Emby vs Stash
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Emby
Personal media server for your movies and shows
VS
Stash
Self-hosted media organizer and server
| Feature | Emby | Stash |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 21 · At risk | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C# | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,972 | ★ 13,007 |
| First released | 2015 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Plex, Netflix | Plex |
What are Emby and Stash?
Emby
Emby is a media server that brings together personal video, music, and photo libraries with apps across platforms. It targets users who want a refined media server with optional premium features. It is deployed via Docker or native packages.
- Cross-platform client apps
- Live TV and DVR support
- Parental controls
- Hardware transcoding with Premiere
Stash
Stash is a self-hosted media organizer that catalogs video and image collections with rich metadata, tagging, and scraping. It targets users who want a deeply organized personal media archive. It is deployed via Docker or a single binary.
- Rich metadata and tagging
- Scraper and plugin system
- Built-in web player
- SQLite-backed storage
Emby vs Stash: key differences
Emby is written in C#, while Stash is built with Go. Licensing differs — Proprietary for Emby versus AGPL-3.0 for Stash. Stash is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Emby. Emby is the more established project (first released 2015), while Stash arrived in 2019. Stash has the considerably larger community, at 13,007 GitHub stars versus 4,972.
Why pick each one
Choose Emby if…
- Polished interface
- Good device coverage
- Stable and mature
Watch out for
- Core became closed source
- Best features need Emby Premiere
Choose Stash if…
- Powerful organization
- Extensible via plugins
- Easy to deploy
Watch out for
- Single-user focused
- Niche feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Emby or Stash better?
Neither is universally better. Stash has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Emby and Stash free and open-source?
Yes. Emby is licensed under Proprietary and Stash under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Emby and Stash with Docker?
Emby: yes. Stash: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Emby or Stash?
Stash has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Emby. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.