Kavita vs SRS
| Tagline | Self-hosted digital library server for manga, comics, and ebooks | High-efficiency real-time video server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, and SRT |
| Category | Media Servers & Streaming | Media Servers & Streaming |
| Replaces | Plex | Plex |
| GitHub stars | 6.8k | 29k |
| Language | C# | Docker |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 1 month ago | 29 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Kavita
- Focused only on reading content; no video or audio support
- Mobile apps are third-party only via OPDS or Tachiyomi extension
- Metadata scraping relies on community-provided scrapers
SRS
- No built-in media library or VOD management; primarily focused on live ingest and relay.
- English documentation is limited compared to the Chinese-language docs.
- Lacks a polished end-user playback UI; requires pairing with a separate frontend.
- No DRM or subscription/paywall features for commercial content delivery.
Bottom line
Choose Kavita if you want the lower-effort setup; choose SRS for the larger community and ecosystem. SRS has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.