head to head · open source
Kodi vs lms
Kodi has 21,422 GitHub stars, 6,655 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lms has 1,697 stars, 92 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kodi leads on adoption by 1,162% (21,422 vs 1,697 stars). Kodi is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; lms is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Kodi has attracted 31% as many forks as stars, lms 5%. Kodi 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
| Kodi | lms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 92 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kodi if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lms if
- You want the lms 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 lms fits your workflow better
About Kodi
website • docs • community • add ons Welcome to Kodi Home Theater Software! Kodi is an award winning free and open source software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. Available as a native application for Android, Linux, BSD, macOS, iOS, tvOS and Windows operating systems , Kodi runs on most common processor architectures. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, Kodi is a non profit project run by the XBMC Foundation and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 500 software developers have contributed to Kodi to date, and 100 plus translators have worked to…
About lms
LMS Lightweight Music Server LMS is a self hosted music streaming software: access your music collection from anywhere using a web interface! A demo instance is available. Note the administration settings are not available. Main features Subsonic/OpenSubsonic API support Multi valued tags: genre , mood , artists , ... Artist relationships: composer , conductor , lyricist , mixer , performer , producer , remixer Release types: album , single , EP , compilation , live , ... Release groups support to show different versions of albums, such as remasters, reissues, etc. MusicBrainz Identifier support to handle…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi or lms more popular?
Kodi has 21,422 GitHub stars and lms has 1,697. Kodi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kodi and lms free?
Both are open source. Kodi has no licence declared in this registry, and lms is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kodi and lms?
Kodi is written in C++ and lms 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, Kodi or lms?
Choose Kodi if you want the larger community (21,422 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose lms if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.