Jackett vs Koel

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?
FeatureJackettKoel
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguageC#PHP
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM200 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 15,854★ 17,208
First released20232016
ReplacesSpotify

Why pick each one

Choose Jackett if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 15.9k GitHub stars
  • Written in C#
Jackett details

Choose Koel if…

  • Beautiful interface
  • Active community
Koel details

Frequently asked questions

Is Jackett or Koel better?

Neither is universally better. Koel has the larger community, while Jackett is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Jackett and Koel free and open-source?

Yes. Jackett is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Koel under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Jackett and Koel with Docker?

Jackett: check the project docs for container support. Koel: yes.

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