Owncast vs SRS

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?
FeatureOwncastSRS
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageGoC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker
GitHub stars★ 11,445★ 29,105
First released20202025
ReplacesTwitch

Why pick each one

Choose Owncast if…

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

Choose SRS if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 29.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
SRS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Owncast or SRS better?

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

Are Owncast and SRS free and open-source?

Yes. Owncast is licensed under MIT and SRS under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Owncast and SRS with Docker?

Owncast: yes. SRS: yes.

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