What is the Free Version of Unity Called?

The free version of Unity is called Unity Personal, which is designed for individuals and small organizations with less than $100K of revenue and funds raised in the last 12 months. This free license allows users to create and publish their games and applications without incurring any costs, making it an ideal choice for indie developers, students, and hobbyists.

Frequently Asked Questions

General Information

1. Does Unity have a free version? Yes, Unity has free and paid licensing options, with the free license being for personal use or smaller companies generating less than $100,000 annually, later raised to $200,000.
2. Is Unity going to be free? Unity has unveiled its plans to implement a pay-per-download pricing structure starting January 1, 2024, under which developers using Unity software will incur a flat fee each time a game utilizing Unity technology is installed.
3. Is Unity free for students? The Unity Student plan is free and allows individual students to learn and create with Unity at home or school on their personal devices.

Licensing and Revenue

4. Why is Unity not free? Unity has free and paid licensing options, with the free license being for personal use or smaller companies generating less than $100,000 annually, later raised to $200,000, and the subscriptions are based on revenues generated by the games using Unity.
5. Is Unity free? (and will you ever need Unity Pro?) Unity has free and paid licensing options, with the free license being suitable for most small-scale projects, but Unity Pro may be required for larger and more complex projects.
6. Why is Unity not free anymore? Essentially, Unity intends to charge developers 20 cents per install of a game past certain thresholds, and payout the full fee monthly, once 200,000-lifetime installs of the game are made, and $200,000 in revenue in a year is surpassed.

Comparison with Other Game Engines

7. Is Unreal better than Unity? C# (Unity) is more suitable for mobile and web applications, as well as not very heavy desktop products, while C++ (Unreal) is great for heavy-weight large-scale projects that require high performance from the hardware.
8. Is Godot better than Unity? For indie developers or those focusing on less demanding 3D projects, Godot can provide a solid foundation, however, if you require advanced 3D features or high-end graphics, Unity’s more mature and feature-rich 3D engine might be a better fit.

Game Development and Publishing

9. Can I publish my game with Unity free? Yes, it’s perfectly fine to release a game that has been made with Unity (free), and it is completely legal to give away or even sell games made with the free version of Unity.
10. Can you sell a Unity game with free assets? Assets for commercial use can be purchased or downloaded from the Asset Store, and once you have purchased/downloaded an asset, it becomes yours to do with as you like within your games and apps, including using free assets in your game for commercial use.

Learning and Career Development

11. Is Unity free for beginners? Yes, Unity offers a free version that is suitable for beginners, and you can start learning Unity for free today and begin your Unity journey or build on your existing skills.
12. Should I learn Unity or Unreal 2023? The choice between Unity and Unreal depends on your programming language of choice, with C# being used in Unity and C++ being used in Unreal.

Technical and Business Aspects

13. Which Unity version is best? Unity 2021.3 LTS (Recommended) is the recommended version, and it is suggested to use the latest patch version of 2021.3 LTS and their recommended version of Unity plugins.
14. Why is Unity charging a fee? Unity chose the pay-per-download pricing structure because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed, and they believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement.
15. What happens if I make more than $100 K with the free Unity license? If you earn more than $100K, you are not allowed to use a personal license, and you won’t be able to create any updates or bugfixes for your game since you don’t have a valid license.