Top pick · highest health
LMS
Access your self-hosted music using a web interface.
DockerdebC++
Media Streaming - Audio Streaming
Open source alternatives to Spotify
Spotify rents you a catalogue; every server here streams the music you already own, from your own machine, to a browser or a phone. The trade-off is that you supply the library: none of them can play what you have not got. For a polished web player, koel is a PHP app under MIT with over 17,000 GitHub stars. LMS and Black Candy also give you a browser player, and both ship Docker images, so they are the quickest to start. If you want to keep a phone app, gonic speaks the Subsonic protocol, so Subsonic clients can play from it; it is written in Go under GPL-3.0 and ships a Docker image too. Ampache, under AGPL-3.0, streams video as well as audio. Beets is a different kind of tool: a library manager and MusicBrainz tagger that tidies your files before one of the servers here streams them. Funkwhale is listed, but we have no repository metrics for it, so we cannot score it.
updated Oct 2026 7 alternatives best health 93 ★ 46k combined 2,193 commits / 90d 3 with Docker
Top picks to replace Spotify
Showing 7 of 7 tools
All 7 Spotify alternatives, ranked by health
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koel
Personal music streaming server that works.
PHP -
Beets
Music library manager and MusicBrainz tagger (command-line and Web interface).
Pythondeb -
Ampache
Web based audio/video streaming application.
PHP -
gonic
Lightweight music streaming server. Subsonic compatible.
DockerGo -
Black Candy
Music streaming server.
DockerRuby -
Funkwhale
Modern, web-based, convivial, multi-user and free music server.
Python
Spotify alternatives compared
We track 7 open-source Spotify alternatives, of which 6 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 3 ship a Docker image. LMS leads on health at 93/100 with 59 commits in the last 90 days; across all 7 projects you are choosing between AGPL-3.0, BSD-3-Clause, GPL-3.0 and 1 other licences.
LMS edges koel 93 to 87, and most of the difference is Docker support: a Docker image against no Docker image. koel is the busier codebase, though, with 406 commits in 90 days to 59. koel has the largest following at 17k stars, yet ranks #2 of 7, held back mostly by Docker support (no Docker image).
The most recent release is gonic v0.23.0, published 8 days ago. None of the measured options scores under 40. By stack, PHP (2), Python (2) and C++ (1) are the most common. koel, Beets, Black Candy and 1 more are permissively licensed; LMS, Ampache and gonic are copyleft. Funkwhale is not hosted on a forge Repoly can read, so it has no measured score yet.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Last commit | Licence | Self-hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LMS Steady at 93 since 11 Sep | 93 | 1.7k | 1 month ago | GPL-3.0 | Docker image | Long-term use: health 93/100 |
| koel Steady at 87 since 11 Sep | 87 | 17k | today | MIT | Manual (PHP) | Community size: 17k stars |
| Beets Steady at 87 since 11 Sep | 87 | 16k | 2 days ago | MIT | Manual (Python) | Commercial reuse: MIT licence |
| Ampache Steady at 84 since 11 Sep | 84 | 3.8k | yesterday | AGPL-3.0 | Manual (PHP) | Fast development: 1,260 commits in 90 days |
| gonic Down 10 points since 11 Sep | 84 | 2.6k | 3 days ago | GPL-3.0 | Docker image | Fresh releases: v0.23.0, 8 days ago |
| Black Candy | 70 | 4.4k | 9 days ago | MIT | Docker image | Quick setup: ships a Docker image |
| Funkwhale | 10 | 0 | unknown | BSD-3-Clause | Manual (Python) | Not measured: hosted where we cannot read it |
How to choose a Spotify alternative
- Want the project most likely to keep shipping? Start with LMS: health 93/100 and 59 commits in the last 90 days.
- Building it into a commercial product? LMS is GPL-3.0; koel (MIT, health 87) lets you modify and ship it without publishing your changes.
- Want the quickest install? LMS, gonic and Black Candy ship a Docker image; the others install by hand on their own stack.
- Planning to patch or extend it? Match your stack: PHP (koel and Ampache), C++ (LMS), Go (gonic).
- Funkwhale has no score because its code is not on a forge we read, so judge it on the project's own site.
- The score measures maintenance, not features: shortlist two and try them with your own data before you migrate.
Spotify alternatives: common questions
Is there an open source Spotify alternative on GitHub?
Yes. 6 of the 7 Spotify alternatives we track are on GitHub, led by LMS (github.com/epoupon/lms, health 93/100, 1.7k stars) and koel (github.com/koel/koel, health 87/100). Funkwhale has no repository on a forge we read. Each tool page links its repository and shows the health score we recompute from it every night.
What is the most maintained open source alternative to Spotify?
LMS scores highest at 93/100, with 59 commits in the last 90 days, 1.7k stars on GitHub and its latest release (v3.81.0) published 1 month ago. Ampache has the most raw commit activity at 1260 commits in 90 days.
Which Spotify alternatives run in Docker?
3 of 7 publish a Docker image or Compose file: LMS, gonic, Black Candy. Docker support contributes 10 of the 100 available health points, because it is the clearest signal that self-hosting is a supported path rather than an afterthought.
Is LMS or koel the better Spotify alternative?
On measured health LMS leads, 93 to 87. LMS has 59 commits in 90 days, 1.7k stars and v3.81.0 from 1 month ago; koel has 406 commits in 90 days, 17k stars and v9.15.0 from 1 month ago. Pick koel if licensing matters: it is MIT, while LMS is GPL-3.0.
Which Spotify alternatives use a permissive licence?
4 of 7 are permissively licensed (MIT, Apache, BSD or similar): koel (MIT), Beets (MIT), Black Candy (MIT), Funkwhale (BSD-3-Clause). 3 use copyleft licences such as GPL or AGPL, which require you to publish changes if you distribute a modified version.
