SHSelfHostIndex

WebRTC Camera vs mjpg-streamer

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

Not the right match-up?
WE WebRTC Camera Low-latency camera streaming integration for Home Assistant VS MJ mjpg-streamer Stream JPEG frames from webcams over HTTP
FeatureWebRTC Cameramjpg-streamer
CategoryVideo SurveillanceVideo Surveillance
LicenseMITGPL-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptC
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentsourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 2,161★ 3,246
First released20212013
ReplacesCloud camera streamingWebcam streaming services

Why pick each one

Choose WebRTC Camera if…

  • Very low latency
  • Local and private
WebRTC Camera details

Choose mjpg-streamer if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C
mjpg-streamer details

Frequently asked questions

Is WebRTC Camera or mjpg-streamer better?

mjpg-streamer is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider WebRTC Camera if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are WebRTC Camera and mjpg-streamer free and open-source?

Yes. WebRTC Camera is licensed under MIT and mjpg-streamer under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run WebRTC Camera and mjpg-streamer with Docker?

WebRTC Camera: check the project docs for container support. mjpg-streamer: check the project docs for container support.

Related comparisons