head to head · open source
tvheadend vs Ghosten-Player
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars, 975 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Ghosten-Player has 3,299 stars, 201 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. tvheadend leads on adoption by 7% (3,524 vs 3,299 stars). tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0; Ghosten-Player is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. tvheadend has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, Ghosten-Player 6%. Ghosten-Player was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (iptv), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| tvheadend | Ghosten-Player | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.5K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 975 | ⑂ 201 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tvheadend if
- You weight community size — 3.5K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghosten-Player if
- You want the Ghosten-Player feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and Ghosten-Player fits your workflow better
About tvheadend
Tvheadend is an open source TV streaming server and digital video recorder for Linux. It lives in the Linux media and streaming ecosystem, and it is written in C under the GPL 3.0 license. The project provides a server that can receive television signals and streams from many input types, then make those channels available over the network.
read the full tvheadend overview →
About Ghosten-Player
Ghosten Player is a Flutter based video player for Android phone, pad, and TV, with Windows and macOS support in development. It is a Dart app under AGPL 3.0 in the Android media and streaming ecosystem. The project gathers video resources into a local private media library instead of requiring a hosted backend.
read the full Ghosten-Player overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or Ghosten-Player more popular?
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars and Ghosten-Player has 3,299. tvheadend has the larger community by that measure.
Are tvheadend and Ghosten-Player free?
Both are open source. tvheadend is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Ghosten-Player under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tvheadend and Ghosten-Player?
tvheadend is written in C and Ghosten-Player in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tvheadend or Ghosten-Player?
Choose tvheadend if you want the larger community (3,524 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ghosten-Player if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.