head to head · open source
Kodi vs Nuclear
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars, 6,598 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nuclear has 18,468 stars, 1,327 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Kodi leads on adoption by 15% (21,229 vs 18,468 stars). Kodi is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; Nuclear is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Kodi has attracted 31% as many forks as stars, Nuclear 7%. Kodi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (linux), 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
| Kodi | Nuclear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 18K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 Nuclear if
- You want the Nuclear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Nuclear fits your workflow better
About Kodi
Kodi is a free and open source home theater and media center application, also described as an entertainment hub for digital media. It is written mainly in C++ and distributed as a native application for Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS, tvOS, and Windows, with support for many common processor architectures. The project began in 2003 and is run by the XBMC Foundation, with development and support carried out by volunteers worldwide.
About Nuclear
Nuclear is a free, open source music player for Windows, macOS, and Linux that streams music from multiple sources without ads or tracking. The project lives in the desktop music player ecosystem and is written primarily in TypeScript, with a Tauri application built from Rust and React. It is distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full Nuclear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi or Nuclear more popular?
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars and Nuclear has 18,468. Kodi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kodi and Nuclear free?
Both are open source. Kodi has no licence declared in this registry, and Nuclear is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kodi and Nuclear?
Kodi is written in C++ and Nuclear in TypeScript. 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 Nuclear?
Choose Kodi if you want the larger community (21,229 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Nuclear if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.