Getting started

Five things worth knowing before you install anything.

1. Install Unity Hub first, not a bare installer

   Unity Hub manages your editor versions and projects — you install Unity itself through it, not as a standalone download.

2. Pick LTS or Tech Stream

   LTS (Long-Term Support) prioritises stability — the safer default for anything you plan to ship. Tech Stream gets new features first, at the cost of more churn.

3. Know which version you're on

   Unity's current generation is Unity 6 — version numbers look like 6000.x. The current release is Unity 6.5 (build 6000.5.7f1, released 5 August 2026), focused on 2D, graphics, shader and lighting improvements. Unity 7 has been announced as the next major version of the editor and runtime, built on the foundations shipped across Unity 6.x.

4. Learn for free

   Unity Learn is free and is the actual answer to "where do I start" — official tutorials and courses, not a search through forum posts.

5. Know where to look things up

   Documentation is split into the Manual (concepts, workflows) and the Scripting API reference (code). For everything else, the community forum is Unity Discussions.

Is Unity even the right engine?

Worth deciding before you install, not after. Unreal Engine leads on out-of-the-box visual fidelity and is a strong pick if you already know C++; Godot is fully open source and lighter weight, a good fit for small 2D projects with no licence to think about at all. Unity's case is breadth — the platform list on what you can build, the asset store, and C# rather than a bespoke scripting language.