Self-hosted alternatives to SoundCloud
Want audio sharing for creators without handing your data to SoundCloud? These 26 self-hosted apps run on your own server (most are open source; licenses are listed below). Cheapest estimated hosting starts at about $5/month.
About SoundCloud: Audio sharing platform for musicians and creators.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mopidy direct | Active | 8.6k | Apache-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Mediagoblin direct | Unknown | – | AGPL-3.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| üWave direct | Unknown | – | MIT | – | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Navidrome Music Server | Active | 24.5k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| koel | Active | 17.3k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Beets | Active | 15.9k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Audiobookshelf | Active | 14.9k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Snapcast | Active | 8k | GPL-3.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Black Candy | Active | 4.4k | MIT | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Ampache | Active | 3.8k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| mpd | Active | 2.8k | GPL-2.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Polaris | Active | 2.7k | MIT | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| gonic | Active | 2.6k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| mStream | Active | 2.4k | GPL-3.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| SwingMusic | Active | 2.1k | MIT | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Lyrion Music Server | Active | 1.8k | GPL-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| LMS | Active | 1.7k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| moOde Audio | Active | 1.5k | GPL-3.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Pinepods | Active | 1k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| LibreTime | Active | 938 | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| musikcube | Maintained | 4.9k | BSD-3-Clause | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Audioserve | Active | 863 | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Supysonic | Active | 290 | AGPL-3.0 | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Stretto | Maintained | 634 | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Funkwhale | Unknown | – | BSD-3-Clause | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Väinö | Unknown | – | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
The options in detail
1. Mopidy
Extensible music server. Offers a superset of the mpd API, as well as integration with 3rd party services like Spotify, SoundCloud etc.
Active Last commit 2026-11-02. Latest release v4.0.5 (2026-10-16). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
2. Mediagoblin
Media publishing platform that anyone can run (alternative to Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud).
Unknown Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. üWave
Collaborative listening platform. Users take turns playing media—songs, talks, gameplay videos, or anything else—from a variety of media sources like YouTube and SoundCloud.
Unknown Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. koel
Personal music streaming server that works.
Active Last commit 2026-11-03. Latest release v9.15.0 (2026-09-28). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
6. Beets
Music library manager and MusicBrainz tagger (command-line and Web interface).
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v2.14.1 (2026-09-17). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
7. Audiobookshelf
Audiobook and podcast server. It streams all audio formats, keeps and syncs progress across devices. Comes with apps for Android and iOS.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v2.37.2 (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
8. Snapcast
Synchronous multiroom audio server.
Active Last commit 2026-11-03. Latest release v0.35.0 (2026-03-10). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
9. Black Candy
Music streaming server.
Active Last commit 2026-10-07. 2 releases in the past year. Latest release v3.2.1 (2026-08-26). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
10. Ampache
Web based audio/video streaming application.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release 8.3.0 (2026-10-20). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
11. mpd
Daemon to remotely play music, stream music, handle and organize playlists. Many clients available.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
12. Polaris
Music browsing and streaming application optimized for large music collections, ease of use and high performance.
Active Last commit 2026-10-26. 2 releases in the past year. Latest release 0.16.1 (2026-05-08). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
13. gonic
Lightweight music streaming server. Subsonic compatible.
Active Last commit 2026-11-02. Latest release v0.23.0 (2026-10-22). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
14. mStream
Music streaming server with GUI management tools. Runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Active Last commit 2026-11-03. Latest release v6.32.3 (2026-11-02). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
15. SwingMusic
Beautiful music player and streaming server for your local audio files. Like a cooler Spotify ... but bring your own music.
Active Last commit 2026-10-05. Latest release v3.0.0 (2026-06-12). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
16. Lyrion Music Server
Server software which controls a wide range of Squeezebox/Slim Devices audio players and compatible hardware (formerly Logitech Media Server).
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
17. LMS
Access your own music using a web interface.
Active Last commit 2026-09-18. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v3.81.0 (2026-09-18). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
18. moOde Audio
Audiophile-quality music playback for the wonderful Raspberry Pi family of single board computers.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. Latest release r1037 (2026-11-01). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
19. Pinepods
Podcast management system with multi-user support. Pinepods utilizes a central database so aspects like listen time and themes follow from device to device.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. Latest release 0.9.2 (2026-11-04). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
20. LibreTime
Broadcast streaming radio on the web (fork of Airtime).
Active Last commit 2026-10-29. Latest release 4.5.0 (2025-07-16). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
21. musikcube
Streaming audio server with Linux/macOS/Windows/Android clients.
Maintained Last commit 2026-03-23. Latest release 3.0.5 (2025-09-21). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
22. Audioserve
Simple personal server to serve audio files from directories (audiobooks, music, podcasts...). Focused on simplicity and supports sync of play position between clients.
Active Last commit 2026-11-02. Latest release v0.30.1 (2026-05-23). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
23. Supysonic
Python implementation of the Subsonic server API.
Active Last commit 2026-10-20. Latest release 0.7.9 (2024-12-15). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
24. Stretto
Music player with Youtube/Soundcloud import and iTunes/Spotify discovery.
Maintained Last commit 2026-07-09. Latest release 2.0.0 (2019-01-28). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
25. Funkwhale
Modern, web-based, convivial, multi-user and free music server.
Unknown Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
26. Väinö
High-fidelity music server for Raspberry Pi with iOS and Android companion apps.
Unknown Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
Why self-host instead of SoundCloud?
- Own your data — it lives on a server you control, with backups you decide on.
- Predictable cost — a small VPS often replaces per-seat pricing for a whole team or family.
- No lock-in — open-source licenses let you keep running the software even if a vendor disappears.
The trade-off: you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Pick an app marked Active (a commit in the last 90 days) and with Docker support for the easiest ride.
Browse related categories
Other alternatives guides
SoundCloud is a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated with it. Listings come from the community-maintained awesome-selfhosted list.