Sim racing has a large number of hardware brands and manufacturers, each with their own products and ecosystem. Which brand is best and which should you invest into?
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The most popular sim racing brands include Fanatec, MOZA Racing, Logitech, Thrustmaster, Simucube, and Asetek. However, I wouldn’t say any of these brands are the outright best, as each offers its own ecosystem with a range of pros and cons.
When first looking at getting into sim racing, one of the first questions you may ask is, which brand is best and which products should I buy? There are a lot of sim racing brands, each with their own ecosystem, pros and cons. And each brand has its own compatibility requirements that you have to be aware of, espeiually if mixing and matching hardware.
In this sim racing buyer’s guide, I’ll introduce you to the very best sim racing brands. I’ll discuss each brand’s ecosystem, which products are the best buys, and how compatibility between brands works.
If you are new to sim racing, or looking to upgrade your hardware, this guide will cover my recommendations for the best products from racing wheels to pedals. And I’ll provide all the information you need on ensuring your whole setup is compatible.
I’m going to focus this buyer’s guide on sim racing brands that have a complete ecosystem of racing wheels, pedals and other peripherals. That means I won’t be exploring brands that offer cockpits or focus on a single product category, but I do highly recommend reading our guide on the best sim racing cockpits if you are looking at buying a new sim rig.
I want to start this guide by giving a quick overview of the most popular sim racing brands, along with a short description of each brands offering along with which products they sell and the general price range their products fall into. This overview isn’t a sim racing brand ranking, more of an overview before I delve deeper into each brands offering, which I’ll do further in this buyer’s guide.
| Brand | Budget | Description |
|---|---|---|
| MOZA Racing | £ – £££ | One of the most popular sim racing brands with a wide range of hardware, from budget through to premium options. |
| Fanatec | ££ – £££ | Arguably the most well-known sim racing brand with a huge ecosystem of racing wheels, pedals and other peripherals. |
| Logitech | £ – ££ | Offers one of the best budget racing wheels of any sim racing brand, along with a more premium Pro racing range. |
| Thrustmaster | £ – ££ | An incredibly well-known sim racing brand with a wide range of sim racing hardware across a budget to mid-price range. |
| Simucube | £££ | Often seen as one of the best premium brands thanks to its incredibly high-performance wheel base and pedal lineup. |
| Asetek | ££ – £££ | A premium sim racing brand with some of the best performing direct drive wheels and premium pedals available. |
| SIMAGIC | ££ – £££ | Offers a complete sim racing ecosystem for PC sim racers, with excellent value wheels and pedals. |
You may be browsing different sim racing products from different companies, and find that you like certain products from each one. You may find a steering wheel that you like from one brand such as Fanatec, however, you may have read a good review about a different brands wheel base or pedal set.
In this scenario, its worth exploring how each different sim racing brand can become compatible with one another. Can you mix and match sim racing products from different brands, or do you need to commit to a single ecosystem?
In the image below, you can see I’m using an Asetek steering wheel with a MOZA wheel base. This is possible due to both brands offering quick release adapters.
Compatibility within sim racing is one of the bigger hurdles to overcome. Many brands have adapters and ways of using third-party products, while some ecosystems are much more restrictive, meaning you’ll need only to use products from a single brand. Each sim racing brand handles compatibility differently, so it’s definitely worth knowing which brands can work with one another.
Below is an overview of which sim racing brands offer third-party compatibility, and which do not. The first column shows whether you can connect third-party steering wheels from other brands, with each brands wheel base. The second column shows whether you can use each brands steering wheels with third-party wheel bases.
| Brand | Use third-party wheels with wheel base? | Use with third-party wheel bases? |
|---|---|---|
| MOZA Racing |  | |
| Fanatec | |  |
| Logitech | | |
| Thrustmaster | | |
| Simucube | | |
| Asetek | | |
| SIMAGIC | | |
Using the table above, we can see that most brands offer third-party compatibility, Fanatec and Logitech offer partial compatibility with other brands, and Thrustmaster is a completely closed ecosystem.
Most brands, including MOZA Racing, Simucube, Asetek and SIMAGIC, allow for a completely open ecosystem. You can use third-party steering wheels with their wheel bases, or use their steering wheels with third-party wheel bases. This approach lets you really mix and match your sim racing setup across all brands.
The partial compatibility that Fanatec and Logitech offer comes in the form of wheel hubs and quick release adapters. These products let you mount third-party steering wheels to a Fanatec or Logitech G Pro wheel base. Using these adapters will allow the wheel base to work like normal, even when using a third-party steering wheel.
However, both Logitech and Fanatec do not currently offer a way of using it’s steering wheels on third-party wheel bases. This means that you cannot use a Fanatec Formula wheel with a MOZA Racing wheel base for example.
Thrustmaster is the only brand that restricts its compatibility to just using Thrustmaster steering wheel with Thrustmaster wheel bases. There is no third-party adapter available currently.
MOZA Racing is relatively new to sim racing, having only launched a few years ago. They don’t have the experience of some brands, however, they have released a lot of products in a short space of time. Its ecosystem now consists of multiple wheel bases and steering wheels at different price points, giving sim racers a lot of choice.
Much like brands such as Fanatec, MOZA has spread its hardware across a wide budget. You have more accessible products such as the MOZA R3 bundle or the R5 wheel base. Then you have more premium products like the high-performance R21 wheel base.
I’ve been lucky enough to test and review the majority of MOZA products, and each one has been excellent, feeling premium and performing well. The R12 wheel base in particular is a stand out product thanks to its excellent force feedback algorithm, which at the time of its release, allowed the R12 to perform better than most other wheel bases in the same price range.
MOZA mainly focuses on PC-compatible products, with the R3 wheel being the only Xbox-compatible whee lbase currently, although there are add-on products, such as the CRP2 pedals, that become Xbox-compatible when attached to the R3. The R3 bundle is a complete Xbox-compatible plug-and-play racing wheel and pedal set, giving you everything you need to start sim racing on Xbox at a reasonable price.
If you fancy picking up either a MOZA wheel base or steering wheel but don’t fancy a complete MOZA setup, you can mix and match. This is possible thanks to the Universal Hub that lets you connect a MOZA steering wheel directly to your PC and use it with a different wheel base such as one from Fanatec or Simucube.
It wasn’t too long ago when almost any sim racer would have recommended Fanatec as the natural progression into higher-end sim racing. That may have changed recently thanks to the trouble that Fanatec found themselves in during 2024. However, the German sim racing company has recently been acquired by CORSAIR, giving them a new lease on life and customers more trust in the brand once again.
Fanatec offers an entire ecosystem of products that consists of a few different wheel bases which all use direct drive technology. However, the real perk of choosing a Fanatec wheel base is the huge number of steering wheels that Fanatec sell.
Currently, Fanatec sells over 50 steering wheels, with more planned for the future. These wheels offer Xbox and PlayStation compatibility, depending on the wheel you are buying. No other sim racing brand has the sheer variety on offer, giving Fanatec a huge advantage for those who like to mix and match steering wheels while sim racing in different disciplines.
While Fanatec’s console compatibility on both Xbox and PS4 and PS5 is better than most brands, they do restrict their ecosystem when it comes to using different brands together. Thanks to the Podium Hub, you can use any third-party steering wheel with a Fanatec wheel base which is great.
However, if you like the look of a Fanatec steering wheel, unfortunately, you have to pair it with a Fanatec wheel base, as there is no official adapter for third-party wheel bases just yet.
Logitech is best known within sim racing for its excellent budget racing wheels. The current generation is the G923 which, despite being over 5 years old, remains one of the best budget wheels thanks to its decent performance, excellent quality and console compatibility.
Recently, Logitech has expanded into the premium sim racing space with its Pro product lineup. This consists of a direct drive wheel base and more premium pedals and steering wheels. Overall, Logitech offers fantastic quality thanks to its huge amount of experience in sim racing and gaming.
When buying a Logitech Pro wheel base, you do have the option to use third-party steering wheels thanks to the QR adapter. However, you cannot use a Logitech steering wheel with other wheel bases, although this isn’t too much of an issue as the steering wheel lineup is easily Logitech’s weakest part of its ecosystem with very little choice available.
Where Logitech compatibility shines is that all of its products offer both Xbox and PS5 compatibility out of the box, making both the budget G923 and premium Pro wheel great choices for console sim racers.
Alongside well established sim racing brands such as Logitech and Fanatec, sits Thrustmaster. The American brand has been in the sim racing space for what seems like forever, and much like Fanatec, has amassed a huge ecosystem of sim racing products.
Thrustmaster occupies the space between budget and mid-range with the majority of its sim racing products, while offering Xbox and PS5 compatibility across its lineup. If you are looking for a brand with an excellent reputation, that offers plug-and-play capabilities, Thrustmaster is a great choice.
However, they haven’t really kept up with the development of sim racing products, and were very slow to the direct drive party. In my experience, Thrustmaster wheels don’t quite match the levels of performance that other brands offer, however, like Fanatec, they do have a huge range of products giving you great choice for creating your ultimate sim racing setup.
While most of its products offer very good Xbox and PS5 compatibility, Thrustmaster is the only brand that doesn’t offer true third-party support. The Thrustmaster quick release is very dated compared to other brands, and you cannot currently use third-party products with Thrustmaster wheels.
Moving into the premium sim racing space, Simucube is one of the most highly regarded brands. It built a reputation of producing the very best performing sim racing hardware thanks in part to its excellent wheel bases. The Simucube 2 Ultimate remains one of the most powerful and best direct drive racing wheels you can currently buy.
Recently, Simucube released the world’s first force feedback pedal set, the ActivePedal. Much like its wheel-base lineup, the ActivePedal is one of the best performance pedals around. In my review, I even called it a complete game-changer.
While Simucube products are much more expensive than other brands, the quality is rarely matched. Meaning if you are looking to upgrade to the very best hardware possible, Simucube is a solid choice.
Simucube currently only creates PC-compatible sim racing hardware, with no console-compatible products at all. However, it does offer excellent third-party support. You can use almost any steering wheel with a Simucube wheel base, and thanks to its PC-only approach, you can mix and match any Simucube products with third-party hardware.
If you are considering a more premium sim racing ecosystem to buy into, Asetek is an emerging brand that offers outstanding performance along with a complete ecosystem of wheel bases, wheels, pedals, and accessories.
Asetek offers three distinct product ranges, the La Prima range which is the most affordable and entry-level sim racing products. Although, despite saying entry level, the La Prima products are still within the high performance category and surpass anything on offer from brands such as Logitech or Thrustmaster for example.
The mid-range Asetek products use the Forte name, and their range topping products are called Invicta products. These are extremely high performance sim racing products such as the incredible Invicta Formula wheel that recently launched.
Much like other premium sim racing brands, Asetek does only offer PC compatibility currently, however, they recently announced a partnership with Xbox to start making their products Xbox-compatible in 2025 and beyond. Asetek also offer multiple quick release adapters to allow their ecosystem to be completely open to third-party brands, allowing for a lot of customisation.
SIMAGIC is another brand that offers a complete sim racing ecosystem, and it’s a brand that offers very competitive pricing. Much like MOZA Racing, Fanatec and Asetek, SIMAGIC has a range of wheel bases, steering wheels, pedals and other peripherals.
All SIMAGIC products are only compatible with PC, with no console support, however, they do have a quick-release adapter and the Maglink adapter that allows for a completely open ecosystem.
Each of the sim racing brands that I’ve mentioned offers a wide range of products, each offering something slightly different.
MOZA Racing and Fanatec are often the two most discussed sim racing brands thanks to their expansive ecosystem and excellent selection of mid-range hardware. Both of these brands are excellent choices when choosing one ecosystem over the other.
If you are shopping for a more premium sim racing setup, both Simucube and Asetek have complete ecosystems with some of the best-performing products around. Asetek’s product range is larger than Simucube’s, which provides more choices. However, Simucube is arguably the more recognised brand with some of the very best wheels and pedals you can currently buy.
Choosing an ecosystem can be tricky. Thanks to QR adapters that most brands offer, you can mix and match and choose the best products from each brand.
When it comes down to which sim racing brand and ecosystem I would recommend, I have a few recommendations based on circumstance.
To put my recommendations into context, I have two sim rigs currently set up, with my main rig using a Fanatec wheel base and either a MOZA or Asetek steering wheel, and I’m using Simucube ActivePedals.
I hope this guide has been helpful, and the overviews of each brand has allowed you to narrow down which ecosystem is right for you. Ultiamtely, the sim racing space is in one of the best positions its ever been in with so many competitive and high quality brands so it is hard to go wrong.
You can use the links below to shop for your favourite sim racing products, or for any products that we may have recommended. These links are affiliate links, and will earn us a small commission, with no additional cost for you.
Some of the best sim racing brands include Fanatec, MOZA Racing, Logitech, Asetek and Simucube.
Simucube has arguably the very best direct drive racing wheel around, closely followed by Asetek. These are premium racing wheels that perform incredibly well.
Brands such as Simucube and Asetek have brand ambassadors that include real-world drivers.
Each sim racing ecosystem has its pros and cons. Fanatec, MOZA and Asetek offer some of the most complete sim racing ecosystems with a large number of products and console compatibility.
Rich is the founder, F1 car setup creator and content writer for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com
View all articles written by Rich
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