head to head · open source
Navidrome vs swingmusic
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars, 1,708 forks, 275 open issues and last shipped yesterday. swingmusic has 2,062 stars, 135 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Navidrome leads on adoption by 1,046% (23,632 vs 2,062 stars). Navidrome is written in Go under GPL-3.0; swingmusic is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Navidrome has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, swingmusic 7%. Navidrome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (music, music-server, self-hosted), 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 | swingmusic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 135 |
| 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 swingmusic if
- You want the swingmusic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and swingmusic 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 swingmusic
Swing Music is a self hosted music server and browser based player for local audio files. It is written in Python and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It sits in the open source self hosted media streaming ecosystem and is positioned as a Spotify like experience for music the user already owns.
read the full swingmusic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Navidrome or swingmusic more popular?
Navidrome has 23,632 GitHub stars and swingmusic has 2,062. Navidrome has the larger community by that measure.
Are Navidrome and swingmusic free?
Both are open source. Navidrome is licensed under GPL-3.0 and swingmusic under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Navidrome and swingmusic?
Navidrome is written in Go and swingmusic in Python. 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 swingmusic?
Choose Navidrome if you want the larger community (23,632 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose swingmusic if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.