Ladder vs Sonarr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Ladder
Bypass paywalls as 12ft.io does
VS
Sonarr
Series collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users
| Feature | Ladder | Sonarr |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-books & Media Library | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | GPL-3.0-only |
| Language | Go | C# |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 20 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,804 | ★ 15,005 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | 12ft, 13ft | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Ladder if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 8.8k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose Sonarr if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 15k GitHub stars
- Written in C#
Frequently asked questions
Is Ladder or Sonarr better?
Neither is universally better. Sonarr has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Ladder and Sonarr free and open-source?
Yes. Ladder is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Sonarr under GPL-3.0-only. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ladder and Sonarr with Docker?
Ladder: check the project docs for container support. Sonarr: check the project docs for container support.