Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Ampache (Cloud)

Navidrome is an open-source, web-based music collection server that streams your personal library to a built-in web player and compatible mobile apps. It is designed to be lightweight while still handling very large collections and rich metadata.

Key Features

• Modern, responsive web UI with integrated player
• OpenSubsonic/Subsonic-compatible API for broad client app compatibility
• Multi-user support with individual playlists, favorites, and play counts
• Multi-library support with user-specific access controls
• Automatic library monitoring and metadata refresh on changes
• On-the-fly transcoding (including Opus) with per-user/per-player settings
• Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with official Docker images

Use Cases

• Stream a private music collection to phones and desktops using Subsonic-compatible apps
• Host separate libraries (for example music vs. audiobooks) with controlled access for family members
• Provide low-resource music streaming on home servers and devices like Raspberry Pi

Navidrome is a strong fit for users who want a fast, self-contained music server with excellent client compatibility and scalable library management, without relying on third-party streaming platforms.

Navidrome is a lightweight open-source web-based music collection server and streamer that lets users browse and play personal music libraries from browsers and compatible mobile clients. It exposes a modern web UI and implements the Subsonic API for broad client compatibility. (github.com)

Key Features

• Modern, themeable web interface built with React and Material UI and a catalog of compatible third-party mobile clients. (github.com)
• Subsonic/OpenSubsonic API compatibility so existing Subsonic clients can work with the server. (navidrome.org)
• On-the-fly transcoding and downsampling (requires an external ffmpeg binary) to adapt streams to clients and bandwidth. (navidrome.org)
• Multi-user and multi-library support with per-user access controls, playlists, favorites and play counts. (navidrome.org)
• Low resource usage and multi-platform releases (Linux, macOS, Windows, Raspberry Pi) with official Docker images. (github.com)

Use Cases

• Personal home streaming: Serve a large, tagged music collection to family members and mobile devices with individual accounts. (navidrome.org)
• Replacement for Subsonic-compatible clients: Run a modern backend compatible with existing Subsonic/Madsonic/Airsonic clients. (navidrome.org)
• Low-cost or embedded deployment: Run on Raspberry Pi or small cloud instances using Docker for lightweight private streaming. (github.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• Navidrome simulates folder browsing from tags and does not perform native folder-based browsing; directory browsing endpoints are emulated. (navidrome.org)
• The default local database is a single-file SQLite database (navidrome.db); this can require special handling on network filesystems (WAL mode, locking) and backups. Administrators should follow documented guidance for DB placement and backups. (github.com)
• Past security advisories have reported SQL injection and related issues that were subsequently addressed; operators should keep releases up to date and follow security notices. (github.com)

Navidrome provides a compact, compatible and performant way to self-host and stream large music libraries while remaining interoperable with a wide Subsonic client ecosystem. It is well-suited for users who want control over their music and need a low-footprint server with mobile client support. (github.com)

Black Candy is an open-source, self-hosted music streaming server that provides a web-based music library and player for personal use. It scans a mounted media directory, builds a browsable catalog from audio metadata, and serves audio to web and mobile clients.

Key Features

• Library indexing from a local media path (reads tags/metadata for artists, albums, tracks)
• Web player with playback queue, playlists and search
• Multi-user accounts and per-user preferences
• Mobile client support (Android APK / F‑Droid and iOS app available) and responsive web UI
• Docker images for easy deployment; supports environment variables for DB, media path and options
• Uses SQLite by default; optional PostgreSQL support for larger deployments
• Integrations: album/artist images via Discogs API; server-side audio handling via FFmpeg; image processing via libvips

Use Cases

• Personal cloud music server to stream your own music library across devices
• Small multi-user household or friend group music sharing with account separation
• Developers or hobbyists building features or integrations on top of a Rails-based streaming backend

Limitations and Considerations

• Default SQLite configuration may not scale well for very large libraries or many concurrent users; PostgreSQL is recommended for larger deployments
• Edge/master images are considered unstable and may contain breaking changes or data-loss risks; use stable releases for production
• Resource usage for large libraries (media scanning, transcoding with FFmpeg, image processing) can be significant and depends on host hardware

Black Candy is focused on delivering a simple, modern self-hosted music experience with mobile support and straightforward Docker deployment. It is suitable for personal and small-group use and can be scaled by using PostgreSQL and appropriate host resources.

Ampache is a web-based audio and video streaming application and file manager for browsing and streaming an already organized media collection. It provides a web UI and API so you can access your music and videos from almost any internet-enabled device.

Key Features

• Music library browsing and management via a web interface
• Audio and video streaming, including in-browser playback with an HTML5 player
• Catalog synchronization across local and remote sources into a consistent collection
• Client compatibility via a REST-style API for external players and apps
• Supports common web server deployments and database-backed libraries

Use Cases

• Self-hosted music streaming for your home media library
• Centralized access to audio/video collections for multiple users and devices
• Providing an API-backed media library for compatible third-party clients

Limitations and Considerations

• Metadata quality depends heavily on embedded tags and/or file naming
• It is designed to present an existing library rather than reorganize or curate files

Ampache is a mature, long-running project focused on giving you consistent access to your media collection through the web and compatible clients. It is well-suited for users who already maintain an organized library and want streaming, browsing, and API access in one place.

Polaris is a self-hosted music streaming server designed to let you enjoy your personal music collection from any computer or mobile device. It focuses on high performance, a responsive experience, and smooth handling of very large libraries.

Key Features

• Stream a personal music library through a web-based player UI
• Supports common audio formats including FLAC, MP3, OGG, Opus, WAV, AIFF, MP4, MPC, and APE
• Browsing by album, artist, and genre, plus file tree browsing
• Powerful search with per-field queries
• Multi-user support with user-specific playlists
• Visual audio waveform display
• Dark mode and customizable color palette
• Plain-text configuration with a built-in UI editor
• Built-in interactive API documentation distributed with each installation

Use Cases

• Run a private music server for a home lab or NAS-backed music library
• Provide multi-user access to a shared household music collection
• Stream a large collection remotely to mobile devices while traveling

Limitations and Considerations

• Primarily targets personal-library streaming rather than subscription services or music discovery features
• Remote access typically requires additional networking setup (for example DNS and routing)

Polaris is well-suited for users who want a fast, clean, self-hosted alternative for streaming their own music library. Its focus on performance, large-library support, and multi-user features makes it a strong choice for home and small-team deployments.

mStream is a lightweight open-source music streaming server that provides remote access and device sync for personal music collections. It serves a web-based player and supports mobile clients, letting users stream lossless and lossy formats from their own host.

Key Features

• Web-based music player with gapless playback and a Milkdrop-style visualizer. (github.com)
• Supports common audio formats including FLAC, MP3, AAC, OGG and others. (github.com)
• Playlist management, playlist sharing and drag-and-drop file upload via the web UI. (mstream.io)
• Lightweight Node.js server designed to run on Windows, macOS, Linux and ARM boards (e.g., Raspberry Pi). (github.com)
• Official demo interface available for previewing the web player. (demo.mstream.io)

Use Cases

• Stream a private music library to any device while keeping full control of data and audio files. (mstream.io)
• Provide shared access to a household or small group's music collection with playlist sharing and user accounts. (github.com)
• Run on low-power hardware (Raspberry Pi / small NAS) to serve multi-terabyte libraries with low CPU/memory overhead. (github.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• Mobile apps are provided by third parties (community/third‑party clients) rather than a single official first‑party store app; availability and maintenance can vary. (github.com)
• Core server is Node.js-based and relies on in-repo JavaScript libraries for metadata and fast in-memory indexing; deployment assumptions (e.g., persistence/backups) should be reviewed for large libraries. (github.com)

mStream is a practical choice for users who want a simple, self-hosted music streaming solution with broad format support and a browser-first player. It emphasizes ease of setup, low resource use, and a familiar web/mobile playback experience.

Gonic is a lightweight music streaming server that implements the Subsonic server API, allowing you to use many existing Subsonic-compatible clients. It scans your local music library, serves streams, and can transcode audio on the fly.

Key Features

• Subsonic-compatible API for broad client support
• Library browsing by folder structure and by tags
• On-the-fly audio transcoding with caching (via FFmpeg)
• Multi-user support with per-user preferences and playlists
• Podcast support
• Jukebox mode for server-side, gapless playback
• Web UI for configuration, user management, and library scans
• Scrobbling support (Last.fm and ListenBrainz)

Use Cases

• Self-hosted personal or family music streaming with existing Subsonic clients
• Lightweight music server for low-power devices (for example, Raspberry Pi)
• Centralized library with transcoding for bandwidth- or device-limited playback

Limitations and Considerations

• Transcoding features require FFmpeg to be available on the host
• Client experience depends on the capabilities of the chosen Subsonic client

Gonic focuses on being small, fast, and compatible rather than providing an all-in-one media suite. It is a practical choice if you want a simple Subsonic API server with solid scanning, transcoding, and multi-user playback.

LMS (Lightweight Music Server) is an open-source music streaming server that provides a browser-based interface to browse, search and stream audio collections. It exposes a Subsonic/OpenSubsonic-compatible API, supports rich metadata and includes a built-in recommendation engine.

Key Features

• Web-based user interface with a media player and keyboard shortcuts
• Subsonic/OpenSubsonic API compatibility for third-party clients
• Multi-valued tags and detailed artist/release metadata handling (MusicBrainz identifiers supported)
• Recommendation engine and "radio" mode that fills play queue with similar tracks
• Audio transcoding for compatibility and bandwidth optimization (uses ffmpeg)
• Multi-library support, playlists (m3u/m3u8), podcasts and lyrics (lrc/txt/embedded)
• ReplayGain support and tracking integration with ListenBrainz (scrobbling and loves)
• User management with multiple authentication backends and administrative settings
• Lightweight filesystem-based artist image and disc image discovery; configurable scanner

Use Cases

• Provide network-available playback for a home or small office music collection via browser or Subsonic clients
• Run a low-footprint music streaming service on modest hardware (Raspberry Pi or small server) with on-the-fly transcoding
• Power a small internet/local radio-style "autofill" stream using the radio/recommendation features

Limitations and Considerations

• The tag-based recommendation engine can noticeably slow the user interface on very large libraries or on low-end hardware; it can be disabled if performance is impacted
• Audio transcoding (for compatibility or bandwidth reduction) relies on ffmpeg and increases CPU usage during transcoding operations
• Some features depend on external services (MusicBrainz, ListenBrainz) for best metadata and scrobbling functionality; network access is required for those integrations

LMS is a feature-rich option for managing and streaming personal music collections with emphasis on tags, metadata fidelity and interoperability through Subsonic-compatible APIs. It is suited to users who want a compact, configurable server with transcoding and discovery features.

LMS (Lightweight Music Server) is an open-source, self-hosted music streaming server that provides a web interface to access and manage personal music collections. It supports rich metadata, multi-library setups, and compatibility with Subsonic/OpenSubsonic clients.

Key Features

• Web-based music library browsing with support for multi-valued tags (genre, mood, artists, etc.)
• Subsonic/OpenSubsonic API compatibility for external clients
• MusicBrainz identifiers and release/group support to handle duplicates and multiple versions
• ListenBrainz integration for scrobbling and synchronizing listens and 'love' feedbacks
• Recommendation engine and "radio" mode to fill play queues with similar tracks
• Audio transcoding for client compatibility and bandwidth reduction (relies on FFmpeg)
• ReplayGain support, playlists (m3u/m3u8), podcast support, and lyrics (embedded, lrc, txt)
• Multi-library support, artist information folder handling, and flexible album/track grouping
• User management with multiple authentication backends and admin configuration options

Use Cases

• Host and stream a personal music collection remotely with a browser-based UI
• Provide Subsonic-compatible streaming to mobile or desktop clients while preserving rich metadata
• Build a small-scale recommendation/radio service for private collections and curated playback

Limitations and Considerations

• The tag-based recommendation engine can significantly slow the UI on very large databases or under-constrained hardware; it can be disabled in administration settings
• On-the-fly transcoding increases CPU usage and may require configuring / provisioning FFmpeg and adequate CPU resources for smooth playback across low-bandwidth clients

LMS is suitable for users who want a lightweight, metadata-rich music server with Subsonic compatibility and features like recommendations, scrobbling integration, and flexible tagging. It is actively developed and distributed under the GPL-3.0 license.

Meelo is an open-source, self-hosted music server and web app designed for music collectors and heavy music libraries. It organizes music by albums/releases/versions, supports rich metadata sources and treats music videos as first-class media.

Key Features

• Collector-focused data model: albums with multiple releases, songs with versions and tracks, explicit handling of B-sides and rare tracks
• Flexible metadata parsing from embedded tags and filenames; integrates external providers for genres, descriptions and ratings
• Music video support integrated into album/artist/song pages and differentiated from interviews or behind-the-scenes videos
• Automatic detection of featured artists/duets and de-duplication when browsing large libraries
• Supports wide range of audio/video formats via on-the-fly transcoding; designed to work with ffmpeg-based transcoder
• Dockerized microservices architecture for easy deployment, including separate front, server, scanner and supporting services
• Search/indexing backed by a dedicated search service, plus optional scrobbling to ListenBrainz/Last.fm and synced lyrics support

Use Cases

• Manage and browse large personal music collections with multiple releases and rare tracks
• Host a private music web app for family or a small group with centralized metadata and playback
• Run on a home server using Docker Compose with Postgres and Redis for persistence and caching

Limitations and Considerations

• Mobile support is experimental: an Android app exists but is alpha and some mobile features are still missing
• Not all consumer features are present (for example, gapless playback and advanced smart-playlist capabilities are on the roadmap)
• Requires some setup knowledge (Docker, environment variables, and a clean metadata/file layout) and occasional tuning of the transcoder

Meelo is aimed at users who need deep collection organisation and metadata flexibility rather than a plug-and-play streaming service. It is actively maintained and distributed as Docker images for straightforward deployment.

Audioserve is a simple personal audio streaming server that serves audio files directly from directory structures, designed primarily for audiobooks. It includes a modern web PWA client and a lightweight API, focusing on fast browsing and playback position tracking.

Key Features

• Serves audio files from folders without requiring a separate media database
• Web PWA client for modern browsers, plus an alternative older web client
• Supports single-file audiobooks (such as M4B) by exposing chapters as virtual tracks
• Optional transcoding and transcoding cache for bandwidth-friendly streaming
• Full-text search over folder names
• Playlists and playback position sharing between clients
• Collection caching in an embedded key-value store for faster browsing and search
• Filesystem change watching to keep the library up to date

Use Cases

• Self-hosted audiobook server for personal libraries organized by folders
• Lightweight audio streaming for language learning courses or lecture recordings
• Multi-collection setups (for example, separate libraries per language)

Limitations and Considerations

• Initial collection scan and cache build can take significant time for large libraries
• Search is focused on folder names (not per-track indexing or full metadata search)

Audioserve fits users who want a fast, minimalist audiobook-oriented server that respects existing folder structures and works well in a browser. It is especially useful when you need chapter support for single-file audiobooks and simple, reliable streaming without heavyweight media management.

Supysonic is a Python server that implements the Subsonic server API to provide remote access to personal music libraries. It exposes the Subsonic-compatible API so existing Subsonic clients can browse, stream and manage music served from a self-hosted instance.

Key Features

• Implements Subsonic API (targets version 1.12.0) for compatibility with Subsonic clients
• Browse libraries by folders or tags and support for cover art, starred tracks and ratings
• Streaming of many audio formats with optional on-the-fly transcoding
• User and random playlists plus a jukebox mode for shared playback
• Scrobbling support for Last.fm and ListenBrainz
• Command-line tools for user and library management and an optional daemon to watch library changes

Use Cases

• Serve a personal music collection to mobile and desktop Subsonic-compatible clients
• Provide a home jukebox or shared playback system for parties and gatherings
• Centralize music playback while sending play data to scrobbling services

Limitations and Considerations

• Transcoding may require external encoder binaries and additional system packages; performance depends on host CPU and encoder availability
• Targets a specific Subsonic API version; some newer or non-standard client features may be unsupported

Supysonic is practical for users who want a lightweight, Python-based Subsonic-compatible server. It focuses on API compatibility and core streaming features rather than providing a heavy web UI or large-scale enterprise features.

Funkwhale is a self-hostable audio platform that lets you upload, organize, and stream your music library and podcasts from a web interface and compatible client apps. It supports federation so content and profiles can be shared across independent servers.

Key Features

• Music library management with artists, albums, tracks, and playlists
• Podcast publishing and consumption, including subscriptions from podcast apps
• Federation between instances using ActivityPub, with moderation controls
• Sharing options for playlists, albums, or sections of a library with others
• Discovery features to explore audio shared by the wider Funkwhale network
• Privacy-respecting by design (no third-party analytics, no tracking, no ads)

Use Cases

• Personal audio server to access your music collection from anywhere
• Community or organization “pod” to share freely licensed music and curated playlists
• Artist/podcaster publishing hub with follower-based updates and distribution

Limitations and Considerations

• Federation and moderation require active administration to handle unwanted content or actors
• Large libraries may require careful storage and performance planning

Funkwhale combines a modern audio library/podcast experience with decentralized networking, making it suitable for personal collections, communities, and independent creators. It is community-driven and designed to keep control of content and data in the hands of operators and users.