head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs BookWyrm
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars, 5,523 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BookWyrm has 2,779 stars, 336 forks, 418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 1,960% (57,244 vs 2,779 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; BookWyrm is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, BookWyrm 12%. BookWyrm 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 | BookWyrm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | C# | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 336 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jellyfin if
- You weight community size — 57K 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 BookWyrm if
- You want the BookWyrm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and BookWyrm fits your workflow better
About Jellyfin
Jellyfin is a free and open source media server that lets an individual or an organisation manage and stream their own movies, music, and other media from a dedicated server to end user devices through multiple client apps.
read the full Jellyfin overview →
About BookWyrm
BookWyrm is a social reading network for tracking books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. It lives in the ActivityPub ecosystem, so users can interact with other BookWyrm instances and with ActivityPub services such as Mastodon and Pleroma. The project is a Python web application using Django, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery, and ActivityPub.
read the full BookWyrm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or BookWyrm more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars and BookWyrm has 2,779. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and BookWyrm free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0, and BookWyrm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and BookWyrm?
Jellyfin is written in C# and BookWyrm 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, Jellyfin or BookWyrm?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (57,244 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose BookWyrm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.