Owncast
Media ServersSelf-hosted live streaming and chat server
Replaces Twitch
Best Real-Time Media Servers for self-hosting
The 10 best Real-Time media servers you can self-host, ranked by community traction.
Snapcast
Media ServersSynchronized multi-room audio streaming player
Replaces Sonos
Ant Media Server Community Edition
Media ServersOpen-source low-latency streaming server
Replaces Wowza, Twitch
AzuraCast
Media ServersAll-in-one self-hosted web radio management suite
Replaces Live365
Music Assistant
Media ServersMusic library manager that streams to many speaker types
Replaces Sonos, Spotify Connect
Broadcast Box
Media ServersSelf-hosted low-latency WebRTC live streaming server
Replaces Twitch, YouTube Live
Lyrion Music Server
Media ServersOpen-source music server for Squeezebox and software players
Replaces Sonos, Spotify
Mopidy-Iris
Media ServersModern web interface for the Mopidy music server
Replaces Sonos app
Icecast
Media ServersStreaming media server for internet radio broadcasts
Replaces Spotify
Snapweb
Media ServersWeb client and player for the Snapcast multi-room audio system
Replaces Sonos
No apps match these filters.
At a glance
| App | Deploy effort | Difficulty | Min. RAM | License | ★ Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owncast | Under-an-hour setup | Easy | 256 MB | MIT | 11,590 |
| Snapcast | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 64 MB | GPL-3.0 | 7,918 |
| Ant Media Server Community Edition | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 1,024 MB | Apache-2.0 | 4,741 |
| AzuraCast | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 2,048 MB | Apache-2.0 | 4,063 |
| Music Assistant | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 512 MB | Apache-2.0 | 3,169 |
| Broadcast Box | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 256 MB | MIT | 2,320 |
| Lyrion Music Server | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 256 MB | GPL-2.0 | 1,789 |
| Mopidy-Iris | Read-the-docs project | Medium | 128 MB | Apache-2.0 | 1,240 |
| Icecast | Under-an-hour setup | Medium | 64 MB | GPL-2.0 | 600 |
| Snapweb | Read-the-docs project | Easy | 64 MB | GPL-3.0 | 146 |
Quick picks
- Most adopted: Owncast (11,590 GitHub stars).
- Lightest footprint: Snapcast (from 64 MB RAM, against 2,048 MB for the heaviest here).
- Licensing: 4 of 10 use Apache-2.0; check the rest individually if you plan to modify and redistribute.
Every option here is open-source and self-hostable, tagged Real-Time within the media servers category. Deploy effort is graded from published container recipes, not vendor claims — see the methodology.