Apps for Windows games on a Mac, compared

Updated 29 September 2026 · facts about other projects taken from their public pages on that day

We make Uncork and have a stake in this comparison, so we start with where others are stronger than us. Facts about other projects come from their public pages on 29 September 2026; we did not run their apps. What a project says about itself is marked “as described”: we could not check it ourselves. If something is out of date or wrong, write to hello@uncork.win and we will fix it.

Where others are stronger than Uncork

Price. Highball, the Whisky fork, Sikarugir, Porting Kit and Heroic are free. Uncork costs 5 € a month or 50 € a year.
Open source. Highball (GPL-3.0), the Whisky fork (GPL-3.0) and Heroic (GPL-3.0) are open; only part of Sikarugir is (Configure.app, LGPL-2.1), Creator and Launcher are not under that licence. Uncork's code is closed.
Notarization. Highball, the Whisky fork, Bourbon 26 and Pixel Port are, as described, signed and notarized by Apple and open with a double click, without manual confirmation. Uncork is not notarized: the first launch has to be confirmed by hand.
A public database of tested games. Highball has an open database: on 29 September it holds 293 curated games (data under CC0), 19 of them verified by hand on hardware, plus 12,491 ProtonDB-derived predictions under ODbL. Porting Kit has about 1,500 entries according to the site's own list. We have tested five games.
Engine freshness. Highball has a second, newer engine, and Sikarugir's engine list includes a build 11.0. Uncork still ships version 10.0.
A Steam library in one click. GameHub for Mac connects a Steam account with library and cloud-save sync.
Other stores and platforms. Heroic works with Epic, GOG and Amazon, and on Intel Macs; Porting Kit works with GOG, Ubisoft Connect, EA and Battle.net.

The table

All facts come from the projects' public pages on 29 September 2026. “As described” marks a claim by the project that we did not verify.

App	Price and code	Stores	Notarization	What is verified
Uncork	5 € a month or 50 € a year, three days free; closed source	Steam and Epic tested, five more stores are in the list marked “not tested”	no: signed with an Apple Development certificate (not Developer ID), first launch confirmed by hand	five games, three with measurements on one Mac
Highball	free, GPL-3.0; beta	Steam and Epic; per the README also Rockstar and the EA app (with the second engine); sign-in windows for Ubisoft Connect and Battle.net appear, but no game has been played through them yet	yes, as described by the site	19 of 293 games in the database verified by hand on hardware
Whisky fork (frankea)	free, GPL-3.0; macOS 15 and later	per the README Steam, Epic, EA App, Rockstar, Battle.net	yes, as described by the README	a built-in database of 83 per-game configs (README says 80+), most marked unverified
Sikarugir	free (has a donation button), part of it under LGPL-2.1; macOS 14.6 and later	a wrapper builder for individual games, not a store library	the project does not say	no official compatibility database found
Porting Kit	free, pay what you want; not stated to be open source	GOG, Steam, Ubisoft Connect, EA/Origin, Battle.net; no Epic	the project does not say	a database of about 1,500 entries per the site's list
GameHub for Mac	price not stated on the page; the client's source is not published (the GitHub repository is only an issue tracker); public beta	Steam on the official page; Epic per press reports	the project does not say	per a video by Russ Crandall (Retro Game Corps), relayed by MacStories in April 2026, about 60% of 20 games not available on the Mac were playable, some after tweaking
Heroic	free, GPL-3.0; macOS 14 and later, Apple Silicon and Intel	Epic, GOG, Amazon; no Steam	the project does not say	no official compatibility database found
Bourbon 26	$29.99 or more, once, for three Macs; the app is closed, the recipes and compatibility data are open (Bourbon-OSS, MIT)	as described: Steam; Epic, GOG and Amazon through Heroic; Battle.net, EA and Ubisoft launchers	yes, as described	as described: a verified profile per game; open data in Bourbon-OSS (size not counted)
Pixel Port	free beta, macOS 14 and later	Steam only (per the site)	yes, as described (release notes 0.4.9)	the site claims 71 of 11,046 entries are verified

“The project does not say” means one thing only: the pages we read have nothing on it, not that it is not notarized.

How Uncork differs

By default Uncork and Highball stand on engine builds from one project, Sikarugir, though Highball also has its own newer engine; the main difference is what is built on top. For Uncork that is input and what surrounds it:

What	Uncork	Other projects, per the pages we read
The mouse is read from the device itself, at up to 1000 Hz	yes, measurements on the mouse page	not mentioned
Logitech wheel force feedback	G923 tested in Assetto Corsa, G29 supported in code	not claimed as a feature; third-party utilities such as Torqer also provide it on the Mac
Frame evening for single-player games	yes, measured in CS2: 87% even intervals against 18%	not mentioned
macOS Game Mode for Windows games	yes	not mentioned
Gamepad	a mode that moves the pointer on the Mac while no game is running	Highball has a controller section in its docs, the Whisky fork has a controller compatibility mode, Porting Kit has joystick mapping, GameHub has a “gamepad bridge” (per its tracker), and in Heroic a gamepad can drive the launcher itself; we found no mode for driving the Mac with no game running

“Not mentioned” covers only the pages we read: READMEs, sites, docs and articles, not the code. Also, similar changes for the mouse have already been proposed in shared Mac code, so the picture may change in time.

How to choose

You need free and open source — Highball or the Whisky fork. Highball has an open database with verdicts, and the Whisky fork is closer to the familiar look of Whisky.
You need a builder for a separate app per game — Sikarugir.
Games not from Steam: GOG — Heroic or Porting Kit; Amazon — Heroic.
You want a Steam library in one click and can live with a beta of a closed-source app — GameHub for Mac.
You play single-player games and racing games, care about the mouse from the device, even frames and G923 force feedback, and are ready to pay — Uncork.
You play competitive shooters with kernel-level anti-cheat — none of these apps will run such games on the Mac itself, what to do.

Limits of this comparison

We did not run other people's apps and did not compare speed: our frame-rate measurements are from one Mac and only in Uncork. Prices and versions change, so every row of the table has one date of checking, 29 September 2026. Projects' claims about notarization, the number of verified games and stores are given as claims. If you know better, write to us.