Profilarr vs Transmission

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

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FeatureProfilarrTransmission
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0-onlyGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM50 MB50 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,515★ 15,047
First released20242023
ReplacesµTorrent

Why pick each one

Choose Profilarr if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
  • Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Profilarr 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 Profilarr or Transmission better?

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

Are Profilarr and Transmission free and open-source?

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

Can I run Profilarr and Transmission with Docker?

Profilarr: check the project docs for container support. Transmission: check the project docs for container support.

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