Top pick · highest health
Invidious
Alternative YouTube front-end.
DockerCrystal
Media Streaming - Video Streaming
Open source alternatives to YouTube
YouTube hosts your videos and decides who sees them. The tools here meet two different needs, so start with yours. To publish your own videos, PeerTube is the federated option: it streams peer to peer in the browser and joins a network of independent instances, under AGPL-3.0. MediaCMS and ClipBucket build a stand-alone video site on your server, and both ship Docker images; ClipBucket is much the smaller project by GitHub stars. For live streams, Owncast is a single-user streaming and chat server, written in Go under MIT. If you still watch YouTube but want it on your terms, Invidious is an alternative front end and MeTube is a web interface for yt-dlp that downloads videos and playlists from YouTube and dozens of other sites; both are AGPL-3.0 and both run in Docker. The trade-off of publishing on your own server is audience: you keep control of your videos, but none of YouTube's viewers come with them. MediaGoblin is listed, but we have no repository metrics for it, so we cannot score it.
updated Oct 2026 7 alternatives best health 98 ★ 73k combined 1,006 commits / 90d 4 with Docker
Top picks to replace YouTube
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Healthiest
Health 98/100: 129 commits in 90 days, latest release v2.20261022.0, Docker image available.
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Most active
485 commits in the last 90 days, more than any other option here.
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Permissive licence
AAL, so you can fork or embed it without publishing changes; health 89/100.
Showing 7 of 7 tools
All 7 YouTube alternatives, ranked by health
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MeTube
Web GUI for youtube-dl, with playlist support. Allows downloading videos from dozens of websites.
DockerPythonNodejs -
MediaCMS
Modern, fully featured open source video and media CMS, written in Python/Django/React, featuring a REST API.
DockerPython -
ClipBucket
Start your own video sharing website (YouTube/Netflix Clone) in a matter of minutes.
DockerPHP -
PeerTube
Decentralized video streaming platform using P2P (BitTorrent) directly in the web browser.
Nodejs -
Owncast
Decentralized single-user live video streaming and chat server for running your own live streams similar in style to the large mainstream options.
Go -
Mediagoblin
Media publishing platform that anyone can run (alternative to Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud).
Python
YouTube alternatives compared
We track 7 open-source YouTube alternatives, of which 6 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 4 ship a Docker image. Invidious leads on health at 98/100 with 129 commits in the last 90 days; across all 7 projects you are choosing between AAL, AGPL-3.0, MIT.
Invidious edges MeTube 98 to 97. Invidious also has the largest following, at 26k stars.
The most recent release is MeTube 2026.10.27, published 3 days ago. None of the measured options scores under 40. By stack, Python (3), Nodejs (2) and Crystal (1) are the most common. ClipBucket and Owncast are permissively licensed; Invidious, MeTube, MediaCMS and 2 more are copyleft. Mediagoblin is not hosted on a forge Repoly can read, so it has no measured score yet.
4 of these 7 also appear among the Vimeo alternatives; Invidious, MeTube and Mediagoblin are specific to YouTube.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Last commit | Licence | Self-hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invidious Steady at 98 since 11 Sep | 98 | 26k | 4 days ago | AGPL-3.0 | Docker image | Long-term use: health 98/100 |
| MeTube Steady at 97 since 11 Sep | 97 | 15k | 3 days ago | AGPL-3.0 | Docker image | Fresh releases: 2026.10.27, 3 days ago |
| MediaCMS Up 14 points since 11 Sep | 90 | 5.2k | 4 days ago | AGPL-3.0 | Docker image | Quick setup: ships a Docker image |
| ClipBucket Steady at 89 since 11 Sep | 89 | 182 | yesterday | AAL | Docker image | Commercial reuse: AAL licence |
| PeerTube Steady at 87 since 11 Sep | 87 | 15k | 2 days ago | AGPL-3.0 | Manual (Nodejs) | Community size: 15k stars |
| Owncast | 86 | 12k | 4 days ago | MIT | Manual (Go) | Fast development: 181 commits in 90 days |
| Mediagoblin | 10 | 0 | unknown | AGPL-3.0 | Manual (Python) | Not measured: hosted where we cannot read it |
How to choose a YouTube alternative
- Want the project most likely to keep shipping? Start with Invidious: health 98/100 and 129 commits in the last 90 days.
- Building it into a commercial product? Invidious is AGPL-3.0; ClipBucket (AAL, health 89) lets you modify and ship it without publishing your changes.
- Want the quickest install? Invidious, MeTube, MediaCMS and 1 more ship a Docker image; the others install by hand on their own stack.
- Planning to patch or extend it? Match your stack: Nodejs (MeTube and PeerTube), Python (MeTube and MediaCMS), Crystal (Invidious).
- Mediagoblin 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.
YouTube alternatives: common questions
Is there an open source YouTube alternative on GitHub?
Yes. 6 of the 7 YouTube alternatives we track are on GitHub, led by Invidious (github.com/iv-org/invidious, health 98/100, 26k stars) and MeTube (github.com/alexta69/metube, health 97/100). Mediagoblin 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 YouTube?
Invidious scores highest at 98/100, with 129 commits in the last 90 days, 26k stars on GitHub and its latest release (v2.20261022.0) published 8 days ago. PeerTube has the most raw commit activity at 485 commits in 90 days.
Which YouTube alternatives run in Docker?
4 of 7 publish a Docker image or Compose file: Invidious, MeTube, MediaCMS, ClipBucket. 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 Invidious or MeTube the better YouTube alternative?
On measured health Invidious leads, 98 to 97. Invidious has 129 commits in 90 days, 26k stars and v2.20261022.0 from 8 days ago; MeTube has 121 commits in 90 days, 15k stars and 2026.10.27 from 3 days ago. Invidious is ahead or level on every term Repoly measures.
Which YouTube alternatives use a permissive licence?
2 of 7 are permissively licensed (MIT, Apache, BSD or similar): ClipBucket (AAL), Owncast (MIT). 5 use copyleft licences such as GPL or AGPL, which require you to publish changes if you distribute a modified version.
