Media-Server

Self-Hosting Navidrome: Personal Music Streaming Server (Spotify Alternative) Spotify costs $12/month, owns the relationship between you and your music, and can remove albums from your library without notice. If you’ve built a music collection over the years — ripped CDs, purchased albums from Bandcamp, curated FLAC files — Navidrome turns that collection into your own streaming service, accessible from any device, anywhere. Navidrome is a lightweight, open-source music server written in Go. It scans your music library, reads metadata, serves a modern web interface, and speaks the Subsonic API — which means dozens of polished mobile and desktop apps work with it out of the box. It runs comfortably on a Raspberry Pi Zero, handles libraries with hundreds of thousands of tracks, and uses around 30-50MB of RAM for typical collections. ...

Managing a media library manually is tedious. Tracking new episodes, finding quality upgrades, organizing files — it all adds up. The Arr stack automates the entire pipeline: from request to download to organized library, ready for streaming. This guide walks you through deploying the complete Arr stack with Docker Compose, connecting all the pieces, and getting automated media management running on your server. What Is the Arr Stack? The “Arr” ecosystem is a collection of open-source applications that work together: ...

If you have a collection of comics, manga, or graphic novels sitting in folders on a hard drive, Komga turns that pile into a fully browsable, searchable library with a built-in web reader. Think of it as Jellyfin, but purpose-built for comics and manga. What is Komga? Komga is a free, open-source media server for comics, manga, magazines, and eBooks. It scans your existing files (CBZ, CBR, PDF, EPUB), organizes them into libraries and series, and serves them through a clean web interface or any OPDS-compatible reader app. ...

You’ve got a hard drive full of movies, TV shows, and music. You want to stream them to every device in your house — and maybe remotely too. The two big options are Plex and Jellyfin. Both work. Both are good. But they’re fundamentally different in philosophy, and the right choice depends on what you care about. The Short Answer Pick Plex if you want a polished experience that just works, don’t mind some cloud dependency, and are okay with paying for premium features. Pick Jellyfin if you want fully open-source, no cloud anything, no accounts, and don’t mind rougher edges. Quick Comparison Feature Plex Jellyfin Price Free + $120 lifetime Plex Pass 100% free Open Source No (proprietary) Yes (GPL) Account Required Yes (Plex account) No Cloud Dependency Yes (auth, discovery) None Mobile Apps Excellent (paid unlock) Good (free) Smart TV Apps Excellent Limited Transcoding Excellent (hw accel) Good (hw accel) Live TV / DVR Yes (Plex Pass) Yes (free) Music Plexamp (excellent) Basic Plugins Limited (removed most) Full plugin support Multi-user Yes Yes Remote Access Built-in Manual (reverse proxy/VPN) Installation Both run great in Docker. ...

Self-Hosting Audiobookshelf: Your Own Audible Replacement Audible charges $15/month for one audiobook. If you already own audiobooks (or know where to find DRM-free ones), you’re paying for a streaming app you don’t need. Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server that gives you everything Audible does — streaming, progress sync, mobile apps, chapters, bookmarks — for your own library. It’s free, open source, and genuinely polished. What Audiobookshelf Does Stream audiobooks from any device (web, iOS, Android) Track progress across devices with automatic sync Chapter support with skip and navigation Podcast management with auto-download Multiple users with individual progress tracking Metadata fetching from Audible, Google Books, OpenLibrary, iTunes Bookmarks and notes for any position in a book Sleep timer and playback speed controls Offline download in mobile apps Series and collection organization It’s not a compromise — it’s genuinely better than Audible for managing your own library. ...

Tired of paying for Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and five other streaming services? Build your own media streaming server and take back control of your content. This guide shows you how to build a complete home media streaming server in 2026—from hardware selection to Docker setup to remote access. Why Build Your Own Media Server? Benefits: Own your content - no disappearing shows when licenses expire Cancel subscriptions - one-time hardware cost vs monthly fees Quality control - keep high-quality files (4K, lossless audio) Custom organization - arrange your library your way Offline access - watch without internet Family sharing - stream to multiple devices simultaneously Choosing Your Media Server Software Two main options: Plex vs Jellyfin ...