Stash vs Transmission

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?
FeatureStashTransmission
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageGoC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB50 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 12,802★ 15,047
First released20192023
ReplacesPlexµTorrent

Why pick each one

Choose Stash if…

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

Choose Transmission if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 15k GitHub stars
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Transmission details

Frequently asked questions

Is Stash or Transmission better?

Neither is universally better. Transmission 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 Stash and Transmission free and open-source?

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

Can I run Stash and Transmission with Docker?

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

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