Olaris vs Streama
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted media servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Olaris | Streama |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 300 | ★ 9,820 |
| First released | 2019 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Plex | Netflix, Plex |
What are Olaris and Streama?
Olaris
Olaris is an open-source media manager and transcoding server for organizing and streaming movies and TV shows. It scrapes metadata automatically and serves content over a GraphQL API.
- Automatic metadata scraping
- GraphQL API
- On-the-fly transcoding
- Movie and TV organization
Streama
Streama is a self-hosted streaming media server that lets you build a personal Netflix-style library of movies and TV shows. It runs in the browser and supports multiple user accounts with watch progress tracking.
- Netflix-style UI
- Multi-user accounts
- Watch progress tracking
- Subtitle support
Olaris vs Streama: key differences
Olaris is written in Go, while Streama is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Olaris versus MIT for Streama. Streama is the more established project (first released 2015), while Olaris arrived in 2019. Streama has the considerably larger community, at 9,820 GitHub stars versus 300.
Why pick each one
Choose Olaris if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Go
Watch out for
- Development stalled
- Limited client apps
Choose Streama if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.8k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Watch out for
- No live transcoding
- Slower development pace
Frequently asked questions
Is Olaris or Streama better?
Neither is universally better. Streama has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Olaris and Streama free and open-source?
Yes. Olaris is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Streama under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Olaris and Streama with Docker?
Olaris: yes. Streama: yes.