Open-source media servers and streaming apps

Self-hosted servers that stream the films, series, music and audiobooks you own to every screen at home, without a subscription or a company account.

3 open-source projects, checked against GitHub on 1 November 2026.

All 3 media servers & streaming projects

Showing all 3, ordered by health score.

  1. 94 Active
    Jellyfin

    The Free Software Media System - Server Backend & API

    GPL-2.0
    Setup
    From source
    Stars
    58.9k
    Release
    26 October 2026
  2. 84 Active
    Navidrome

    Your Personal Streaming Service

    GPL-3.0 relicensed 2020
    Setup
    1 of 5
    Stars
    24.5k
    Release
    24 September 2026
  3. 84 Active
    Audiobookshelf

    Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server

    GPL-3.0
    Setup
    1 of 5
    Stars
    14.9k
    Release
    23 October 2026

Our picks by use case

  • A Plex replacement for films and series

    Jellyfin streams video, music and photos to TVs, phones and browsers, and keeps every feature free.

  • Your own music streaming

    Navidrome serves large music collections to the browser and to Subsonic-compatible apps from a single small binary.

  • Audiobooks and podcasts

    Audiobookshelf keeps each listener's position, syncs it to its mobile apps and downloads new podcast episodes.

How to choose a media server

Media servers differ mainly in what they are built for. General servers handle video and convert it for each device; music servers focus on tags and player apps; audiobook servers remember where each listener stopped. All of them work best when your files sit in folders with consistent names.

What you collect

Video needs a server that can convert files for devices that cannot play them, and that takes processing power; Jellyfin does this job. Music and audiobooks are much lighter, and Navidrome runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi.

Apps on your devices

Check which players you will use every day. Jellyfin has its own apps for TVs and phones, Navidrome works with any Subsonic-compatible player, and the Audiobookshelf mobile apps are still in beta.

Library organization

All three read your folders and tags, so time spent naming files and fixing metadata pays off later. Audiobookshelf expects a particular folder structure for authors, series and books.

Who maintains it

Jellyfin is run by a large volunteer team, while Navidrome and Audiobookshelf rely mostly on one lead developer each. Look at the health score before you move a large library.

Drafted with AI from the projects’ READMEs and our data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

Which of these are really open source?

Fully open source (3)OSI-approved license, no paid parts in the repository
Jellyfin, Navidrome, Audiobookshelf
Open source with paid parts (0)OSI license, but some features are under commercial terms
None
Not OSI open source (0)Code is public, use is restricted
None
License changesNewest first
Navidrome: AGPL-3.0 → GPL-3.0, 2020

Read automatically from each repository’s license files every day. How we read licenses

Questions about open-source media servers & streaming

What are the most popular open-source media servers & streaming projects?

By GitHub stars: Jellyfin (58.9k), Navidrome (24.5k), Audiobookshelf (14.9k). By our health score, the most actively maintained are Jellyfin (94), Navidrome (84), Audiobookshelf (84).

Which media servers & streaming projects are fully open source?

3 of the 3 use an OSI-approved license with no paid parts in the repository, including Jellyfin, Navidrome, Audiobookshelf.

Which are the easiest to self-host?

Judged by the services in their compose files, Navidrome, Audiobookshelf need the least setup.

Which projects have changed their license?

Navidrome (to GPL-3.0 in 2020). Each project page links to the commit that made the change.

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