head to head · open source
tubearchivist vs lap
tubearchivist has 8,451 GitHub stars, 420 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. lap has 2,440 stars, 150 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tubearchivist leads on adoption by 246% (8,451 vs 2,440 stars). tubearchivist is written in Python under GPL-3.0; lap is written in Vue under GPL-3.0. tubearchivist has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, lap 6%. lap 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| tubearchivist | lap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.5K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 420 | ⑂ 150 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tubearchivist if
- You weight community size — 8.5K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lap if
- You want the lap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and lap fits your workflow better
About tubearchivist
Tube Archivist is a self hosted YouTube media server that downloads videos with yt dlp, indexes them with metadata from YouTube, and serves them back through a searchable web interface, built for people whose personal YouTube archive has grown past the point where folders and filenames still work.
read the full tubearchivist overview →
About lap
Lap is an open source, GPL 3.0 desktop photo manager for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is built around a local first model, so users browse family albums, find old photos, and manage large personal media libraries without a required cloud account or upload. The concrete problem is the tension between convenience and privacy in photo organization. Many services rely on cloud storage, accounts, and proprietary libraries, while many users keep photos and videos in ordinary folders on their own disks. Lap solves this by working directly with existing folders, keeping files in place, and offering local search, similar…
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Digital Asset Management (DAM) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Digital Asset Management (DAM) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is tubearchivist or lap more popular?
tubearchivist has 8,451 GitHub stars and lap has 2,440. tubearchivist has the larger community by that measure.
Are tubearchivist and lap free?
Both are open source. tubearchivist is licensed under GPL-3.0 and lap under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tubearchivist and lap?
tubearchivist is written in Python and lap in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tubearchivist or lap?
Choose tubearchivist if you want the larger community (8,451 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lap if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.