Feishin 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 | Feishin | Gonic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,986 | ★ 2,555 |
| First released | 2023 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Spotify | Spotify, Plex |
What are Feishin and Gonic?
Feishin
Feishin is a modern, full-featured music player for Subsonic, Navidrome, and Jellyfin servers. It offers a polished desktop and web interface with synced lyrics, scrobbling, and theming.
- Subsonic and Jellyfin support
- Synced lyrics
- Scrobbling
- Desktop and web clients
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
Feishin vs Gonic: key differences
Feishin is written in TypeScript, while Gonic is built with Go. Gonic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Feishin. Gonic is the more established project (first released 2019), while Feishin arrived in 2023. Feishin has the considerably larger community, at 9,986 GitHub stars versus 2,555.
Why pick each one
Choose Feishin if…
- Beautiful modern UI
- Multi-server support
Watch out for
- Client only
- Requires an existing server
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 Feishin or Gonic better?
Neither is universally better. Feishin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Feishin and Gonic free and open-source?
Yes. Feishin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Gonic under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Feishin and Gonic with Docker?
Feishin: yes. Gonic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Feishin or Gonic?
Gonic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Feishin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.