MediaMTX vs zmNinja

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video surveillance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureMediaMTXzmNinja
CategoryVideo SurveillanceVideo Surveillance
LicenseMITGPL-2.0
LanguageGoJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary, source
GitHub stars★ 19,747★ 1,080
First released20192015
ReplacesWowzaCommercial CCTV apps

Why pick each one

Choose MediaMTX if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Wide protocol support
MediaMTX details

Choose zmNinja if…

  • Polished ZoneMinder client
  • Works on all platforms
zmNinja details

Frequently asked questions

Is MediaMTX or zmNinja better?

Neither is universally better. MediaMTX has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are MediaMTX and zmNinja free and open-source?

Yes. MediaMTX is licensed under MIT and zmNinja under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run MediaMTX and zmNinja with Docker?

MediaMTX: yes. zmNinja: check the project docs for container support.

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