PeerTube 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?
FeaturePeerTubeTransmission
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB50 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 15,236★ 15,047
First released20182023
ReplacesYouTube, VimeoµTorrent

Why pick each one

Choose PeerTube if…

  • Reduces bandwidth via P2P
  • Federates with the Fediverse
PeerTube 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 PeerTube or Transmission better?

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

Are PeerTube and Transmission free and open-source?

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

Can I run PeerTube and Transmission with Docker?

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

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