head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs swingmusic
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars, 5,523 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. swingmusic has 2,062 stars, 135 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 2,676% (57,244 vs 2,062 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; swingmusic is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, swingmusic 7%. 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 | swingmusic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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 swingmusic if
- You want the swingmusic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and swingmusic 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 swingmusic
Swing Music is a self hosted music server and browser based player for local audio files. It is written in Python and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It sits in the open source self hosted media streaming ecosystem and is positioned as a Spotify like experience for music the user already owns.
read the full swingmusic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or swingmusic more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars and swingmusic has 2,062. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and swingmusic free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and swingmusic under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and swingmusic?
Jellyfin is written in C# and swingmusic 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 swingmusic?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (57,244 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose swingmusic if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.