SHSelfHostIndex

Finamp vs Polaris

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FI Finamp Jellyfin music player with offline downloads VS PO Polaris Music streaming server focused on speed and simplicity
FeatureFinampPolaris
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseMPL-2.0MIT
LanguageDartRust
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, binary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 4,169★ 2,715
First released20212017
ReplacesPlexamp, SpotifySpotify

Why pick each one

Choose Finamp if…

  • Reliable offline mode
  • Active community
Finamp details

Choose Polaris if…

  • Low resource usage
  • Single binary deployment
Polaris details

Frequently asked questions

Is Finamp or Polaris better?

Neither is universally better. Finamp has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Finamp and Polaris free and open-source?

Yes. Finamp is licensed under MPL-2.0 and Polaris under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Finamp and Polaris with Docker?

Finamp: check the project docs for container support. Polaris: yes.

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