Invidious vs Pinchflat
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Invidious
Alternative front-end to YouTube
VS
Pinchflat
Self-hosted YouTube media archiving for media servers
| Feature | Invidious | Pinchflat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Crystal | Elixir |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,442 | ★ 5,215 |
| First released | 2023 | 2024 |
| Replaces | YouTube | YouTube |
Why pick each one
Choose Invidious if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Mature project with 22.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Crystal
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or Pinchflat better?
Neither is universally better. Invidious has the larger community, while Pinchflat is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Invidious and Pinchflat free and open-source?
Yes. Invidious is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Pinchflat under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Invidious and Pinchflat with Docker?
Invidious: check the project docs for container support. Pinchflat: yes.