You want to see the game on the living-room television

ChimpDeck carries no picture. You need streaming: Steam Link, Moonlight with Sunshine, or Parsec. Integrating Moonlight and Sunshine is on the list of what is coming, but it is not here today.

What you want to share over the network is not a gamepad

For a printer, a licence dongle, a MIDI instrument or any other USB device, the tool is a general-purpose USB-over-IP: VirtualHere, or the native USB/IP in Linux.

Your Android device has no USB OTG

Without USB host there is no way for the pad to get into the Android device, and no setting fixes it. It is the one requirement there is no way around.

Comparison

ChimpDeck versus the alternatives

What each tool actually solves, with no hand-waving. Including the situations where the right answer is not ChimpDeck.

This comparison was last reviewed on 9 September 2026

Almost every tool on this page gets mistaken for the others, because they all sound alike: “remote play”, “gamepad over the network”, “the PC in the living room”. They solve two very different problems, and half the disappointment comes from picking the one from the wrong family.

The first family moves the PICTURE: the game runs on the PC and what crosses the network is compressed video, heading for the screen you are sitting in front of. That is Steam Link, Moonlight with Sunshine, and Parsec.

The second family moves the DEVICE: the game runs on the PC, the picture stays on the PC monitor, and what crosses the network is the gamepad itself. That is USB/IP, VirtualHere, and ChimpDeck.

If your problem is “I want to see the game on the living-room television”, you need the first family. If your problem is “the PC is already where it should be, but the pad is ten metres away”, you need the second. ChimpDeck is in the second.

At a glance

ChimpDeck compared with VirtualHere, native USB/IP, Steam Link, Moonlight, Parsec and DS4Windows
	ChimpDeck	VirtualHere	Native USB/IP	Steam Link	Moonlight (with Sunshine)	Parsec	DS4Windows and similar
What crosses the network	The gamepad’s USB traffic, encrypted end to end	The USB traffic of almost any device	The USB traffic of almost any device	Video and audio from the PC to the device; input on the way back	Video and audio from the PC to the device; input on the way back	Video and audio from the PC to the device; input on the way back	Nothing: there is no network
Where the picture is	On the PC monitor, where it already was	On the PC monitor	On the PC monitor	On the screen of the device you are sitting at	On the screen of the device you are sitting at	On the screen of the device you are sitting at	On the PC monitor
How the pad reaches the game	Windows sees a USB device and loads its official driver	The system loads the shared device’s driver	The system loads the shared device’s driver	The pad plugs into the device and Steam presents it to the game	The pad plugs into the device and the client presents it to the game	The client hands the input to the remote PC	They create a virtual pad inside the PC itself
Server	Android 8.0 or later with USB OTG, no root	Several systems, Android among them	Linux	The PC running Steam	The PC, usually running Sunshine	The remote PC	—
Client	Windows	Several systems	Linux; on Windows, through third-party projects	Several systems, Android TV included	Many systems	Several systems	Windows

Tool by tool

ChimpDeck

USB-over-IP specialised in gamepads

What it is

An Android app that turns a phone, tablet or television box into a USB gamepad server, plus a Windows client. The pad plugs into the Android device and shows up on the PC as if it were plugged in there.

What ChimpDeck does differently

The link is encrypted end to end with the Noise protocol, on by default and with nothing to configure. On top of that the app carries gamepad tools of its own — buttons, drift and dead zone, trigger curve, four-motor rumble and a reaction test — and the whole interface is driven with the D-pad, so it works on a television with no touchscreen.

VirtualHere

Commercial, general-purpose USB-over-IP

What it is

A commercial general-purpose USB-over-IP product: it shares almost any USB device across the network, not only gamepads. It has servers for several platforms — Android included — and clients for several desktop systems.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When the thing you want to share is not a gamepad. A printer, a licence dongle, a wheel with pedals, a MIDI instrument, a card reader: that is what VirtualHere is for, and ChimpDeck does not attempt it. Also when your PC is not Windows, because ChimpDeck has no other client today.

What ChimpDeck does differently

ChimpDeck only does gamepads, which is exactly why it can do things a general tool does not: pad diagnostics inside the app itself, control of all four rumble motors from the Android device, latency measured with a synchronised clock and a margin of error, and a living-room interface you can drive with the D-pad.

Native USB/IP

Free software, in the Linux kernel

What it is

The USB-over-IP that ships with the Linux kernel, with its command-line tools. It is free software, and it is the reference for the protocol ChimpDeck implements compatibly on its own.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When both ends are Linux and the command line does not bother you: it is already installed, there is nothing to buy, and it depends on no vendor.

What ChimpDeck does differently

ChimpDeck is a phone app. No root, no console, no kernel modules to load, and no PC needed to prepare the Android device. And the Windows client is a window with a console, not a command-line executable.

Steam Link

Game streaming

What it is

Valve’s streaming solution: the game runs on the PC and its picture is compressed and sent to the device in front of you, which sends back what you do with the pad.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When what you want is to SEE the game on the living-room television. ChimpDeck carries no picture anywhere: if the PC monitor is in another room, with ChimpDeck you will still see nothing.

What ChimpDeck does differently

ChimpDeck neither compresses nor transports video, so there is no picture to degrade and no codec to tune. It is for the opposite case: the screen is already where it should be — the PC monitor, or a PC already wired to the television — and the only thing missing is the pad.

Moonlight (with Sunshine)

Game streaming, open source

What it is

An open-source streaming client that connects to a server on the PC, these days usually Sunshine. Same ground as Steam Link, with more clients and more knobs.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When you want open, configurable streaming, or when your living-room device has no Steam Link client. Same as before: if the problem is seeing the picture, ChimpDeck does not solve it.

What ChimpDeck does differently

It solves the other half of the problem. In fact, integrating Moonlight and Sunshine to bring the picture across too is on the list of what is coming: they are not rivals, they are complementary pieces.

Parsec

Remote desktop and game streaming

What it is

Desktop and game streaming, aimed also at playing with other people at a distance and at working against a computer that is not in front of you.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When on top of playing you want to use the PC desktop remotely, or when the other person is not in your house. ChimpDeck deliberately stays off the internet.

What ChimpDeck does differently

ChimpDeck stays inside your network: there is no server in the middle and gamepad traffic never crosses the internet. That is a deliberate limit, not a gap.

DS4Windows and similar

Local gamepad translation and remapping

What it is

Programs that run on the PC and translate or remap a pad that is ALREADY plugged into the PC: presenting a PlayStation pad as an Xbox one, for instance, so a game recognises it.

When it beats ChimpDeck

When the pad already reaches the PC and the problem is that one particular game does not understand it. ChimpDeck does not fix that.

What ChimpDeck does differently

ChimpDeck solves an earlier problem: the pad is not plugged into the PC at all. The two can live together, because to Windows a pad arriving through ChimpDeck is just another USB pad.

When you should NOT use ChimpDeck

Four real cases where the right answer is a different tool. We would rather say it here than read it in a one-star review.

You want to see the game on the living-room television: ChimpDeck carries no picture. You need streaming: Steam Link, Moonlight with Sunshine, or Parsec. Integrating Moonlight and Sunshine is on the list of what is coming, but it is not here today.
What you want to share over the network is not a gamepad: For a printer, a licence dongle, a MIDI instrument or any other USB device, the tool is a general-purpose USB-over-IP: VirtualHere, or the native USB/IP in Linux.
Your PC is not Windows: Only a Windows client exists today, and none is planned for Linux or macOS. If the target computer is anything else, ChimpDeck is not for you.
Your Android device has no USB OTG: Without USB host there is no way for the pad to get into the Android device, and no setting fixes it. It is the one requirement there is no way around.

The honest summary

ChimpDeck is not “VirtualHere but better”, nor “Steam Link without the video”. It is a narrow tool: it carries a USB gamepad from an Android device to a Windows PC across the local network, with the link encrypted out of the box, and it brings along the pad diagnostics that general tools do not have because that is not their job. If that is your exact problem, it fits. If it is not, the alternatives and which one to pick are above.