Overseerr vs Transmission

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

Not the right match-up?
FeatureOverseerrTransmission
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM512 MB50 MB
Deploymentdockerbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 4,992★ 15,047
First released20202023
ReplacesPlex RequestsµTorrent

Why pick each one

Choose Overseerr if…

  • Polished interface
  • Widely adopted
Overseerr details

Choose Transmission if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 15k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Transmission details

Frequently asked questions

Is Overseerr or Transmission better?

Neither is universally better. Transmission has the larger community, while Overseerr is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Overseerr and Transmission free and open-source?

Yes. Overseerr is licensed under MIT and Transmission under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Overseerr and Transmission with Docker?

Overseerr: yes. Transmission: check the project docs for container support.

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