Invidious vs Tesseract
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted social networks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Invidious
Alternative front-end to YouTube
VS
Tesseract
Media-focused alternative web interface for Lemmy
| Feature | Invidious | Tesseract |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Social Networks | Social Networks |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Crystal | Svelte |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 22,442 | ★ 3 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | 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
Choose Tesseract if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Svelte
Frequently asked questions
Is Invidious or Tesseract better?
Neither is universally better. Invidious has the larger community, while Tesseract is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Invidious and Tesseract free and open-source?
Yes. Invidious is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Tesseract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Invidious and Tesseract with Docker?
Invidious: check the project docs for container support. Tesseract: yes.