SHSelfHostIndex

Owncast vs Prowlarr

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?
OW Owncast Self-hosted live streaming and chat server VS PR Prowlarr Complete management of your indexers for Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr
FeatureOwncastProwlarr
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseMITGPL-3.0-only
LanguageGoC#
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB50 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 11,445★ 6,979
First released20202023
ReplacesTwitch—

Why pick each one

Choose Owncast if…

  • Own your live stream
  • Simple single-binary deploy
  • Built-in chat
Owncast details

Choose Prowlarr if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 7k GitHub stars
  • Written in C#
Prowlarr details

Frequently asked questions

Is Owncast or Prowlarr better?

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

Are Owncast and Prowlarr free and open-source?

Yes. Owncast is licensed under MIT and Prowlarr under GPL-3.0-only. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Owncast and Prowlarr with Docker?

Owncast: yes. Prowlarr: check the project docs for container support.

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