Owncast 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?
Compare Owncast with
choose an app… Jellyfin qBittorrent SRS Navidrome Kodi Koel Jackett Beets PeerTube Sonarr MeTube Radarr Audiobookshelf Stash Stremio Web Seerr Streama Feishin Mopidy Tube Archivist Snapcast Prowlarr Tautulli Jellyfin Media Player Ant Media Server Community Edition Broadcast Box
Compare Transmission with
choose an app… Free Programming Books Immich Jellyfin Paperless-ngx PhotoPrism qBittorrent SRS KOReader Ente Photos Koodo Reader Calibre DeepFace Readest Navidrome Kodi Ebook2audiobook gallery-dl Calibre-Web Koel Jackett Beets DeDRM Tools PeerTube Sonarr MeTube Radarr Audiobookshelf Color Thief darktable Stash Stremio Web Seerr Kavita Thumbor Streama Feishin Ladder Wikidpad Notes Mopidy Tube Archivist LibrePhotos Snapcast Prowlarr Tautulli Photoview imaginary Google Photos Takeout Helper Jellyfin Media Player Lidarr Pinchflat Streamyfin MediaCMS Overseerr Emby musikcube Ant Media Server Community Edition Jellyfin for Android TV Black Candy Sonus Note - Black Candy Qui Tdarr Findroid Bazarr Finamp Ombi Dim Swiftfin Plex AzuraCast Strawberry Music Player Ampache Dispatcharr Headphones Moodist Ryot Tvheadend Yamtrack OvenMediaEngine Wizarr SABnzbd Music Assistant ytdl-sub ErsatzTV Flood TubeSync mpd Polaris Funkwhale Universal Media Server NymphCast yt-dlp Web UI OwnTone Profilarr Tunarr Gonic Kyoo Fladder Unmanic Jellystat mStream Reiverr Jellyfin MPV Shim Broadcast Box Supersonic xTeVe Tempo Maintainerr Recyclarr Airsonic Swing Music Podgrab Sonixd Musicn Maloja Lyrion Music Server Quod Libet Jellyfin Vue Threadfin Amperfy LMS CyTube Cross-Seed ViewTube WatchYourLAN Note - CineMatic Watcharr Fireshare Airsonic-Advanced moOde audio player Gerbera nefarious Mopidy-Iris Meelo multi-scrobbler MyTube Whisparr Castopod PinePods LibreTime Rapidbay Karaoke Eternal Audioserve CodeX.docs Movary Cinemataztic Note Webtrees-no Kitsu Self-Hosted Reaparr Stretto Icecast Lidify ympd myMPD Lidarr on Steroids LinkStack MistServer Ultrasonic PodFetch Airsonic-Refix Downtify SyncTube vod2pod-rss LidaTube Deleterr ChannelTube Stremio Server YoutubeDL-Server gpodder.net (mygpo) Olaris Supysonic AntennaPod gpodder Sync Server Nextcloud GPodder ydl_api_ng Jellyfin for Roku RompR MiniDLNA Rygel Submariner cmyflix Cantata Stream Master OctoStream Note - mediarr OliveTin-no ClipBucket Snapweb BotWave Audinaut Sublime Music NextPVR Volumio MKVPriority Podverse TrackWatch tinyMediaManager Vibin Note - Beatbump alt Murmur-no Channels DVR Server Deemix Deluge Just. Download. Sickchill Stalwart Mail Subsonic Tube VideoLAN Client (VLC) üWave
Feature Owncast Transmission Category Media Servers Media Servers License MIT GPL-3.0 Language Go C++ Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 50 MB Deployment docker, binary bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 11,445 ★ 15,047 First released 2020 2023 Replaces Twitch µTorrent
Why pick each one
Choose Owncast if… Own your live stream Simple single-binary deploy Built-in chat Owncast 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 Owncast or Transmission better? Neither is universally better. Transmission 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 Transmission free and open-source? Yes. Owncast is licensed under MIT and Transmission under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Owncast and Transmission with Docker? Owncast: yes. Transmission: check the project docs for container support.