderboard and is intended for testing only. To launch your game you're looking at the $8.99/month for a max of 5,000 entries per leaderboard, with more features and higher limits reserved for the $24.99/month plan. The service is built on Azure Functions, which means it shares the cold start characteristic of serverless platforms, and the simple REST API shares some of the security concerns of SilentWolf.

All that said, anyone who does their research will also notice that the project has been listed for sale since Jan 2025, which you should consider when planning to integrate it into your game.

SimpleBoards is worth a cautious look if you want a quick, simple and lightweight leaderboard-specific solution without the overhead of a full backend service.

SilentWolf

SilentWolf was a popular free leaderboard service for Godot developers, but shut down without warning in November 2025, breaking games that depended on it. It still appears in old tutorials and search results, but it's no longer an option.

How to choose

The decision usually comes down to three questions:

How much do you want to build yourself? If you're happy writing leaderboard logic on top of a database, Firebase or Supabase give you the primitives and flexibility, though your time might be better spent self-hosting an existing tool someone else has already built. If you want something that handles ranking, pagination, and anti-cheat out of the box, you need a purpose-built service.

Do you need more than leaderboards? If your game requires authentication, matchmaking, cloud saves, and an economy system, a full backend like PlayFab, LootLocker, Beamable, Nakama, or Talo makes sense. If you just need leaderboards, a focused service avoids paying for (and learning) features you won't use.

How important is the exit path? Closed services can shut down, change pricing, or get acquired. Open source gives you the code regardless of what happens to the company behind it. If long-term control matters, weight your options accordingly.

There's no universally correct answer. A game jam prototype has different needs than a commercial release with long-term support plans. The goal is making an informed choice rather than discovering the tradeoffs after you've already integrated.

Getting started

If you want to try LEADR, the quickest path is the LEADR cloud service. Create an account with the app, set up a game and a board, and you can submit your first score in a few minutes. The free tier covers most indie games comfortably.

If you'd rather self-host, the open source repository is at github.com/LEADR-official/leadr-oss. The self-hosting docs can help you with deployment, and the licence means you can run it however you like.

Either way, you're not locked in. The code is yours to inspect, and the data is yours to export.