head to head · open source
Navidrome vs gonic
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars, 1,708 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gonic has 2,544 stars, 156 forks, 72 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Navidrome leads on adoption by 829% (23,632 vs 2,544 stars). Navidrome is written in Go under GPL-3.0; gonic is written in Go under GPL-3.0. Navidrome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, gonic 6%. Navidrome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (airsonic, music, music-server), 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
| Navidrome | gonic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 156 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Navidrome if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gonic if
- You want the gonic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gonic fits your workflow better
About Navidrome
Navidrome is an open source, web based music collection server and streamer written in Go and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It lives in the self hosted media server ecosystem and is intended for users who want to listen to a personal music collection from a browser or mobile device.
read the full Navidrome overview →
About gonic
Gonic is a music streaming server and a free software implementation of the Subsonic server API. It lives in the self hosted media streaming ecosystem, where users want to keep a personal music library on their own hardware while using Subsonic compatible clients.
read the full gonic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Navidrome or gonic more popular?
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars and gonic has 2,544. Navidrome has the larger community by that measure.
Are Navidrome and gonic free?
Both are open source. Navidrome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and gonic under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Navidrome and gonic?
Navidrome is written in Go and gonic in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Navidrome or gonic?
Choose Navidrome if you want the larger community (23,632 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gonic if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.