head to head · open source
Nuclear vs tvheadend
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars, 1,327 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped today. tvheadend has 3,524 stars, 975 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Nuclear leads on adoption by 424% (18,480 vs 3,524 stars). Nuclear is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0. Nuclear has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, tvheadend 28%. 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 | tvheadend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 975 |
| 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 tvheadend if
- You want the tvheadend 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 tvheadend 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 tvheadend
Tvheadend is an open source TV streaming server and digital video recorder for Linux. It lives in the Linux media and streaming ecosystem, and it is written in C under the GPL 3.0 license. The project provides a server that can receive television signals and streams from many input types, then make those channels available over the network.
read the full tvheadend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Nuclear or tvheadend more popular?
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars and tvheadend has 3,524. Nuclear has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nuclear and tvheadend free?
Both are open source. Nuclear is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and tvheadend under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Nuclear and tvheadend?
Nuclear is written in TypeScript and tvheadend 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, Nuclear or tvheadend?
Choose Nuclear if you want the larger community (18,480 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tvheadend if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.