head to head · open source
Invidious vs tvheadend
Invidious has 25,830 GitHub stars, 2,896 forks, 480 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tvheadend has 3,571 stars, 993 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Invidious leads on adoption by 623% (25,830 vs 3,571 stars). Invidious is written in Crystal under AGPL-3.0; tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0. Invidious has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, tvheadend 28%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Invidious | tvheadend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Crystal | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 993 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Invidious if
- You weight community size — 26K 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 tvheadend if
- You want the tvheadend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and tvheadend fits your workflow better
About Invidious
Invidious An open source alternative front end to YouTube Website • Instances list • FAQ • Documentation • Contribute • Donate Chat with us: Screenshots Features User features Lightweight No ads No tracking No JavaScript required Light/Dark themes Customizable homepage Subscriptions independent from Google Notifications for all subscribed channels Audio only mode (with background play on mobile) Support for Reddit comments Available in many languages, thanks to our translators Data import/export Import subscriptions from YouTube, NewPipe and FreeTube Import watch history from YouTube and NewPipe Export…
read the full Invidious overview →
About tvheadend
Tvheadend ========= Tvheadend is the leading TV streaming server and Digital Video Recorder for Linux. It supports the following inputs: ATSC DVB C(2) DVB S(2) DVB T(2) HDHomeRun IPTV UDP HTTP SAT IP Unix Pipe It supports the following outputs: HTSP (native protocol) HTTP SAT IP Documentation Tvheadend documentation can be found here: Support Please triage issues and ask questions in the forum: or use the hts IRC channel on Libera.Chat to speak with project staff: Please report triaged bugs via GitHub Issues. Building for Linux First you need to configure: $ ./configure If build dependencies are missing the…
read the full tvheadend overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Media & Streaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Media & Streaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or tvheadend more popular?
Invidious has 25,830 GitHub stars and tvheadend has 3,571. Invidious has the larger community by that measure.
Are Invidious and tvheadend free?
Both are open source. Invidious is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and tvheadend under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Invidious and tvheadend?
Invidious is written in Crystal and tvheadend in C. 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 tvheadend?
Choose Invidious if you want the larger community (25,830 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tvheadend if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.