head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs tvheadend
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars, 5,757 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. tvheadend has 3,571 stars, 993 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 1,551% (58,942 vs 3,571 stars). Jellyfin is written in C# under GPL-2.0; tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0. Jellyfin has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, tvheadend 28%. tvheadend 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 | tvheadend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 993 |
| 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 tvheadend if
- You want the tvheadend 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 tvheadend 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 tvheadend
Tvheadend ========= Tvheadend is the leading TV streaming server and Digital Video Recorder for Linux. It supports the following inputs: ATSC DVB C(2) DVB S(2) DVB T(2) HDHomeRun IPTV UDP HTTP SAT IP Unix Pipe It supports the following outputs: HTSP (native protocol) HTTP SAT IP Documentation Tvheadend documentation can be found here: Support Please triage issues and ask questions in the forum: or use the hts IRC channel on Libera.Chat to speak with project staff: Please report triaged bugs via GitHub Issues. Building for Linux First you need to configure: $ ./configure If build dependencies are missing the…
read the full tvheadend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or tvheadend more popular?
Jellyfin has 58,942 GitHub stars and tvheadend has 3,571. Jellyfin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jellyfin and tvheadend free?
Both are open source. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and tvheadend under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Jellyfin and tvheadend?
Jellyfin is written in C# and tvheadend 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 tvheadend?
Choose Jellyfin if you want the larger community (58,942 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose tvheadend if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.