head to head · open source
Jellyfin vs tvheadend
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars, 5,523 forks, 684 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tvheadend has 3,521 stars, 975 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Jellyfin leads on adoption by 1,526% (57,244 vs 3,521 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%. 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 | tvheadend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 975 |
| 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 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 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 tvheadend
Tvheadend is an open source TV streaming server and digital video recorder for Linux. It lives in the Linux media and streaming ecosystem, and it is written in C under the GPL 3.0 license. The project provides a server that can receive television signals and streams from many input types, then make those channels available over the network.
read the full tvheadend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or tvheadend more popular?
Jellyfin has 57,244 GitHub stars and tvheadend has 3,521. 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 (57,244 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.