head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs Sportarr
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars, 5,523 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sportarr has 529 stars, 45 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 10,721% (57,244 vs 529 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; Sportarr is written in C# under GPL-3.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Sportarr 9%. Jellyfin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (jellyfin), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Sportarr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 529 |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 45 |
| 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 Sportarr if
- You want the Sportarr 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 Sportarr 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 Sportarr
Sportarr is a self hosted sports PVR that monitors sports leagues, searches Usenet and torrent indexers for event releases, and organizes the results into a Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby library — built for people who collect sports events the way Sonarr and Radarr handle series and films.
read the full Sportarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or Sportarr more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars and Sportarr has 529. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and Sportarr free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Sportarr under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and Sportarr?
Jellyfin is written in C# and Sportarr 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 Sportarr?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (57,244 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Sportarr if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.