Audiobookshelf vs SRS

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?
FeatureAudiobookshelfSRS
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageJavaScriptC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker
GitHub stars★ 13,896★ 29,105
First released20212025
ReplacesAudible

Why pick each one

Choose Audiobookshelf if…

  • Great mobile apps
  • Handles podcasts too
  • Simple deployment
Audiobookshelf details

Choose SRS if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 29.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
SRS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Audiobookshelf or SRS better?

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

Are Audiobookshelf and SRS free and open-source?

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

Can I run Audiobookshelf and SRS with Docker?

Audiobookshelf: yes. SRS: yes.

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