Emby vs Navidrome
Emby and Navidrome are both media server software. Emby is a commercial product from Emby LLC. Navidrome is open source under GPL-3.0, with 24k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Emby when
- You want a self-hosted media server with less dependence on a vendor cloud than Plex, and live TV recording.
- Pick Navidrome when
- You own a music library and want Spotify-style access to it from any device.
Side by side
A personal media server that organises and streams your videos, music, photos and live TV to client apps, with a paid Premiere tier.
A self-hosted music server that streams your own music collection to a web player and to any Subsonic-compatible mobile or desktop app.
Key features need Emby Premiere, and the free open-source fork Jellyfin covers much of the same ground.
Music only, and the master branch can be unstable, so run tagged releases.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server, mobile app and desktop app
Self-hosted server
C# and .NET
Go, JavaScript and SQLite
Closed source, sold by Emby LLC
Open source, GPL-3.0 (strong copyleft)
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license.
522 Wikipedia readers a month on phones
24k GitHub stars
Not known
Established: started 10 years ago, latest release v0.64.2.
Other comparisons
More media servers
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.