Koel vs OwnTone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Koel
Personal music streaming server with an elegant interface
VS
OwnTone
Media server with AirPlay, Chromecast and Spotify support
| Feature | Koel | OwnTone |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,262 | ★ 2,560 |
| First released | 2016 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Spotify | Spotify, Apple Music |
What are Koel and OwnTone?
Koel
Koel is a personal music streaming server with a focus on a clean, modern web interface. It supports smart playlists, last.fm scrobbling, and streaming your own collection from any browser.
- Elegant web player
- Smart playlists
- Last.fm scrobbling
- Mobile companion app
OwnTone
OwnTone is a media server that streams music to AirPlay and Chromecast devices, with support for Spotify and internet radio. It serves your local library through DAAP and the Subsonic API.
- AirPlay and Chromecast output
- Spotify integration
- Internet radio
Koel vs OwnTone: key differences
Koel is written in PHP, while OwnTone is built with C. Licensing differs — MIT for Koel versus GPL-2.0 for OwnTone. OwnTone is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Koel. OwnTone is the more established project (first released 2009), while Koel arrived in 2016. Koel has the considerably larger community, at 17,262 GitHub stars versus 2,560.
Why pick each one
Choose Koel if…
- Beautiful interface
- Active community
Watch out for
- Needs a separate database
- Limited transcoding options
Choose OwnTone if…
- Excellent AirPlay support
- Low footprint
Watch out for
- Web UI is minimal
- Configuration via files
Frequently asked questions
Is Koel or OwnTone better?
Neither is universally better. Koel has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Koel and OwnTone free and open-source?
Yes. Koel is licensed under MIT and OwnTone under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Koel and OwnTone with Docker?
Koel: yes. OwnTone: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Koel or OwnTone?
OwnTone has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Koel. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.