Lidarr

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Lidarr

A curated collection of the 3 best self hosted alternatives to Lidarr.

Lidarr is a music collection manager that monitors artists and albums, automates searching and downloading audio via indexers and download clients, and organizes files and metadata into a local music library.

Alternatives List

#1
Lidarr

Lidarr

Self-hosted music collection manager that monitors artists, grabs releases from Usenet/torrents, and automatically imports, renames, and upgrades your library.

Lidarr screenshot

Lidarr is a music collection manager inspired by the Sonarr-style workflow, built for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It monitors artists and releases, then automates downloading and organizing music into a structured library.

Key Features

  • Monitors artists and release feeds (including RSS) to detect new music
  • Searches indexers and sends downloads to clients, with support for manual and automatic selection
  • Scans existing libraries to import music and download missing tracks/albums
  • Automatically sorts and renames files using configurable naming rules
  • Upgrades existing files when better quality formats become available
  • Failed download handling with retries using alternative releases
  • Integrations with common Usenet download clients and media servers for notifications/library updates

Use Cases

  • Maintain an always-up-to-date music library with automated downloads and imports
  • Fill gaps in an existing music collection by scanning for missing items
  • Standardize music folder and file naming across large libraries

Limitations and Considerations

  • Metadata and artist-adding features depend on external metadata services; outages can impact library import and artist lookup

Lidarr is a strong choice for users who want automated music acquisition and library management with fine-grained control over quality, naming, and download workflows. It fits well alongside other media automation tools and common download clients in a homelab setup.

4.9kstars
328forks
View Details
#2
SoulSync

SoulSync

SoulSync automates music discovery, playlist curation, downloads, and library organization, syncing results to media servers like Plex, Jellyfin, and Navidrome.

SoulSync is an automation platform that brings streaming-style music discovery to self-hosted music libraries. It monitors artists, generates curated playlists, downloads missing tracks from multiple sources, and keeps your media server library organized and up to date.

Key Features

  • Artist watchlists with automatic detection of new releases
  • Auto-generated playlists (e.g., Release Radar, Discovery Weekly, seasonal and genre/decade mixes)
  • Multi-source downloads via slskd/Soulseek and other supported sources, with quality profiles and fallback rules
  • Advanced matching and duplicate prevention against your existing library
  • Metadata enrichment including synchronized lyrics (LRC), album art, and improved tags
  • Template-based file organization and library management tools (quality scanning, duplicate cleaning, completion tracking)
  • Media server synchronization for platforms such as Plex, Jellyfin, and Navidrome

Use Cases

  • Replace streaming discovery with automated recommendations for a local music library
  • Maintain an always-updated collection by monitoring favorite artists and grabbing new releases automatically
  • Clean up and standardize large libraries with better metadata, naming, and duplicate control

Limitations and Considerations

  • Requires external services and credentials for some features (for example Spotify API) and a separate slskd setup for Soulseek downloads
  • Download sources and availability can vary, and correct file-sharing configuration is important when using Soulseek

SoulSync is best suited for music enthusiasts who want hands-off discovery, acquisition, and organization of a large local library. It combines playlist curation, automation, and library hygiene tools into a single self-hosted workflow.

707stars
23forks
View Details
#3
LidaTube

LidaTube

Automates finding and downloading missing albums for Lidarr by searching online sources via yt-dlp, with scheduling, match thresholds, and optional direct import into Lidarr.

LidaTube is a lightweight service that searches for and downloads missing albums for a Lidarr-managed music library by leveraging yt-dlp as a backend downloader. It integrates with the Lidarr API to discover missing releases and can optionally import fetched tracks back into Lidarr.

Key Features

  • Integrates with the Lidarr API to detect missing albums and trigger downloads
  • Uses yt-dlp to fetch audio/video sources and extract preferred codecs
  • Configurable scheduling to run syncs at specified hours and a thread limit for concurrent jobs
  • Match scoring with a configurable minimum match ratio and fallback-to-top-result option
  • Optional cookies support for yt-dlp to access restricted content
  • Optionally scans the Lidarr library after downloads and can attempt direct import of items
  • Docker-friendly (Docker image and docker-compose example) and environment-variable driven configuration

Use Cases

  • Automate filling gaps in a Lidarr music collection by fetching missing albums from online sources
  • Run scheduled rescans to keep a local music library synchronized with available online releases
  • Use as a bridge between Lidarr and yt-dlp for environments where traditional release sources are incomplete

Limitations and Considerations

  • Success depends on available online sources and yt-dlp's ability to find/convert suitable files; some albums may not be found or may have incomplete metadata
  • Matching is heuristic and may produce false positives; the minimum match ratio must be tuned for accuracy
  • Some content (age-restricted or geo-restricted) may require a cookies file to download correctly
  • Not a replacement for canonical release sources; quality and tagging depend on the source material and conversion settings

LidaTube is a pragmatic utility for users who want to extend Lidarr with yt-dlp-based fetching. It is suited for automated, scheduled downloads with configurable matching rules and integration options to streamline reimports into Lidarr.

314stars
22forks
View Details

Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running