Sonarr vs SRS

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?
FeatureSonarrSRS
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0-onlyMIT
LanguageC#C++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM50 MB512 MB
Deploymentbare-metaldocker
GitHub stars★ 15,005★ 29,105
First released20232025
Replaces

Why pick each one

Choose Sonarr if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0-only license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 15k GitHub stars
  • Written in C#
Sonarr details

Choose SRS if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 29.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
SRS details

Frequently asked questions

Is Sonarr or SRS better?

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

Are Sonarr and SRS free and open-source?

Yes. Sonarr is licensed under GPL-3.0-only and SRS under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Sonarr and SRS with Docker?

Sonarr: check the project docs for container support. SRS: yes.

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