Idle Master & ArchiSteamFarm alternatives: desktop vs cloud idling

Idle Master: abandoned, forked, still around

Idle Master was the first tool most people used to farm cards: a Windows program that read your badge page and idled the games with drops left. Its original author stopped maintaining it years ago and the repository is archived. Steam's sign-in changed several times since, which is why the original breaks: it cannot log in, it shows an empty badge list, or it idles nothing.

The living fork is Idle Master Extended, still updated and still free. It does what the original did, on Windows, with your PC on and signed in to Steam the whole time. If you only want cards, run on Windows, and leave your PC on anyway, it remains a fine choice.

ArchiSteamFarm: the power tool

ArchiSteamFarm is the serious option: open source, actively maintained, running on Windows, Linux, macOS or in Docker. It farms cards, idles up to 32 games per account, handles any number of accounts, and accepts Steam Guard through its own 2FA module. The price is the setup. You edit JSON configuration files, you keep a machine running around the clock (a home server or a rented VPS, which costs more per month than a hosted plan), and when Steam changes something you update and read the logs. It also asks for your password and, for automation, your Steam Guard secret, which are stored on that machine.

Steam Game Idler and the other small tools

Steam Game Idler, SteamIdle and their cousins do one thing: report games as running so playtime counts. No card farming logic, no achievements, usually no multi-account. Light, free, PC on. They serve the person who wants hours on a few games and nothing more.

Cloud idling: what changes

A hosted service runs the Steam session on its own servers. You sign in once, pick the games, close the tab, and the hours keep coming with your PC off; when you actually play, the service steps aside and resumes afterwards. The good ones sign in with a QR code scanned in the Steam app, so no password is ever typed, and the session shows up in Steam under authorized devices where you can revoke it. Prices start around a dollar and a half a month for one account.

What you give up is control: a third party holds a session on your account. That is why the sign-in method matters more than any feature. A service that asks for your password and your Steam Guard secret holds the account; one that holds a revocable token holds a session.

Side by side

The short version:

• Idle Master (original): free, Windows, abandoned, breaks on sign-in. Skip it.
• Idle Master Extended: free, Windows, cards only, PC on and signed in.
• ArchiSteamFarm: free, any OS, cards + hours + many accounts, a machine on 24/7, JSON setup, password and 2FA secret stored locally.
• Steam Game Idler and similar: free, hours only, PC on.
• Cloud service (AFK Hours and others): from about $1.50 a month, PC off, cards + hours + achievements + schedules, nothing to install; a session held by a third party, revocable if the sign-in is done right.

Which one for you

You leave your PC on anyway and want cards: Idle Master Extended. You run servers for fun and want every knob: ArchiSteamFarm. You want the hours and the cards to come in while the PC is off, without maintenance, and you would rather not hand over a password: a cloud service. We compared AFK Hours with the other hosted services, prices and sign-in methods included, on the comparison page, and wrote down what is and is not risky whichever tool you pick.