GGPoker vs PokerStars: which poker site is better for you?

GGPoker or PokerStars? GGPoker has about four times the cash game traffic and returns more rake to high-volume players, but it charges higher rake caps from NL50 up and bans every third-party tracker. PokerStars is cheaper per pot at mid stakes, still allows approved HUDs, spreads more game types and holds the stricter licence, and it’s the one of the two you can play in parts of the US and through Betfair in the UK.

Most comparisons of these two stop at “GG is bigger, Stars is older”. The real differences are in money: what each site takes from a pot at your stake, what it gives back at your volume, and what’s left after both. We worked those out from each site’s published rake tables and rewards terms, and checked the rest against our full GGPoker review and PokerStars review.

GGPoker vs PokerStars at a glance

Here are the two sites side by side on the points that decide most players’ choice. Each row is explained in its own section below.

Traffic and game selection

GGPoker is the biggest poker site in the world by a wide margin. By SharkScope’s cash game index for September 2026, GG stood at 9,359 against 2,268 for PokerStars, about four times the activity. Tournament entries showed a similar gap: about 665,000 on GG against 179,000 on PokerStars. PokerStars is still the second-largest network, just a long way behind.

What this means at the table depends on your stake. From NL2 to NL25 both sites have games at any hour. Above NL200, PokerStars tables can be thin outside European evenings, while GG runs high-stakes games every evening.

Game variety runs the other way. PokerStars still spreads Stud, Draw, Omaha Hi-Lo and mixed games that are hard to find anywhere else. GG focuses on Hold’em and Omaha, with PLO5, PLO6, Short Deck and quick formats such as All-in or Fold, Flip & Go and Mystery Battle Royale. If you play anything other than Hold’em and Omaha, PokerStars is the only choice of the two.

Who you’ll play against

The software rules shape the player pool. On GG nobody can buy a database of opponents or run a third-party HUD, so every unknown player really is unknown, and the site markets heavily to recreational players through streamers, Asian markets and WSOP branding. That doesn’t make GG soft at every level: mid and high-stakes Hold’em and the busier Rush & Cash pools have plenty of strong regulars.

On PokerStars, regulars with approved trackers build reads on you over thousands of hands. The pool is smaller and has a long history of professional grinders, especially at mid stakes in European hours. Either way, table selection and your own notes matter more than the logo; our guide to reading opponents covers how to build reads without a HUD.

Rake: who charges less

Both sites take 5% of a cash game pot up to a cap (PokerStars takes 4.5% at $0.10/$0.25). The caps are where they split. Here are the caps for No-Limit Hold’em with five or more players in the hand:

Caps only bite on big pots, so a fairer test is one typical pot. To compare like with like, take a pot of 100 big blinds at each stake and rake it at both sites.

At NL10 the two are identical: 5 big blinds. At NL25 PokerStars is a shade cheaper because of its 4.5% rate. From NL50 the gap opens: $2.50 at GG against $2 at PokerStars, then $5 against $2.50 at NL100 and $6 against $2.75 at NL200. A 100 big blind pot at NL200 costs more than twice as much on GG.

Three smaller rules move the numbers further:

• Preflop: GG rakes pots that reach a 3-bet even if they end before the flop. A 3-bet that wins at NL50 costs about $0.16. PokerStars never rakes a hand that ends preflop.
• Fewer players: both sites lower the cap in short-handed pots. In a heads-up pot at NL50, GG’s cap is $1 and PokerStars’ $0.75.
• Fast-fold: GG’s Rush & Cash caps rake at 3 big blinds at every stake, so $1.50 at NL50. Zoom on PokerStars uses the normal table, with lower caps at the three lowest stakes.

The stake-by-stake detail is in our guides to GGPoker rake and rake in poker.

Rewards: Ocean Rewards vs Stars Rewards chests

Both sites give 100 points for every $1 of rake or tournament fees. What the points buy is different.

GGPoker’s Ocean Rewards has eight tiers, from Fish (about 16%) to Shark (about 80%), set by the points you earn in a calendar year. The tier you reach is kept through the following year. Rewards come as GEMs, spent mostly on cash in the GEM Store. GG calls the percentages approximate, and a hidden Player Value Index (PVI) can scale your points down. Details in our GGPoker rakeback guide.

PokerStars Rewards pays chests with fixed cash values. Six levels return 15% to 40%; you move up by earning five chests within 28 days and drop a level after 28 days without one. Above that, Select pays 50% from $50,000 of rake in 12 months. There’s no hidden score: the same rake always buys the same chest.

To compare them in money, take three players who each pay the same rake every month. For GG we used the second year, when last year’s tier applies from January, and a PVI of 1.

GG pays roughly double at every volume, as long as two conditions hold. In the first year GG returns less, about 27%, 36% and 48% at these three levels, because everyone starts at the bottom. And a PVI below 1 lowers GG’s figures in proportion, which matters most to winning regulars. PokerStars’ figures don’t change with either.

Promotions sit on top of both programmes. GG runs daily leaderboards for each format, NLH, PLO, Rush & Cash, Spin & Gold and others, and the largest pay $50,000 a day each; how they’re scored is in our GGPoker leaderboards guide. PokerStars ties most of its promotions to the chest levels, and players who reach Select leave the chest system and its promotions for a flat daily cash payment.

What you really pay after rewards

Higher rakeback on higher rake can still cost more. The fair comparison is rake minus rewards on the same pot. Take the 100 big blind pot from the rake section and apply each player’s return rate:

Read the table by stake. At NL50, GG is as cheap as PokerStars for a $500-a-month player and clearly cheaper for a $2,000-a-month grinder in their second year. At NL200, PokerStars is cheaper for both, and much cheaper for the player who doesn’t reach GG’s higher tiers. Below NL50 the rake is the same at both sites, so GG’s bigger rewards make it the cheaper site.

These figures assume a PVI of 1 on GG and a full second year at a steady volume. A new GG player, or one with a low PVI, gets less back and pays more net rake than the table shows. On PokerStars, what you see is what you get.

Our poker rakeback guide runs the same sums for ACR, CoinPoker and WPT Global.

Welcome bonus

The two welcome offers look identical, 100% up to $600, but they release at different speeds. To see how much faster, convert each into the rake needed for $100 of bonus:

• GGPoker: $1 released for every $5 of rake, within 90 days. $100 of bonus needs $500 of rake.
• PokerStars (code STARS600): $5 for every $15 of rake, within four months. $100 needs $300 of rake.

So PokerStars’ bonus is worth 33% on top of your rake while it lasts, against 20% on GG, and you get a month longer to clear it. GG adds smaller extras on top: the Honeymoon promotion of up to $400 for new players and a Daily Freebie of small Spin & Gold and Mystery Battle Royale tickets. Full terms are in our GGPoker bonus and PokerStars bonus guides.

Your first month on each site

Bonus and rewards run on the same rake, so a new player collects both. To see how they add up, take a new player at $0.25/$0.50 who deposits $600 with each welcome offer and pays $300 in rake in the first month.

• GGPoker: the bonus releases $60 ($1 per $5). Ocean Rewards pays about 16% on the first $100 at Fish and about 25% on the next $200 at Shrimp, roughly $66. Total about $126, or 42% of the rake.
• PokerStars: the bonus releases $100 ($5 per $15). The first $100 of rake brings five Blue chests worth $3 each and moves the player to Bronze; the next $200 brings three Bronze chests at $10.50. That’s $46.50 in chests and about $146 in total, or 49%.

So in the first months PokerStars is the better deal for this player, thanks to the faster bonus. Once the bonus is cleared and GG’s tier carries into a new year, the order flips, as the rewards table above shows.

Tournaments

Both sites run strong tournament schedules, built around different flagships.

GGPoker hosts WSOP Online, the official online bracelet series, every late summer. In 2026 it had 33 bracelet events, and the $5,000 Main Event drew 6,008 entries for a $28.5 million prize pool. Around it run the WSOP Super Circuit Online in spring and themed series such as Bounty Hunters, which guaranteed $100 million in October 2026. Day to day, GG’s guarantees are the biggest online. Our GGPoker tournaments guide covers the schedule.

PokerStars has run the Sunday Million since 2006 and hosts the two best-known online series, SCOOP in spring and WCOOP in autumn. During our check in November 2026, its Power Path satellites to live PokerStars events sold passes at $109, $530, $2,500 and $10,300. Fields are smaller than on GG, which also means fewer players to get through.

If you play mostly big-field tournaments, GG has more of them at every buy-in. If you want the classic series titles and mixed-game events, PokerStars still owns them. More on formats in our guide to multi-table tournaments.

Software, tools and HUD rules

This is where the two sites differ most in philosophy. GG builds its own tools and bans everyone else’s; PokerStars allows approved third-party software within strict rules.

GGPoker: PokerCraft, Smart HUD and EV Cashout

GG’s client comes with PokerCraft, a built-in tracker with a results graph, an all-in EV line and hand replays, and Smart HUD, which shows basic stats on opponents built only from hands you saw yourself. EV Cashout lets you take your equity in an all-in with at least 60% for a fee of about 1%. Our PokerCraft guide explains both tools.

On 15 October 2026 GG banned all third-party poker software, trackers included, after remote-access malware hidden in outside tools exposed high-stakes players’ screens. PokerTracker 4, Holdem Manager 3, Hand2Note and Equilab are on the named list, and the client won’t let you play for money while a banned program runs.

PokerStars: approved HUDs and trackers

PokerStars still allows trackers and HUDs from its approved list, with conditions: stats must be numeric, colour coding is limited, and the HUD may not change what it shows based on the current hand. Solvers and ICM tools are banned while the client is open. The desktop client adds table tiling, notes, a replayer, Run It Twice and All-In Cash Out at a 1% fee.

On GGPoker, close every poker tool before you open the client, including calculators and timers you use on other sites. Breaking the software policy can get the account restricted or closed, and GG can keep the balance.

Fast-fold and lottery formats

Both sites have a fast-fold cash game, Rush & Cash on GG and Zoom on PokerStars, and a three-player lottery sit-and-go with a random prize multiplier, Spin & Gold and Spin & Go. The formats work the same way. Our Spin & Gold guide breaks down how often each multiplier appears. On mobile, both apps cover cash, fast-fold, lottery sit-and-gos and tournaments; see our GGPoker app guide.

Safety and licence

Both are among the safest places to play online, with different kinds of protection.

PokerStars.com is run by TSG Interactive Gaming Europe Limited under a Malta Gaming Authority licence, and the group has belonged to Flutter Entertainment since 2020. The MGA requires player funds to be kept apart from the operator’s money and runs a complaints process. PokerStars also has the strongest record in the industry with player money: after poker’s Black Friday in 2011 it repaid American players within weeks, then funded the repayment of Full Tilt’s players. Our article on poker’s Black Friday tells that story.

GGPoker.com is run by GG International Ltd under an Isle of Man licence, with BMM Testlabs certifying its random number generator; the UK site is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Since October 2026 GG also runs Win-Rate Anomaly Detection, which flags accounts whose decisions look too accurate to be human, and it offers two-factor login plus a separate Fund Password for withdrawals. Turn both on.

Where you can play each one

For many players the choice is made by their address, not their preference.

• United States: GGPoker.com doesn’t accept US players. WSOP.com, which carries the WSOP brand that GG’s owner NSUS bought in 2024, runs regulated poker in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania. PokerStars runs as PokerStars on FanDuel in New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania since 1 April 2026, on new software with its own pool and offers.
• United Kingdom: GG serves the UK through GGPoker.co.uk, a separate UK-licensed site. Since 7 October 2026 UK players reach PokerStars through PokerStars on Betfair, with the global player pool but Betfair’s account and Stack+ rewards of up to 25%.
• Ontario: GG runs as GGPoker.ca; PokerStars moved to FanDuel there on 5 June 2026. Each is a separate Ontario pool.
• France, Spain, Portugal and Italy: PokerStars runs locally licensed sites; GGPoker.com is closed there.
• Most other countries that allow online poker can play on both international sites.

Country by country details are in our GGPoker countries guide, and the full market picture in best poker sites.

Which should you choose?

If both are open to you, the answer depends on what you play and how much.

In the UK the choice is between GGPoker.co.uk and PokerStars on Betfair. During our check in November 2026 the Betfair version listed no poker welcome bonus but paid Stack+ rewards of up to 25%, while the UK GG site runs its own UK offers. Compare the two on the same terms as above: rake at your stake, then what comes back.

Nothing stops you from playing both. Plenty of players keep GG for volume and tournaments and PokerStars for series and mixed games, though splitting your rake also splits your progress up each rewards ladder.

GGPoker vs PokerStars FAQ