head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs ansible-nas
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars, 5,757 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ansible-nas has 3,797 stars, 509 forks, 102 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 1,452% (58,942 vs 3,797 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; ansible-nas is written in Jinja under MIT. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ansible-nas 13%. Jellyfin 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
| Jellyfin | ansible-nas | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C# | Jinja |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-02-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 509 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jellyfin if
- You weight community size — 59K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ansible-nas if
- You want the ansible-nas feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Jinja
- You evaluated both and ansible-nas fits your workflow better
About Jellyfin
Jellyfin The Free Software Media System Jellyfin is a Free Software Media System that puts you in control of managing and streaming your media. It is an alternative to the proprietary Emby and Plex, to provide media from a dedicated server to end user devices via multiple apps. Jellyfin is descended from Emby's 3.5.2 release and ported to the .NET platform to enable full cross platform support. There are no strings attached, no premium licenses or features, and no hidden agendas: just a team that wants to build something better and work together to achieve it. We welcome anyone who is interested in joining us in…
read the full Jellyfin overview →
About ansible-nas
Ansible NAS After getting burned by broken FreeNAS updates one too many times, I figured I could do a much better job myself using just a stock Ubuntu install, some clever Ansible config and a bunch of Docker containers. What Ansible NAS Does You can configure Ansible NAS to set up any (or all!) of the applications listed below on your home server. If you have a spare domain name you can configure applications to be accessible externally to your home LAN too; they'll be configured with a sensible hostname and DNS gets updated accordingly if your home IP address changes. Available Applications Airsonic catalog…
read the full ansible-nas overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or ansible-nas more popular?
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars and ansible-nas has 3,797. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and ansible-nas free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and ansible-nas under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and ansible-nas?
Jellyfin is written in C# and ansible-nas in Jinja. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Jellyfin or ansible-nas?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (58,942 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose ansible-nas if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.