Radarr 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?
Radarr
Movie collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users
VS
Stash
Self-hosted media organizer and server
| Feature | Radarr | Stash |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Media Servers | Media Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0-only | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C# | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 100 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,127 | ★ 12,802 |
| First released | 2023 | 2019 |
| Replaces | — | Plex |
Why pick each one
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 Radarr or Stash better?
Neither is universally better. Radarr has the larger community, while Stash is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Radarr and Stash free and open-source?
Yes. Radarr is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and Stash under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Radarr and Stash with Docker?
Radarr: check the project docs for container support. Stash: yes.