head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs M3UAndroid
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars, 5,523 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. M3UAndroid has 1,252 stars, 158 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 4,472% (57,244 vs 1,252 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; M3UAndroid is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, M3UAndroid 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 | M3UAndroid | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 158 |
| 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 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 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 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 Jellyfin or M3UAndroid more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars and M3UAndroid has 1,252. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and M3UAndroid free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and M3UAndroid under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and M3UAndroid?
Jellyfin is written in C# 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, Jellyfin or M3UAndroid?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (57,244 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose M3UAndroid if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.