Koel vs Sonixd
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
Sonixd
Archived
Cross-platform desktop client for Subsonic music servers
| Feature | Koel | Sonixd |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,262 | ★ 1,915 |
| First released | 2016 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Spotify | Spotify |
What are Koel and Sonixd?
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
Sonixd
Sonixd is a cross-platform desktop music player for Subsonic-compatible servers including Navidrome, Airsonic, and Funkwhale. It provides queue management, theming, and scrobbling for a desktop listening experience.
- Subsonic-compatible client
- Advanced queue management
- Theming
- Scrobbling support
Koel vs Sonixd: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Sonixd's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Koel is actively maintained. Koel is written in PHP, while Sonixd is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Koel versus AGPL-3.0 for Sonixd. Sonixd is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Koel. Koel is the more established project (first released 2016), while Sonixd arrived in 2021. Koel has the considerably larger community, at 17,262 GitHub stars versus 1,915. Koel lists first-class Docker deployment; Sonixd does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Koel if…
- Beautiful interface
- Active community
Watch out for
- Needs a separate database
- Limited transcoding options
Choose Sonixd if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Watch out for
- Desktop client only
- No longer actively developed
Frequently asked questions
Is Koel or Sonixd better?
Neither is universally better. Koel has the larger community, while Sonixd is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Koel and Sonixd free and open-source?
Yes. Koel is licensed under MIT and Sonixd under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Koel and Sonixd with Docker?
Koel: yes. Sonixd: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Koel or Sonixd?
Sonixd has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Koel. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.