Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    56k

    Jellyfin: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Media server for audio, video, books, comics, and photos with a sleek interface and robust transcoding capabilities. Almost all modern platforms have clients, including Roku, Android TV, iOS, and Kodi

    TL;DR • Jellyfin • as of August 2026

    Jellyfin is an open-source media streaming project, with 56k GitHub stars and a health score of 100/100. It committed 1890 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: GPL-2.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    56k
    GitHub stars
    100/100
    Health score
    1890
    Commits (12 mo)
    12/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-15
    Days since last commit 2
    Commits, last 3 months 647
    Commits, last 12 months 1890
    Months with activity 12 of 12
    Last release 2026-08-11
    Archived No
    Licence GPL-2.0
    Category Media Streaming

    Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.

    What the licence lets you do

    GPL-2.0

    Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.

    What Jellyfin means for your idea

    Crowded · 77/100
    Media Streaming category →

    Jellyfin is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.

    Assume every prospect can find a free version in five minutes. Your wedge has to be something open source structurally cannot deliver: compliance, support SLAs, managed hosting at scale, or a workflow the maintainers refuse to build.

    Jellyfin: common questions

    Is Jellyfin still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. Jellyfin recorded 1890 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 647 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-15. Last release: 2026-08-11. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use Jellyfin commercially?

    Jellyfin is published under GPL-2.0. Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    How crowded is the Media Streaming category?

    62 open-source implementations, 36 of them actively maintained, led by Jellyfin at 56k stars. Saturation score 77/100 — Crowded. Free, maintained alternatives already dominate this category.

    Jellyfin alternatives in Media Streaming

    SRS

    Media Streaming

    29k

    A simple, high efficiency and real-time video server, supports RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP-FLV and SRT.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Invidious

    Media Streaming

    23k

    Alternative YouTube front-end.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    AGPL-3.0

    Kodi

    Media Streaming

    21k

    Multimedia/Entertainment center, formerly known as XBMC. Runs on Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-2.0

    MediaMTX

    Media Streaming

    20k

    Ready-to-use, zero-dependency real-time media server and proxy to publish, read, record, playback and route video/audio streams over SRT, WebRTC, RTSP, RTMP, HLS, MPEG-TS, RTP.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Competing with free? Check the market first.

    IdeaProof scores your idea against live competitors, market size and 1,000+ documented startup failures in about two minutes.