head to head · open source
tvheadend vs debrify
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars, 975 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. debrify has 524 stars, 30 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped today. tvheadend leads on adoption by 573% (3,524 vs 524 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 6%. 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 | ★ 3.5K | ★ 524 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 975 | ⑂ 30 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tvheadend if
- You weight community size — 3.5K 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 is an open source TV streaming server and digital video recorder for Linux. It lives in the Linux media and streaming ecosystem, and it is written in C under the GPL 3.0 license. The project provides a server that can receive television signals and streams from many input types, then make those channels available over the network.
read the full tvheadend overview →
About debrify
Debrify is an open source, cross platform media hub — written in Dart with Flutter and licensed AGPL 3.0 — that gathers cloud storage accounts, personal WebDAV servers, IPTV playlists, Stremio addon catalogs, and YouTube into a single library with a built in cinematic player, for people who already hold their own sources and accounts and want one interface for all of them.
read the full debrify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or debrify more popular?
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars and debrify has 524. 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 (3,524 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.