camera-streamer vs OpenALPR
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?
camera-streamer
High-performance camera streaming for Raspberry Pi
VS
OpenALPR
Automatic license plate recognition library
| Feature | camera-streamer | OpenALPR |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Surveillance | Video Surveillance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 442 | ★ 11,440 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | mjpg-streamer | Rekor Scout, Plate Recognizer |
Why pick each one
Choose camera-streamer if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose OpenALPR if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.4k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is camera-streamer or OpenALPR better?
Neither is universally better. OpenALPR has the larger community, while camera-streamer is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are camera-streamer and OpenALPR free and open-source?
Yes. camera-streamer is licensed under MIT and OpenALPR under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run camera-streamer and OpenALPR with Docker?
camera-streamer: yes. OpenALPR: yes.