head to head · open source
tubearchivist vs smolrtsp
tubearchivist has 8,451 GitHub stars, 420 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. smolrtsp has 508 stars, 118 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. tubearchivist leads on adoption by 1,564% (8,451 vs 508 stars). tubearchivist is written in Python under GPL-3.0; smolrtsp is written in C under MIT. tubearchivist has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, smolrtsp 23%. smolrtsp 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
| tubearchivist | smolrtsp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.5K | ★ 508 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-08-28 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 420 | ⑂ 118 |
| 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 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 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 smolrtsp
SmolRTSP is a small MIT licensed C library that implements an RTSP 1.0 server for embedded devices such as IP cameras, aimed at firmware and camera platform developers who need to serve live video and audio from constrained hardware.
read the full smolrtsp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tubearchivist or smolrtsp more popular?
tubearchivist has 8,451 GitHub stars and smolrtsp has 508. tubearchivist has the larger community by that measure.
Are tubearchivist and smolrtsp free?
Both are open source. tubearchivist is licensed under GPL-3.0 and smolrtsp under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tubearchivist and smolrtsp?
tubearchivist is written in Python 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, tubearchivist or smolrtsp?
Choose tubearchivist if you want the larger community (8,451 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose smolrtsp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.