SRS vs Unmanic

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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FeatureSRSUnmanic
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageC++Python
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 29,105★ 2,448
First released20252020
ReplacesHandbrake

Why pick each one

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

Choose Unmanic if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2.4k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
Unmanic details

Frequently asked questions

Is SRS or Unmanic better?

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

Are SRS and Unmanic free and open-source?

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

Can I run SRS and Unmanic with Docker?

SRS: yes. Unmanic: yes.

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