Supersonic 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?
FeatureSupersonicTransmission
CategoryMedia ServersMedia Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageGoC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB50 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,288★ 15,047
First released20222023
ReplacesPlexamp, Spotify desktopµTorrent

Why pick each one

Choose Supersonic if…

  • Fast and lightweight
  • Active development
Supersonic 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 Supersonic or Transmission better?

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

Are Supersonic and Transmission free and open-source?

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

Can I run Supersonic and Transmission with Docker?

Supersonic: check the project docs for container support. Transmission: check the project docs for container support.

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