head to head · open source
streama vs Node-Media-Server
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars, 978 forks, 352 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Node-Media-Server has 6,244 stars, 1,535 forks, 432 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. streama leads on adoption by 57% (9,820 vs 6,244 stars). streama is written in JavaScript under MIT; Node-Media-Server is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. streama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Node-Media-Server 25%. Node-Media-Server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (media-server), 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
| streama | Node-Media-Server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 978 | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick streama if
- You weight community size — 9.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Node-Media-Server if
- You want the Node-Media-Server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Node-Media-Server fits your workflow better
About streama
Streama is a self hosted streaming media server, written in JavaScript and released under the MIT licence, that gives someone with a large personal collection of films and shows a private Netflix style library they run and control themselves.
read the full streama overview →
About Node-Media-Server
Node Media Server is a live streaming media server written in JavaScript and distributed through npm, the Node.js package registry. Version 4 is built as an enhanced RTMP FLV v1 implementation with native support for HEVC, VP9, and AV1 codecs, alongside the H.264 support carried over from earlier releases. It ships under the Apache 2.0 license and has accumulated roughly 6,244 stars and 1,535 forks on GitHub over a repository history of about twelve years, with recent commits dated September 2026.
read the full Node-Media-Server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is streama or Node-Media-Server more popular?
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars and Node-Media-Server has 6,244. streama has the larger community by that measure.
Are streama and Node-Media-Server free?
Both are open source. streama is licensed under MIT and Node-Media-Server under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between streama and Node-Media-Server?
streama is written in JavaScript and Node-Media-Server in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, streama or Node-Media-Server?
Choose streama if you want the larger community (9,820 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Node-Media-Server if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.