SHSelfHostIndex

mjpg-streamer vs RTSPtoWebRTC

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

Not the right match-up?
MJ mjpg-streamer Stream JPEG frames from webcams over HTTP VS RT RTSPtoWebRTC Low-latency RTSP camera streaming to browsers over WebRTC
Featuremjpg-streamerRTSPtoWebRTC
CategoryVideo SurveillanceVideo Surveillance
LicenseGPL-2.0MIT
LanguageCJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcedocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 3,246★ 1,786
First released20132020
ReplacesWebcam streaming servicescommercial camera viewer software

Why pick each one

Choose mjpg-streamer if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C
mjpg-streamer details

Choose RTSPtoWebRTC if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
RTSPtoWebRTC details

Frequently asked questions

Is mjpg-streamer or RTSPtoWebRTC better?

mjpg-streamer is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider RTSPtoWebRTC if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are mjpg-streamer and RTSPtoWebRTC free and open-source?

Yes. mjpg-streamer is licensed under GPL-2.0 and RTSPtoWebRTC under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run mjpg-streamer and RTSPtoWebRTC with Docker?

mjpg-streamer: check the project docs for container support. RTSPtoWebRTC: yes.

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