Jellyfin vs Stash
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Jellyfin
Free software media system for streaming your library
VS
Stash
Self-hosted media organizer and server
| Feature | Jellyfin | Stash |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C# | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 57,445 | ★ 13,007 |
| First released | 2018 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Plex, Emby | Plex |
What are Jellyfin and Stash?
Jellyfin
Jellyfin is a free software media server that organizes and streams movies, TV, music, and photos to many devices. It is aimed at users who want a fully free, no-account media solution. It is typically deployed via Docker or native packages.
- Completely free with no paywalled features
- Hardware-accelerated transcoding
- Apps for TVs, phones and consoles
- Live TV and DVR support
Stash
Stash is a self-hosted media organizer that catalogs video and image collections with rich metadata, tagging, and scraping. It targets users who want a deeply organized personal media archive. It is deployed via Docker or a single binary.
- Rich metadata and tagging
- Scraper and plugin system
- Built-in web player
- SQLite-backed storage
Jellyfin vs Stash: key differences
Jellyfin is written in C#, while Stash is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Jellyfin versus AGPL-3.0 for Stash. Stash is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Jellyfin. Jellyfin has the considerably larger community, at 57,445 GitHub stars versus 13,007.
Why pick each one
Choose Jellyfin if…
- No subscription or account needed
- Active community development
- Wide client support
Watch out for
- Apps less polished than Plex
- Remote access setup is manual
Choose Stash if…
- Powerful organization
- Extensible via plugins
- Easy to deploy
Watch out for
- Single-user focused
- Niche feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Jellyfin or Stash better?
Neither is universally better. Jellyfin has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Jellyfin and Stash free and open-source?
Yes. Jellyfin is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Stash under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Jellyfin and Stash with Docker?
Jellyfin: yes. Stash: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Jellyfin or Stash?
Stash has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Jellyfin. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.