Airsonic-Refix vs Beets

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureAirsonic-RefixBeets
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageVuePython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 450★ 15,509
First released20202008
ReplacesSpotifyiTunes

Why pick each one

Choose Airsonic-Refix if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Vue
Airsonic-Refix details

Choose Beets if…

  • Excellent metadata accuracy
  • Highly scriptable
Beets details

Frequently asked questions

Is Airsonic-Refix or Beets better?

Neither is universally better. Beets has the larger community, while Airsonic-Refix is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Airsonic-Refix and Beets free and open-source?

Yes. Airsonic-Refix is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Beets under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Airsonic-Refix and Beets with Docker?

Airsonic-Refix: yes. Beets: yes.

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