head to head · open source
Invidious vs M3UAndroid
Invidious has 24,469 GitHub stars, 2,746 forks, 480 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. M3UAndroid has 1,252 stars, 158 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Invidious leads on adoption by 1,854% (24,469 vs 1,252 stars). Invidious is written in Crystal under AGPL-3.0; M3UAndroid is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. Invidious has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, M3UAndroid 13%. Invidious was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Invidious | M3UAndroid | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Crystal | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 158 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Invidious if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Crystal
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick M3UAndroid if
- You want the M3UAndroid feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and M3UAndroid fits your workflow better
About Invidious
Invidious is an open source, AGPL 3.0 alternative front end to YouTube, written in Crystal, aimed at people who want to watch videos without ads, tracking, or a Google account.
read the full Invidious overview →
About M3UAndroid
M3UAndroid is an open source IPTV player for Android phones, tablets, and Android TV. It lives in the Android ecosystem, is written in Kotlin, uses Jetpack Compose, and is licensed under GPL 3.0. The project targets users who want a clean, practical, ad free way to watch IPTV streams from their own playlist sources.
read the full M3UAndroid overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or M3UAndroid more popular?
Invidious has 24,469 GitHub stars and M3UAndroid has 1,252. Invidious has the larger community by that measure.
Are Invidious and M3UAndroid free?
Both are open source. Invidious is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and M3UAndroid under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Invidious and M3UAndroid?
Invidious is written in Crystal and M3UAndroid in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Invidious or M3UAndroid?
Choose Invidious if you want the larger community (24,469 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose M3UAndroid if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.