Consoles in 2026 are in a fantastic place, as long as you ignore all the price increases hitting the Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5. Accessories have never been better, with some third-party controllers no longer shoddy and weird MadCatz budget PS2 controllers that your friend had to use. Better yet, some companies completely outperform Sony in some cases, like Dbrand and its vast array of customization options.
The PlayStation 5 has a huge amount of different accessories that are official products made in-house. However, sometimes you can get a better deal elsewhere or an infinitely better option by shopping around. Why wait for the FlexStrike arcade stick to launch, when there are already half a dozen other options on the shelves? Sony’s PlayStation products are of exceptional quality, but are not always the most complete.
Price hikes may be hitting the PS5 right now, but for all owners out there, here are our top recommended brands for accessories. Controllers, headsets and more are all covered below, including alternatives for PlayStation Portal, Sony’s dedicated streaming handheld. Rather than settling for Sony’s options, take a look.
GameSir
Without an official PlayStation controller on the menu, GameSir might be an odd choice to put here. However, its mobile controllers will easily turn your phone into a much cheaper and more robust PlayStation portal. Sony’s dedicated streaming handheld can’t do much other than streaming, making it a potentially expensive investment for some gamers.
By opting for a GameSir X5s or G8 Plus mobile controller – or even one of the many others available – you’ll not only get a fantastic option for mobile gaming, but also a much more comfortable experience than a controller on a hinged case. GameSir’s dedicated mobile controllers can cost anywhere from $49 to around $110, but you won’t need the best available. Remember that streaming a game is nothing like native gaming, so using all the bells and whistles won’t make much difference considering the latency.
Controllers like this are also great alternatives to other consoles you own. The
Razer
Razer is expensive, and there’s a good reason for that. A large majority of the PlayStation products it offers provide a certain quality, which is not found in many other brands. Mainly known for its PC gear, Razer offers excellent alternatives to Sony’s proprietary hardware. Controllers and headsets are premium here, but you’ll have to bite the bullet on price to get them.
Razer’s efforts to produce high-quality controllers have been well received. This, of course, translated into the relatively new Raiju V3 Pro, which GamesRadar gave a 4.5 out of five. For comparison, Sony’s official “pro” controller, the DualSense Edge, received much poorer ratings, due to the lack of deals on a $200 controller.
The company also sells a much sleeker charging dock for the DualSense controller, with its compact appearance making it look a little neater on top of the media center. Aside from that, the fighting game community has also received Razer’s Kitsune controller quite well, with users on the Fight Stick Reddit forum generally praising its build quality and controls. Razer’s BlackShark V3 is also worth a look, as it is an improved version of Razer’s BlackShark V2.
Brand D
Boistorus, and not afraid to “go for it”, Dbrand’s selection of skins and plates for the PS5 outperforms Sony’s offerings. Although it is best known for its various phone and wearable products, the company has been beating Sony in terms of customization for some time. For those who need to lose a little height or width on the PS5’s collar-shaped side plates, the Darkplates 2.0 bring a rounded top and two additional air vents to keep the system cool. They’re a bit expensive, around $120-$150, depending on your console and options.
However, skins are Dbrand’s bread and butter. The company didn’t skimp on the options, with the skin at $50 for the middle of the console. This can then be accompanied by light strips, with the whole package costing you around $40, depending on the sale. For PlayStation Portal users, no skins are available – as it’s mostly a screen – but there are custom grips if the official ones from Sony don’t cut it.
A big problem with Dbrand is that, just like Sony, it has no options for the PlayStation 5 Pro. The now $900 system is not included, and no real deal is in sight. This could be due to the way Sony made the PS5 Pro plates by adding a new locking mechanism that doesn’t support the old style.
Victory
One of the first major third-party brands of PS5 controllers, the Victrix line has been a strong recommendation among hardware reviewers. The company was acquired by Turtle Beach in 2024, and the creators, PDP, didn’t stop there. In 2025, it refreshed its BFG line to become a modular controller, with various options available to customize the controller to your liking. The original BFG controller was also warmly received when it launched, so if you happen upon it at a discount, it’s well worth a look.
The brand also offers a combat stick, the Pro FS, and an alternative without lever (replaces the arcade stick with all the buttons), the Pro KO. These have all been very well received, with Dexerto giving the fighting stick a score of nine out of 10 in 2022, and the leverless model receiving 4.5 out of five from TechRadar in 2025. Sony will release the FlexStrike, its own arcade stick, in the coming months as it also launches the Marvel fighting game, Tokon: Fighting Souls, but no price or release date is set as of this writing. lines.
PDP has ensured that BFG controllers support most, if not all, of the features that the PS5 can produce with the controller itself, like 3D audio. You won’t get the neat trigger haptics, but the benefit here is that you can swap modules to support different genres on the Reloaded controller. You also get the touchpad, so you never need to swap controllers for different games.