head to head · open source
tubearchivist vs smolrtsp
tubearchivist has 8,561 GitHub stars, 433 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. smolrtsp has 511 stars, 119 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. tubearchivist leads on adoption by 1,575% (8,561 vs 511 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%. tubearchivist 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 | ★ 8.6K | ★ 511 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-25 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 433 | ⑂ 119 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tubearchivist if
- You weight community size — 8.6K 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
more screenshots and video Table of contents Docs with FAQ, and API documentation Core functionality Resources Installing Getting Started Known limitations Port Collisions Common Errors Roadmap Donate Core functionality Once your YouTube video collection grows, it becomes hard to search and find a specific video. That's where Tube Archivist comes in: By indexing your video collection with metadata from YouTube, you can organize, search and enjoy your archived YouTube videos without hassle offline through a convenient web interface. This includes: Subscribe to your favorite YouTube channels Download Videos using…
read the full tubearchivist 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 tubearchivist or smolrtsp more popular?
tubearchivist has 8,561 GitHub stars and smolrtsp has 511. 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 (8,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose smolrtsp if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.