head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs songloft
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars, 5,757 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. songloft has 2,091 stars, 168 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 2,719% (58,942 vs 2,091 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; songloft is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, songloft 8%. songloft 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 | songloft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C# | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 168 |
| 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 songloft if
- You want the songloft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and songloft 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 songloft
🎵 Songloft 快速使用指南 简体中文 • English 🎵 面向个人用户的自托管音乐服务器 — 仅管理你合法拥有的音乐 📣 关于改名 ：本项目自 v2.0 起由 MiMusic 更名为 Songloft （内核与功能不变，仅品牌升级）。老的 mimusic org GitHub 组织与 hanxi/mimusic Docker 镜像保留至少一年作跳转，但不再更新。详见 GitHub Releases。 🏠 GitHub • 📥 下载 • 📖 文档 • 💬 问题反馈 • 👥 微信群 • 💬 Telegram 群 • 📣 Telegram 频道 • 📸 截图 💚 纯为爱发电 · 谨防诈骗 Songloft 是 完全免费 的开源项目，纯粹出于兴趣与热爱开发，与任何商业利益无关： ✅ 永久免费 —— 没有任何收费功能、内购或会员 ✅ 无广告 —— 不含任何广告或商业推广 ✅ 不接受赞助 / 捐款 —— 官方不设任何收款渠道 ⚠️ 谨防诈骗 —— 官方渠道仅有 GitHub 仓库、文档站、官方微信群、Telegram 群 与 Telegram 频道。任何以 Songloft 名义收费、售卖付费版本、代部署收费或索要赞助的行为都与本项目无关；即便在群内，我们也从不向任何人收取任何费用，请勿上当受骗。 ✨ 核心功能 🎵 本地音乐管理 — 扫描本地目录，自动提取…
read the full songloft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or songloft more popular?
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars and songloft has 2,091. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and songloft free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and songloft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and songloft?
Jellyfin is written in C# and songloft in Go. 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 songloft?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (58,942 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose songloft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.