head to head · open source
tvheadend vs Sportarr
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars, 975 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Sportarr has 535 stars, 46 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. tvheadend leads on adoption by 559% (3,524 vs 535 stars). tvheadend is written in C under GPL-3.0; Sportarr is written in C# under GPL-3.0. tvheadend has attracted 28% as many forks as stars, Sportarr 9%. Sportarr was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (dvr, 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 | Sportarr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.5K | ★ 535 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 975 | ⑂ 46 |
| 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 Sportarr if
- You want the Sportarr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Sportarr 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 Sportarr
Sportarr is a self hosted sports PVR that monitors sports leagues, searches Usenet and torrent indexers for event releases, and organizes the results into a Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby library — built for people who collect sports events the way Sonarr and Radarr handle series and films.
read the full Sportarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or Sportarr more popular?
tvheadend has 3,524 GitHub stars and Sportarr has 535. tvheadend has the larger community by that measure.
Are tvheadend and Sportarr free?
Both are open source. tvheadend is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sportarr under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tvheadend and Sportarr?
tvheadend is written in C and Sportarr 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, tvheadend or Sportarr?
Choose tvheadend if you want the larger community (3,524 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Sportarr if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.