Navidrome

What is Navidrome?

Navidrome is an open source media server for music that you run on your own hardware to stream a personal collection to any device. Point it at a folder of audio files and it builds a browsable, searchable library with cover art and metadata, playable from its web player or dozens of Subsonic-compatible mobile apps. It’s written in Go, light enough to run on a Raspberry Pi, and licensed under GPL-3.0.

What is Navidrome best for?

People who own their music — ripped CDs, FLAC purchases, or a downloaded collection — and want Spotify-style access from anywhere without a subscription or handing their listening data to a streaming company. It’s a strong fit for audiophiles who care about lossless formats and for anyone running a lean home server or Raspberry Pi.

What can Navidrome do?

• Stream virtually any audio format — FLAC, MP3, Opus, AAC, and more — with on-the-fly transcoding to save bandwidth
• Work with dozens of third-party Subsonic/OpenSubsonic apps on iOS and Android, plus its own responsive web player built on Material UI
• Give each user their own play counts, playlists, favorites, and library access
• Handle very large collections — tested with roughly 900,000 tracks — while using around 50 MB of RAM
• Watch your music folder and auto-import new files, tags, and metadata changes
• Show synced and unsynced lyrics from sidecar files (.lrc, .ttml) or embedded tags
• Run from a single self-contained binary or Docker on Linux, macOS, Windows, and Raspberry Pi

Is Navidrome free?

Yes — Navidrome is completely free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with no paid tier, no feature paywalls, and no account to sign up for. Your only costs are the hardware it runs on and, if you want a nicer phone experience, one of the paid third-party mobile clients. The project is community-funded through sponsorships.

Where does Navidrome fall short?

• It’s music only. There’s no video, podcast, or audiobook support — if you want one server for your whole media library, Jellyfin or Plex covers more ground.
• There’s no official mobile app. You stream on the go through third-party Subsonic clients, and the best of them (Symfonium, play:Sub) are paid apps, so the most polished phone experience isn’t free.
• It only plays music you already own. Unlike Spotify, there’s no catalog to explore and no algorithmic discovery or radio drawn from a global library — the new music has to come from you.

What does Navidrome replace?

Navidrome is a self-hosted alternative to Spotify and the music side of Plex. It gives you the same stream-your-library-from-anywhere experience, but the files are yours, there’s no monthly bill, and nothing about your listening is tracked or sold. What it won’t do is recommend new music the way Spotify does — it plays the collection you bring.

FAQ

Is Navidrome open source? Yes. Navidrome is fully open source under the GPL-3.0 license — the Go backend and React web interface are both public, free to use, and free to modify.

Can I self-host Navidrome for free? Yes. The software is free with no paid tier; your only cost is the server it runs on. It’s light enough to run on a Raspberry Pi or an existing home server.

Is Navidrome a good Spotify alternative? For streaming a music collection you own, yes — you get anywhere-access and mobile apps without a subscription. It can’t replace Spotify’s catalog of new music or algorithmic discovery, since it only plays your own files.

What do I need to run Navidrome? A machine running Linux, macOS, Windows, or Docker, plus your music files. It uses an embedded SQLite database and around 50 MB of RAM, so a Raspberry Pi is enough.