Kodi vs Strawberry Music Player

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?
FeatureKodiStrawberry Music Player
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageC++C++
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metalbinary, source
GitHub stars★ 21,064★ 3,877
First released20022018
ReplacesPlexiTunes, Clementine

Why pick each one

Choose Kodi if…

  • Extremely flexible
  • Massive add-on library
  • Long-standing project
Kodi details

Choose Strawberry Music Player if…

  • Powerful desktop player
  • Many supported sources
Strawberry Music Player details

Frequently asked questions

Is Kodi or Strawberry Music Player better?

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

Are Kodi and Strawberry Music Player free and open-source?

Yes. Kodi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Strawberry Music Player under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Kodi and Strawberry Music Player with Docker?

Kodi: check the project docs for container support. Strawberry Music Player: check the project docs for container support.

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