Feishin vs Koel
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Koel
Personal music streaming server with an elegant interface
| Feature | Feishin | Koel |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,986 | ★ 17,262 |
| First released | 2023 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Spotify | Spotify |
What are Feishin and Koel?
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
Koel
Koel is a personal music streaming server with a focus on a clean, modern web interface. It supports smart playlists, last.fm scrobbling, and streaming your own collection from any browser.
- Elegant web player
- Smart playlists
- Last.fm scrobbling
- Mobile companion app
Feishin vs Koel: key differences
Feishin is written in TypeScript, while Koel is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Feishin versus MIT for Koel. Feishin is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Koel. Koel is the more established project (first released 2016), while Feishin arrived in 2023.
Why pick each one
Choose Feishin if…
- Beautiful modern UI
- Multi-server support
Watch out for
- Client only
- Requires an existing server
Choose Koel if…
- Beautiful interface
- Active community
Watch out for
- Needs a separate database
- Limited transcoding options
Frequently asked questions
Is Feishin or Koel better?
Neither is universally better. Koel has the larger community, while Feishin is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Feishin and Koel free and open-source?
Yes. Feishin is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Koel under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Feishin and Koel with Docker?
Feishin: yes. Koel: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Feishin or Koel?
Feishin has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Koel. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.