head to head · open source
Nuclear vs tunarr
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars, 1,327 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped today. tunarr has 2,579 stars, 132 forks, 206 open issues and last shipped today. Nuclear leads on adoption by 617% (18,480 vs 2,579 stars). Nuclear is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; tunarr is written in TypeScript under Zlib. Nuclear has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, tunarr 5%. Nuclear was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Nuclear | tunarr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Zlib |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 132 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Nuclear if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tunarr if
- You want the tunarr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and tunarr fits your workflow better
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 →
About tunarr
Tunarr is a self hosted media streaming project written in TypeScript and released under the Zlib license. It creates custom live TV channels from existing media libraries, including Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, and local files. The project lives in the self hosted IPTV and local media streaming ecosystem, where users want their media servers and media players to present a broadcast style channel lineup.
read the full tunarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Nuclear or tunarr more popular?
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars and tunarr has 2,579. Nuclear has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nuclear and tunarr free?
Both are open source. Nuclear is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and tunarr under Zlib. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Nuclear and tunarr?
Nuclear is written in TypeScript and tunarr 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, Nuclear or tunarr?
Choose Nuclear if you want the larger community (18,480 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tunarr if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.