head to head · open source
tvheadend vs debrify
tvheadend has 3,572 GitHub stars, 993 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. debrify has 638 stars, 48 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. tvheadend leads on adoption by 460% (3,572 vs 638 stars). tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0; debrify is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. tvheadend has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, debrify 8%. debrify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (iptv), 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
| tvheadend | debrify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.6K | ★ 638 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 993 | ⑂ 48 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tvheadend if
- You weight community size — 3.6K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick debrify if
- You want the debrify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and debrify fits your workflow better
About tvheadend
Tvheadend ========= Tvheadend is the leading TV streaming server and Digital Video Recorder for Linux. It supports the following inputs: ATSC DVB C(2) DVB S(2) DVB T(2) HDHomeRun IPTV UDP HTTP SAT IP Unix Pipe It supports the following outputs: HTSP (native protocol) HTTP SAT IP Documentation Tvheadend documentation can be found here: Support Please triage issues and ask questions in the forum: or use the hts IRC channel on Libera.Chat to speak with project staff: Please report triaged bugs via GitHub Issues. Building for Linux First you need to configure: $ ./configure If build dependencies are missing the…
read the full tvheadend overview →
About debrify
Debrify Your personal media hub One app to browse, stream, and organize media from your own services — with a cinematic player built in Website • Download • Features • Platforms • Reddit • Discord What is Debrify? Debrify is an open source, cross platform media hub . It brings the services you already use — cloud storage accounts, personal WebDAV servers, IPTV playlists, Stremio addon catalogs, YouTube — into one place, with a built in player tuned for movies and TV, a download manager , Trakt/Simkl/MDBList tracking , and a cinematic UI that works just as well on a phone, a desktop, or a…
read the full debrify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or debrify more popular?
tvheadend has 3,572 GitHub stars and debrify has 638. tvheadend has the larger community by that measure.
Are tvheadend and debrify free?
Both are open source. tvheadend is licensed under GPL-3.0 and debrify under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tvheadend and debrify?
tvheadend is written in C and debrify in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tvheadend or debrify?
Choose tvheadend if you want the larger community (3,572 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose debrify if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.