head to head · open source
tvheadend vs MovieBox-Tui
tvheadend has 3,571 GitHub stars, 993 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MovieBox-Tui has 2,739 stars, 334 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. tvheadend leads on adoption by 30% (3,571 vs 2,739 stars). tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0; MovieBox-Tui is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. tvheadend has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, MovieBox-Tui 12%. tvheadend was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (iptv), 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
| tvheadend | MovieBox-Tui | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.6K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 993 | ⑂ 334 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tvheadend if
- You weight community size — 3.6K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick MovieBox-Tui if
- You want the MovieBox-Tui feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and MovieBox-Tui fits your workflow better
About tvheadend
Tvheadend ========= Tvheadend is the leading TV streaming server and Digital Video Recorder for Linux. It supports the following inputs: ATSC DVB C(2) DVB S(2) DVB T(2) HDHomeRun IPTV UDP HTTP SAT IP Unix Pipe It supports the following outputs: HTSP (native protocol) HTTP SAT IP Documentation Tvheadend documentation can be found here: Support Please triage issues and ask questions in the forum: or use the hts IRC channel on Libera.Chat to speak with project staff: Please report triaged bugs via GitHub Issues. Building for Linux First you need to configure: $ ./configure If build dependencies are missing the…
read the full tvheadend overview →
About MovieBox-Tui
MovieBox TUI Terminal interface to find, download, and stream movies, TV shows, and live TV using local media players. English • বাংলা • हिन्दी • Español moviebox tui walkthrough.webm Features On Demand Streaming : Stream movies, series, and anime across multiple providers and community Stremio addons. Live TV and IPTV : Import custom M3U playlist URLs to search channels, browse categories, and stream live television. Native Video Playback : Plays directly in your favorite player ( mpv , IINA , VLC , or Android video players) with smooth hardware acceleration. Automatic Subtitles : Automatically searches and…
read the full MovieBox-Tui overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or MovieBox-Tui more popular?
tvheadend has 3,571 GitHub stars and MovieBox-Tui has 2,739. tvheadend has the larger community by that measure.
Are tvheadend and MovieBox-Tui free?
Both are open source. tvheadend is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MovieBox-Tui under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tvheadend and MovieBox-Tui?
tvheadend is written in C and MovieBox-Tui in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tvheadend or MovieBox-Tui?
Choose tvheadend if you want the larger community (3,571 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MovieBox-Tui if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.