Dish: the free Steam Controller replacement we've been waiting for

The Steam Controller has a cult following, and not by accident. When Valve launched it in 2015 it was the only PC gamepad that took remote PC gaming seriously: dual trackpads instead of a right stick, deep per-game customization, gyro aim, full keyboard-and-mouse mapping. For a generation of PC gamers, it was the controller you used for the games other controllers couldn’t handle.

Then Valve discontinued it in November 2019. Six years later, the second-hand market is brutal. Refurbished units routinely sell for $150 to $250, more than they cost new, and there’s no first-party replacement. The Steam Deck inherited the trackpad DNA, but you can’t pop the Deck’s trackpad off and use it as a standalone wireless controller.

This is the gap Dish was built into. If what you loved about the Steam Controller was the way it let your PC games come to wherever you were sitting, Dish does the same job. Better in some ways, worse in others, and free.

This article is an honest comparison.

The headline differences

The lag comparison genuinely surprises people. The Steam Controller’s wireless mode is good, but Dish over modern Wi-Fi is so quick it usually matches the Steam Controller’s wired mode end to end.

Where Dish straight-up wins

1. It exists

This is the unsexy advantage. The Steam Controller has been out of production for over six years. You can’t buy one without paying scalper prices and accepting no warranty, no spare parts, no fixes. Dish is software. Install it on your phone and your gaming PC and you have a full controller in five minutes.

2. Responsiveness, in practice

Over modern Wi-Fi, Dish feels about as fast as a controller plugged in with a cable. The Steam Controller’s wireless mode sits a little behind that. In a fast game, that gap is the difference between landing a move and missing it.

3. Privacy

The Steam Controller logs how long you use it and which games you play with it. Dish logs nothing: no account, no cloud, nothing on a server. And on a shared Wi-Fi (a coffee shop, a dorm, a friend’s house), your inputs stay private to your devices. See the security page if you want the details.

4. Range

A Steam Controller reaches about one room before reception wobbles. With Dish, your range is your Wi-Fi’s range, and a modern mesh network covers a whole house. We’ve gotten Dish to work cleanly in a friend’s two-story home with the gaming PC upstairs and the player in a basement room.

5. It’s free

Dish is free now and free forever. If it makes your setup better, tips keep the lights on, but there’s no required spend.

Where the Steam Controller is still better

I’ll be honest, because comparison articles that pretend their product wins on every axis are exhausting:

1. Trackpads are unique

The Steam Controller’s two trackpads were genuinely revolutionary. They let you play mouse-driven games (RTS, MMOs, point-and-click adventures) on a controller in a way no thumbstick ever has. Dish ships a configurable touch overlay, but a flat phone screen isn’t the same feel as a textured, concave trackpad. If you specifically need trackpad input for an RTS, the Steam Controller still wins.

(Counterpoint: most people using Dish are playing stick-driven games where a touch overlay is fine, or they’re using Dish with a real gamepad already paired to their phone.)

2. Haptics

Valve’s haptics in the Steam Controller are best-in-class. Phone vibration is coarser. If precise haptic feedback matters to you, that’s a real Steam Controller advantage.

3. Steam Input depth

Steam Input has a deep customization system: chord bindings, action sets, per-game profiles, community-shared configs for almost every game. Dish has per-app layouts but doesn’t reach that depth.

4. Battery as a controller, not a phone

A Steam Controller runs on two AAs and lasts ages. Your phone, used as a Dish controller, runs its screen the whole time. For a long session, you’ll plug in. Realistically your phone outlasts a typical gaming evening, but not a road trip.

Who should switch

Consider Dish as your Steam Controller replacement if:

• You’re tired of paying scalper prices.
• Your Steam Controller is wearing out (sticky trackpad, drifting stick, dying batteries) and you need something soon.
• You play across the house, not at a desk.
• You want couch co-op without buying three more controllers.
• You care about privacy and don’t want anything tracking you.

Keep your Steam Controller if:

• You play a lot of trackpad-heavy games and have the muscle memory for them.
• You’re deep into Steam Input with heavily customized configs you don’t want to rebuild.
• You game alone at a desk and don’t need the across-the-house range.

How to switch (the 5-minute version)

1. Install Dish for Android on the phone or tablet you want to use as the controller. (downloads) (Dish for Windows, macOS, and Linux are in development for a later release.)
2. Install Satellite for Windows on your gaming PC. (releases)
3. Open Dish; it finds your gaming PC on its own. Tap it, type the 4-digit code. Done.
4. Press a button. Your game responds.

That’s the whole process. Same Wi-Fi, no router config, no Steam account.

What to read next

• The full how-it-works walkthrough
• Why Wi-Fi beats Bluetooth for gamepad streaming
• PC gamepads compared: 15 wireless controllers and phone-as-controller apps, ranked by latency

If Dish made your “what do I do now that the Steam Controller is dead?” problem actually solvable, tips keep the project going. We don’t make money from this. We just want it to keep existing.