head to head · open source
Navidrome vs lms
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars, 1,708 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lms has 1,673 stars, 88 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Navidrome leads on adoption by 1,313% (23,632 vs 1,673 stars). Navidrome is written in Go under GPL-3.0; lms is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Navidrome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, lms 5%. Navidrome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (music, music-server, opensubsonic, raspberry-pi), 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 | lms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 88 |
| 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 lms if
- You want the lms 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 lms 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 lms
LMS is a self hosted music streaming server written in C++ and licensed under GPL 3.0. It exposes a local music collection through a web interface, so users can access their music from anywhere.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Navidrome or lms more popular?
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars and lms has 1,673. Navidrome has the larger community by that measure.
Are Navidrome and lms free?
Both are open source. Navidrome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and lms under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Navidrome and lms?
Navidrome is written in Go and lms 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, Navidrome or lms?
Choose Navidrome if you want the larger community (23,632 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lms if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.