head to head · open source
streama vs UniversalMediaServer
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars, 978 forks, 352 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. UniversalMediaServer has 2,651 stars, 527 forks, 405 open issues and last shipped yesterday. streama leads on adoption by 270% (9,820 vs 2,651 stars). streama is written in JavaScript under MIT; UniversalMediaServer is written in Java under GPL-2.0. streama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, UniversalMediaServer 20%. UniversalMediaServer 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 | UniversalMediaServer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.8K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-08-09 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 978 | ⑂ 527 |
| 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 UniversalMediaServer if
- You want the UniversalMediaServer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and UniversalMediaServer 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 UniversalMediaServer
UniversalMediaServer is a DLNA, UPnP, and HTTP(S) media server written in Java and released under GPL 2.0. It shares video, audio, and images between most modern devices. The project lives in the Content & Publishing / Digital Asset Management ecosystem and presents itself as a media server application for local network distribution.
read the full UniversalMediaServer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is streama or UniversalMediaServer more popular?
streama has 9,820 GitHub stars and UniversalMediaServer has 2,651. streama has the larger community by that measure.
Are streama and UniversalMediaServer free?
Both are open source. streama is licensed under MIT and UniversalMediaServer under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between streama and UniversalMediaServer?
streama is written in JavaScript and UniversalMediaServer in Java. 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 UniversalMediaServer?
Choose streama if you want the larger community (9,820 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose UniversalMediaServer if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.