head to head · open source
Kodi vs sonobus
Kodi has 21,422 GitHub stars, 6,655 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sonobus has 2,227 stars, 190 forks, 195 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Kodi leads on adoption by 862% (21,422 vs 2,227 stars). Kodi is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; sonobus is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Kodi has attracted 31% as many forks as stars, sonobus 9%. Kodi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (linux, macos), 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 | sonobus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 190 |
| 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 sonobus if
- You want the sonobus 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 sonobus 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 sonobus
SonoBus SonoBus is an easy to use application for streaming high quality, low latency peer to peer audio between devices over the internet or a local network. Simply choose a unique group name (with optional password), and instantly connect multiple people together to make music, remote sessions, podcasts, etc. Easily record the audio from everyone, as well as playback any audio content to the whole group. Connects multiple users together to send and receive audio among all in a group, with fine grained control over latency, quality and overall mix. Includes optional input compression, noise gate, and EQ…
read the full sonobus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi or sonobus more popular?
Kodi has 21,422 GitHub stars and sonobus has 2,227. Kodi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kodi and sonobus free?
Both are open source. Kodi has no licence declared in this registry, and sonobus is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kodi and sonobus?
Kodi is written in C++ and sonobus 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 sonobus?
Choose Kodi if you want the larger community (21,422 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sonobus if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.