Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    15k

    Sonarr: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Automatic TV Shows downloader and manager for Usenet and BitTorrent. It can grab, sort and rename new episodes and automatically upgrade the quality of files already downloaded when a better quality f

    TL;DR • Sonarr • as of August 2026

    Sonarr is an open-source media management project, with 15k GitHub stars and a health score of 89/100. It committed 568 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: GPL-3.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    15k
    GitHub stars
    89/100
    Health score
    568
    Commits (12 mo)
    12/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-13
    Days since last commit 4
    Commits, last 3 months 108
    Commits, last 12 months 568
    Months with activity 12 of 12
    Last release 2026-08-11
    Archived No
    Licence GPL-3.0
    Category Media Management

    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-3.0

    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 Sonarr means for your idea

    Contested · 48/100
    Media Management category →

    Sonarr 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.

    Winnable, but differentiation is not optional. Pick one underserved segment and be visibly better for it rather than competing feature-for-feature with a free tool.

    Sonarr: common questions

    Is Sonarr still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. Sonarr recorded 568 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 108 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-13. Last release: 2026-08-11. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use Sonarr commercially?

    Sonarr is published under GPL-3.0. 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 Management category?

    26 open-source implementations, 13 of them actively maintained, led by Sonarr at 15k stars. Saturation score 48/100 — Contested. Several maintained alternatives exist, but no one owns the category.

    Sonarr alternatives in Media Management

    MeTube

    Media Management

    14k

    Web GUI for youtube-dl, with playlist support. Allows downloading videos from dozens of websites.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    AGPL-3.0

    Radarr

    Media Management

    14k

    Automatically download movies via Usenet and BitTorrent (fork of Sonarr).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-3.0

    Seerr

    Media Management

    12k

    Manage requests for your media library, supports Plex, Jellyfin and Emby media servers (fork of Overseerr).

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    MIT

    Ombi

    Media Management

    4.1k

    Content request system for Plex/Emby, connects to SickRage, CouchPotato, Sonarr, with a growing feature set.

    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    GPL-2.0

    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.