Audinaut vs Koel

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?
FeatureAudinautKoel
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageJavaPHP
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 134★ 17,208
First released20172016
ReplacesSpotifySpotify

Why pick each one

Choose Audinaut if…

  • No ads
  • Lightweight
Audinaut details

Choose Koel if…

  • Beautiful interface
  • Active community
Koel details

Frequently asked questions

Is Audinaut or Koel better?

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

Are Audinaut and Koel free and open-source?

Yes. Audinaut is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Koel under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Audinaut and Koel with Docker?

Audinaut: check the project docs for container support. Koel: yes.

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