head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs sonobus
Jellyfin has 57,271 GitHub stars, 5,527 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sonobus has 2,188 stars, 185 forks, 195 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 2,518% (57,271 vs 2,188 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; sonobus is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sonobus 8%. 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 | sonobus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 185 |
| 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 sonobus if
- You want the sonobus 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 sonobus 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 sonobus
SonoBus is a free, GPL 3.0 licensed, low latency peer to peer audio streaming application that lets musicians, podcasters, and audio engineers send and receive high quality audio between devices over the internet or a local network.
read the full sonobus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or sonobus more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,271 GitHub stars and sonobus has 2,188. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and sonobus free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and sonobus under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and sonobus?
Jellyfin is written in C# and sonobus 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, Jellyfin or sonobus?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (57,271 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose sonobus if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.