head to head · open source
Navidrome vs Nuclear
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars, 1,708 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nuclear has 18,468 stars, 1,327 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Navidrome leads on adoption by 28% (23,632 vs 18,468 stars). Navidrome is written in Go under GPL-3.0; Nuclear is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Navidrome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Nuclear 7%. Navidrome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (music), 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 | Nuclear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 18K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 Nuclear if
- You want the Nuclear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Nuclear 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 Nuclear
Nuclear is a free, open source music player for Windows, macOS, and Linux that streams music from multiple sources without ads or tracking. The project lives in the desktop music player ecosystem and is written primarily in TypeScript, with a Tauri application built from Rust and React. It is distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full Nuclear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Navidrome or Nuclear more popular?
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars and Nuclear has 18,468. Navidrome has the larger community by that measure.
Are Navidrome and Nuclear free?
Both are open source. Navidrome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Nuclear under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Navidrome and Nuclear?
Navidrome is written in Go and Nuclear 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, Navidrome or Nuclear?
Choose Navidrome if you want the larger community (23,632 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Nuclear if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.