Self-hosted alternatives to YouTube

Host and stream your videos without a third-party algorithm. Below are 12 open source options you host on your own server — with no monthly per-user fee and full control of your data.

Jellyfin

★ 53,564

Jellyfin is a fully free media server that organizes and streams your movies, shows and music to any screen. Unlike Plex, it has no features behind a subscription and no dependency on external servers.

Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming GPL-2.0

SRS

★ 28,993

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

Media Streaming - Video Streaming MIT

Kodi

★ 20,885

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

Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming GPL-2.0

Invidious

★ 20,455

Alternative YouTube front-end.

Media Streaming - Video Streaming AGPL-3.0

MediaMTX

★ 19,220

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.

Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming MIT

PeerTube

★ 14,771

Decentralized video streaming platform using P2P (BitTorrent) directly in the web browser.

Media Streaming - Video Streaming AGPL-3.0

Stash

★ 12,522

A web-based library organizer and player for your adult media stash, with auto-tagging and metadata scraping support.

Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming AGPL-3.0

Owncast

★ 11,365

Decentralized single-user live video streaming and chat server for running your own live streams similar in style to the large mainstream options.

Media Streaming - Video Streaming MIT

Tube Archivist

★ 8,145

Organize, search, and enjoy your YouTube collection. Subscribe, download, and track viewed content with metadata indexing and a user-friendly interface.

Media Streaming - Video StreamingArchiving and Digital Preservation (DP) GPL-3.0

Restreamer

★ 5,081

Access H.264 real-time video streaming on your website without a streaming provider.

Media Streaming - Video Streaming Apache-2.0

MediaCMS

★ 4,976

Modern, fully featured open source video and media CMS, written in Python/Django/React, featuring a REST API.

Media Streaming - Video StreamingContent Management Systems (CMS) AGPL-3.0

OvenMediaEngine

★ 3,176

Streaming Server with Sub-Second Latency.

Media Streaming - Video Streaming AGPL-3.0

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free self-hosted alternative to YouTube?

Yes. We've gathered 12 self-hosted, open source alternatives to YouTube — including Jellyfin, SRS, Kodi. You run all of them on your own server.

What is the best open source alternative to YouTube?

Jellyfin is one of the most popular (53,564 GitHub stars). The "best" depends on your case — compare the options below.

Do I need a server to replace YouTube?

Yes. You can use a home server (homelab) or a cheap VPS (from ~€4/mo). See the hosting suggestions on this page.