head to head · open source
Invidious vs swingmusic
Invidious has 24,469 GitHub stars, 2,746 forks, 480 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swingmusic has 2,062 stars, 135 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Invidious leads on adoption by 1,087% (24,469 vs 2,062 stars). Invidious is written in Crystal under AGPL-3.0; swingmusic is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Invidious has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, swingmusic 7%. 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 | swingmusic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Crystal | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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 swingmusic if
- You want the swingmusic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and swingmusic 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 swingmusic
Swing Music is a self hosted music server and browser based player for local audio files. It is written in Python and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It sits in the open source self hosted media streaming ecosystem and is positioned as a Spotify like experience for music the user already owns.
read the full swingmusic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or swingmusic more popular?
Invidious has 24,469 GitHub stars and swingmusic has 2,062. Invidious has the larger community by that measure.
Are Invidious and swingmusic free?
Both are open source. Invidious is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and swingmusic under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Invidious and swingmusic?
Invidious is written in Crystal and swingmusic in Python. 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 swingmusic?
Choose Invidious if you want the larger community (24,469 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose swingmusic if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.