Unity 5 vs Unreal 4: From a single developer perspective

I’m using Unity for two years and I’m happy with the engine, but it’s not perfect and when Unreal Engine 4 became free, I became interested in it. Currently I’m making games by myself, mostly for PC. When I’ve started to research Unity 5 vs Unreal 4 topic, I’ve noticed that those videos and articles often listed advantages and disadvantages of the engine that are completely irrelevant for me. Some people did pointed to the fact that those engines are similar, so I will only focus on differences that are relevant for me, as a single indie developer focused on 3d games for PC. I will ignore stuff that is not relevant to me, like 2d support, multiplatform support etc.

Unity 5

Advantages:

• Has a lot of content in Asset Store. Including plugins that add functionality to the engine.
• Unity Asset Store has a lot of content with low prices and lots of discounts.
• Editor doesn’t need powerful PC to work smooth.
• I like Unity pricing model. It’s much simpler and better.

Disadvantages:

• When you dealing with editor functionality plugins. Most of them are not as polished and bug free as core engine functionality. There is also risk, that something will happen to the creator of the plugin and that plugin will not be updated to work with the latest version of Unity.

Unreal Engine 4

Advantages:

• Has its own visual scripting language. I’m a big fan of visual scripting. This means visual scripting is properly supported and integrated into the engine. Probably most of game logic assets on UE4 marketplace will be build using it, so it’s easy to edit them.
• Has a lot more build in tools including major stuff like proper tool set to build open world games.
• Easier to make game look pretty?

Disadvantages:

• UE4 marketplace is almost empty compared to the Unity Asset Store. I’m making games on my own and Unity Asset Store is a huge part of why it’s possible. That’s why for me it’s the biggest disadvantage of Unreal Engine.
• Prices on UE4 marketplace are much higher compared to Unity Asset Store.
• Needs powerful PC to run editor smoothly. Yesterday I’ve find out that on my laptop Unreal editor will show only 5 fps. Unity works smooth on it, with the appropriate project.

That’s why I’m interested in Unreal Engine and I will continue to look at it, but will still use Unity for the time being.