head to head · open source
streama vs smolrtsp
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars, 977 forks, 352 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. smolrtsp has 511 stars, 119 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. streama leads on adoption by 1,822% (9,820 vs 511 stars). streama is written in JavaScript under MIT; smolrtsp is written in C under MIT. streama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, smolrtsp 23%. streama 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 | smolrtsp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 511 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 977 | ⑂ 119 |
| 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 smolrtsp if
- You want the smolrtsp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and smolrtsp fits your workflow better
About streama
STREAMA Docs: Ever had a huge bookshelf full of shows and movies? Ever wanted to digitalize them, but didn't have a good way of organizing the files? Worry no more! Streama is your own personal Netflix for just such a purpose! Live Demo credentials: username: demoUser password: demoUser Feel free to play around there as much as you like (everything is reset at night) We will keep this demo updated with our newest releases as they come, so that you can check out new features there first before deciding to deploy them in your own environments. Donate If you want to donate to the developer via bitcoin use…
read the full streama overview →
About smolrtsp
SmolRTSP SmolRTSP is a simple [RTSP 1.0] server library tailored for embedded devices, such as IP cameras. It supports both TCP and UDP, allows any payload format, and provides a convenient and flexible API. [RTSP 1.0]: Highlights Small. SmolRTSP is designed for use in embedded systems (e.g., IP cameras). Unopinionated. You can use SmolRTSP with bare POSIX sockets, [libevent], or any other network framework. Zero copy. SmolRTSP does not allocate or copy data while parsing. Battle tested. SmolRTSP is used by [Majestic], an IP camera streamer developed by [OpenIPC]. [libevent]: [array slices]: [Majestic]…
read the full smolrtsp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is streama or smolrtsp more popular?
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars and smolrtsp has 511. streama has the larger community by that measure.
Are streama and smolrtsp free?
Both are open source. streama is licensed under MIT and smolrtsp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between streama and smolrtsp?
streama is written in JavaScript and smolrtsp 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, streama or smolrtsp?
Choose streama if you want the larger community (9,820 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose smolrtsp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.