qBittorrent vs Stash

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?
FeatureqBittorrentStash
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-laterAGPL-3.0
LanguageC++Go
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM50 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 39,327★ 12,802
First released20232019
ReplacesµTorrentPlex

Why pick each one

Choose qBittorrent if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 39.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
qBittorrent details

Choose Stash if…

  • Powerful organization
  • Extensible via plugins
  • Easy to deploy
Stash details

Frequently asked questions

Is qBittorrent or Stash better?

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

Are qBittorrent and Stash free and open-source?

Yes. qBittorrent is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later and Stash under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run qBittorrent and Stash with Docker?

qBittorrent: check the project docs for container support. Stash: yes.

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