head to head · open source
Navidrome vs lms
Navidrome has 24,490 GitHub stars, 1,799 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lms has 1,697 stars, 92 forks, 82 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Navidrome leads on adoption by 1,343% (24,490 vs 1,697 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%. lms 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 92 |
| 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 Music Server Navidrome is an open source web based music collection server and streamer. It gives you freedom to listen to your music collection from any browser or mobile device. It's like your personal Spotify! Note : The master branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development. Please use releases instead of the master branch in order to get a stable set of binaries. Check out our Live Demo! Any feedback is welcome! If you need/want a new feature, find a bug or think of any way to improve Navidrome, please file a GitHub issue or join the discussion in our Subreddit. If you want to…
read the full Navidrome overview →
About lms
LMS Lightweight Music Server LMS is a self hosted music streaming software: access your music collection from anywhere using a web interface! A demo instance is available. Note the administration settings are not available. Main features Subsonic/OpenSubsonic API support Multi valued tags: genre , mood , artists , ... Artist relationships: composer , conductor , lyricist , mixer , performer , producer , remixer Release types: album , single , EP , compilation , live , ... Release groups support to show different versions of albums, such as remasters, reissues, etc. MusicBrainz Identifier support to handle…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Navidrome or lms more popular?
Navidrome has 24,490 GitHub stars and lms has 1,697. 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 (24,490 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.