Black Candy vs Gonic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Black Candy | Gonic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,418 | ★ 2,555 |
| First released | None | 2019 |
| Replaces | Spotify, Apple Music | Spotify, Plex |
What are Black Candy and Gonic?
Black Candy
A self hosted music streaming server. Contribute to blackcandy-org/blackcandy development by creating an account on GitHub.
- Personal music streaming
- Responsive web player
- Multi-user accounts
- PWA support
Gonic
Gonic is a fast, lightweight music streaming server compatible with the Subsonic API. Written in Go, it works well on low-power hardware and supports podcasts and multiple music folders.
- Subsonic API compatible
- Very low resource use
- Podcast support
- Multiple music folders
Black Candy vs Gonic: key differences
Black Candy is written in Ruby, while Gonic is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Black Candy versus GPL-3.0 for Gonic. Gonic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Black Candy.
Why pick each one
Choose Black Candy if…
- Clean modern interface
- Simple to deploy
Watch out for
- Music only
- Smaller ecosystem
Choose Gonic if…
- Runs on Raspberry Pi easily
- Works with many Subsonic clients
Watch out for
- No built-in web player polish
- Minimal admin UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Black Candy or Gonic better?
Neither is universally better. Black Candy has the larger community, while Gonic is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Black Candy and Gonic free and open-source?
Yes. Black Candy is licensed under MIT and Gonic under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Black Candy and Gonic with Docker?
Black Candy: yes. Gonic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Black Candy or Gonic?
Gonic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Black Candy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.