# Relay vs Lobby

> Understand the differences between Relay and Lobby services and when to use each.

> **Important:**
>
> While using sessions Lobby and Relay work together without additional work. The following information is only relevant for projects that aren't using multiplayer sessions and are exclusively using the underlying Relay and Lobby APIs.

Relay and Lobby are two distinct Unity services that you can use together to create a peer-hosted game with an embedded Lobby. However, due to some functionality overlap between the services, it’s important to note the distinctions.

Lobby is a grouping solution to facilitate assembling players and configuration settings before they enter a session. Relay is a messaging solution, meant to facilitate a multiplayer session without a dedicated game server or the complications of direct peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. The game host allocates a Relay server as an intermediary through which it routs all traffic in a P2P way, without exposing the clients' actual IP addresses.

Use Lobby and Relay together to create a game with a lobby that facilitates multiplayer sessions without dedicated game servers.

| Relay                                                                                                                                  | Lobby                                                                                                                                                          |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Relay is a networking solution that connects players in a peer-to-peer fashion using a server-client environment.                      | Lobby facilitates grouping players and configuration settings before sessions.                                                                                 |
| Relay facilitates a multiplayer session without a dedicated game server (DGS) or the complications of direct peer-to-peer connections. | Lobby isn’t limited to peer-to-peer sessions or use with Relay. You can also use Lobby with a traditional multiplayer game with a dedicated game server (DGS). |

## Additional resources

* [Relay servers](../networking/relay-servers)