Shadow PCvs
Xbox Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass: If you mainly want games to play rather than a machine to manage, the catalogue is included and there is nothing to maintain
Shadow PC
A full Windows machine in a datacentre, rented by the month
As of 30 August 2026, Shadow PC starts at $29.99/month. Shadow rents a complete Windows PC with administrator access rather than a curated game catalogue, so you install Steam, mods, modding tools or Blender on it exactly as you would locally. Softwr lists it under Gaming. Shadow PC is made by Shadow (OVH founder ownership), available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android.
Overview
What Shadow PC does
Shadow PC gives each subscriber a dedicated Windows instance in a datacentre with full administrator rights, reached through client applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and some TV devices. Because it is a real machine rather than a streaming catalogue, anything that runs on Windows runs on it: Steam, Epic, emulators, modded game installs, Adobe applications, Blender, development toolchains. Peripherals pass through, and file storage lives on the instance with a paid option to add more. What separates it from GeForce Now or Luna is that no publisher can veto what you install, because Shadow is not brokering game licences. The corresponding warning is financial rather than technical. Blade, the French company that built Shadow, entered receivership in 2021 and was bought by an outside investor. Prices were then raised substantially and the cheap grandfathered plans that early subscribers relied on came to an end. Anyone signing up should treat the current monthly rate as the current rate rather than a commitment. Buyers are people who want a Windows machine and cannot justify buying one: Linux and Mac households, students, users of one Windows-only professional application, and gamers who want mod support that catalogue services do not allow. The trade-off is that a rented PC is still a PC. You patch it, you fill its disk, you buy your own games, and the base storage allocation runs out after a handful of modern installs.
What people use it for
- Running Windows-only games or applications from a Mac, a Linux desktop or a Chromebook
- Playing heavily modded games that catalogue streaming services do not permit
- A student or contractor who needs a capable Windows workstation for a few months rather than a purchase
- Households that want gaming performance without buying and housing a desktop tower
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Shadow PC.
- You rent hardware, not a catalogue, so the subscription buys you nothing to play; every game is purchased separately and the real monthly cost is Shadow plus whatever you spend on games.
- Included storage is a few hundred gigabytes while modern titles run to a hundred gigabytes each, so extra storage is effectively compulsory and the advertised price understates what most subscribers pay.
- The company went through receivership in 2021 and changed hands, after which prices rose sharply and grandfathered plans ended, so there is a documented precedent for the terms shifting under existing subscribers.
- Capacity is regional and has been sold out before, with waiting lists for new subscribers, and anyone far from a datacentre gets latency that undermines the whole point.
- It is a real Windows machine, which means you own its problems: updates, driver issues, malware exposure and a disk that fills up, all of which a catalogue service handles for you.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Shadow PC
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Shadow PCvsSteam
Steam: Buying local hardware once removes the monthly fee, the latency and any dependence on the vendor staying solvent
- Shadow PCvsPlayStation Plus
PlayStation Plus: A console plus a subscription is cheaper over three years than a rented PC and needs no administration
Pricing
What Shadow PC costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Shadow PC
$29.99 /mo
- Dedicated Windows instance with administrator rights
- GPU allocated to your machine
- Base storage allocation of a few hundred gigabytes
- Streaming up to 1080p at high frame rate
- Longer commitments reduce the monthly rate
Shadow PC Power
On request
- Higher GPU class than the base plan
- Sold as a monthly upgrade on top of the standard subscription
- Aimed at high refresh rate and heavier creative workloads
Storage upgrade
On request
- Additional disk beyond the included allocation
- Billed monthly per block of storage
- Required in practice once you install several large games
Capabilities
Features
Full Windows instance
Administrator access to a Windows machine, not a restricted game launcher
Install anything
Any store, launcher, emulator, mod manager or professional application that runs on Windows
Dedicated GPU tier
A GPU assigned to your instance, with a higher performance plan available at extra cost
Broad client support
Applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and some TV boxes
Peripheral passthrough
Controllers, wheels, webcams and USB devices are forwarded to the instance
Storage add-ons
Base storage is capped and additional space is sold separately
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does the subscription include games?
No. Shadow is a rented Windows PC. You install Steam or any other launcher and buy games yourself, which is why it costs more than services that include a catalogue.
Can I use it for work as well as gaming?
Yes. It is a full Windows instance with administrator rights, so Adobe applications, CAD, development tools and Blender all run on it, subject to your own software licences.
How much storage do I get?
A few hundred gigabytes on the base plan, which covers roughly two to four current large games. More is available as a paid monthly add-on.
Keep looking
Where to go from Shadow PC
- Shadow PC alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Shadow PC pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Shadow PC badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Gaming softwareThe full category
- Best Gaming softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Compare Shadow PC with
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- PlayStation Plus
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Shadow PC, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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