head to head · open source
tvheadend vs Sportarr
tvheadend has 3,572 GitHub stars, 993 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Sportarr has 621 stars, 63 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tvheadend leads on adoption by 475% (3,572 vs 621 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 10%. 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 | ★ 3.6K | ★ 621 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 993 | ⑂ 63 |
| 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 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 ========= 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 Sportarr
Sports PVR for Usenet and Torrents Like Sonarr & Radarr, but for sports events. Monitors sports leagues, searches your indexers for releases, and handles file renaming, organization, and media server integration. Support the Project What It Does Tracks events across all major sports (fighting sports, football, soccer, basketball, racing, etc.) Searches Usenet and torrent indexers automatically and upgrades quality when better releases appear Organizes files with customizable naming schemes, including multi part events for fighting sports Integrates with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby through dedicated metadata agents…
read the full Sportarr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tvheadend or Sportarr more popular?
tvheadend has 3,572 GitHub stars and Sportarr has 621. 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 (3,572 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.