Prowlarr vs Radarr
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?
Prowlarr
Complete management of your indexers for Radarr, Sonarr, Lidarr
VS
Radarr
Movie collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users
| Feature | Prowlarr | Radarr |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | GPL-3.0-only |
| Language | C# | C# |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 50 MB | 100 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,979 | ★ 14,127 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | — | — |
Why pick each one
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#
Choose Radarr if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
- Mature project with 14.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C#
- Tiny footprint — runs in 100 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Prowlarr or Radarr better?
Neither is universally better. Radarr has the larger community, while Prowlarr is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Prowlarr and Radarr free and open-source?
Yes. Prowlarr is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Radarr under GPL-3.0-only. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Prowlarr and Radarr with Docker?
Prowlarr: check the project docs for container support. Radarr: check the project docs for container support.