head to head · open source
Kodi vs tunarr
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars, 6,598 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tunarr has 2,579 stars, 130 forks, 206 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kodi leads on adoption by 723% (21,229 vs 2,579 stars). Kodi is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; tunarr is written in TypeScript under Zlib. Kodi has attracted 31% as many forks as stars, tunarr 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 | tunarr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Custom / other | Zlib |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.6K | ⑂ 130 |
| 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 tunarr if
- You want the tunarr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and tunarr 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 tunarr
Tunarr is a self hosted media streaming project written in TypeScript and released under the Zlib license. It creates custom live TV channels from existing media libraries, including Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, and local files. The project lives in the self hosted IPTV and local media streaming ecosystem, where users want their media servers and media players to present a broadcast style channel lineup.
read the full tunarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi or tunarr more popular?
Kodi has 21,229 GitHub stars and tunarr has 2,579. Kodi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kodi and tunarr free?
Both are open source. Kodi has no licence declared in this registry, and tunarr is licensed under Zlib. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Kodi and tunarr?
Kodi is written in C++ and tunarr 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 tunarr?
Choose Kodi if you want the larger community (21,229 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose tunarr if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.