Add a series once, set a quality profile, and everything downstream is automated: Sonarr is the smart PVR for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It monitors RSS feeds from your indexers, detects new episodes the moment they release, sends matching grabs to SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent, Deluge, or another download client, then renames files with fully configurable templates, sorts them into consistent folder structures, and notifies Plex, Kodi, or Jellyfin to update the library. Quality profiles define what's acceptable (HDTV, WEB-DL, Blu-ray, up to 4K) and an upgrade cutoff - when a better release appears, Sonarr replaces the existing file automatically, stepping from HDTV to WEB-DL to Blu-ray until the cutoff is met. Custom formats add weighted scoring for finer-grained release selection, with community-maintained TRaSH Guides presets as the widely accepted defaults. Failed downloads are handled without intervention: Sonarr retries with another release, and manual search shows every candidate with the reasons any was rejected. It scans existing libraries for missing episodes, fully supports specials, multi-episode files, and daily and anime series types, and a calendar view shows upcoming episodes across every tracked show. Runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and Raspberry Pi, and pairs naturally with Prowlarr for centralized indexer management.

The movie half of the *arr stack: Radarr is a .NET collection manager that automates acquiring films for Usenet and BitTorrent users the way Sonarr does for TV. Add a movie once and Radarr handles the rest: it monitors indexers and RSS feeds, grabs a matching release the moment one appears, sends it to SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent, Deluge, Transmission, rTorrent, or another connected download client, then imports, sorts, and renames the file into your library structure. Quality profiles are the control surface - define allowed resolutions and a cutoff, and Radarr keeps upgrading files automatically, replacing a DVD rip when a Blu-ray release lands. Custom formats go further, scoring releases by codec, HDR metadata, release group, streaming source, or arbitrary regex so the copy you want always wins the pick. Failed downloads retry with another release automatically; a manual search shows every candidate and explains why one was skipped. Release parsing recognizes director's cuts, special editions, AKA titles, and hardcoded subs. Plex and Kodi integration handles notifications, library refreshes, and metadata like posters, trailers, and subtitles, and a calendar view tracks upcoming releases. It pairs naturally with Jellyseerr for request management and shares its API conventions with the whole *arr ecosystem.

Configure each indexer once, not five times: Prowlarr is the indexer hub of the *arr stack, removing the most tedious duplication in a media automation setup. Instead of configuring the same torrent trackers and Usenet indexers separately in Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr, and Mylar3, you add each one once in Prowlarr and it syncs them to every connected app automatically, complete with category mappings; with Full Sync enabled, adding or removing an indexer propagates everywhere, and a tracker URL change is a one-place fix. Coverage is the deepest available: 500+ torrent trackers with definitions added constantly, 24 native Usenet indexers, generic Newznab and Torznab support for anything else, and custom Cardigann YML definitions with JSON and XML parsing for obscure sources. Built on the same .NET/React base as its siblings, it also earns a place as a search tool in its own right: unified manual search queries every indexer simultaneously at a category level, and you can push multiple releases straight to your download clients without touching Sonarr or Radarr. Health checks and status notifications flag failing indexers, per-indexer statistics track success rates and response times so you can cull unreliable sources, and per-indexer proxy support (SOCKS4/5, HTTP, FlareSolverr) handles trackers behind Cloudflare.

The fediverse's answer to YouTube comes from French non-profit Framasoft: PeerTube is a TypeScript/Angular video platform where hundreds of independently operated instances federate over ActivityPub into one network. Videos you publish are discoverable across the whole video fediverse, and viewers can follow your channels from Mastodon or any ActivityPub platform - or plain RSS - without needing an account on your instance. The namesake innovation attacks video hosting's core cost problem: alongside HLS delivery, an optional WebRTC-based P2P layer lets concurrent viewers' browsers share video segments with each other, so a video going viral distributes its own bandwidth demand instead of crushing your server; instance redundancy extends this by letting friendly instances cache each other's videos. Livestreaming is first-class - stream via OBS or any RTMP software, host permanent streams, enable replays, and interact through live chat. Creators get channels, playlists, analytics, built-in video editing (trim, watermark), and an embeddable player for any website. There are no ads, no data mining, and no recommendation algorithm engineered for watch-time - the project's explicit design stance. Admins control federation policy, P2P settings, and theming; a plugin system extends the rest. AGPL-licensed, 300+ contributors, in active development since 2015.

Podcast enthusiasts and homelab archivers automate digital episode preservation and stream personal audio feeds using PodFetch, an open-source self-hosted podcast manager that combines scheduled RSS downloads, Podcasting 2.0 transcript indexing, and browser playback into a modern listening platform. Listeners can subscribe to international podcast channels through direct feed URLs, Apple Podcasts directory searches, or bulk OPML subscription imports, configuring background polling timers to download new releases automatically upon publication. The integrated audio player supports variable speed playback, episode bookmarks, listening histories, and fullscreen visualization modes directly inside responsive desktop and mobile browser sessions. Advanced search capabilities leverage Podcasting 2.0 synchronized transcripts and automated speech-to-text generation via OpenAI-compatible Whisper APIs, allowing collectors to run full-text keyword searches across every spoken phrase in their audio archive. Built-in GPodder API synchronization maintains subscription lists and playback positions across popular smartphone apps like AntennaPod and native companion clients without relying on commercial cloud accounts. Server operators can assign multi-user accounts with private favorites lists, export customized RSS aggregation streams, and route storage paths between fast solid-state drives and large secondary mechanical hard disks. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. Apache-2.0 licensed.

PinePods delivers a centralized, self-hosted podcast ecosystem that liberates personal listening histories, audio files, and show subscriptions from commercial streaming walled gardens. Users can discover new shows through built-in search connectors across Podcast Index, iTunes, and YouTube, streaming audio and video episodes with variable playback speed, chapter markers, and synchronized transcripts. A persistent queue and custom playlist builder keep media sequences orderly across web browsers, desktop installations, and mobile clients with native CarPlay and Android Auto support. Built-in gPodder server synchronization enables seamless cross-device progress tracking with third-party podcast apps like AntennaPod. Automatic episode downloader engines monitor subscribed feeds, archiving new releases to local server storage according to customizable retention rules and storage quotas. Multi-user authentication secures household access through OIDC single sign-on and two-factor TOTP verification, while an integrated terminal client lets command-line enthusiasts manage queues directly over SSH. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. GPL-3.0 licensed.

Every podcast you publish through Castopod automatically becomes a Fediverse social account that Mastodon, Pleroma, and Pixelfed users can follow, boost, and comment on from their own timelines. This ActivityPub integration transforms podcast distribution from a one-way broadcast into a two-way conversation where listeners interact with episodes through the social platforms they already use. Beyond federation, the platform manages the complete lifecycle: upload an episode, and auto-generated RSS feeds distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and every compatible directory. IABv2-compliant analytics measure downloads, geographic distribution, and listening apps while maintaining GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD compliance through anonymized data collection. Podcasting 2.0 namespace support unlocks chapters with images, SRT/VTT transcripts, location tags, and person credits that modern podcast apps surface to listeners. Video episodes publish alongside audio, and auto-generated clips feed social media sharing workflows. Monetization tools span Value4Value micropayments, premium subscriptions, funding links, and cookieless advertising. Multi-user roles operate per-podcast: contributors, editors, and admins each work within defined permission boundaries. The PHP application runs behind nginx with MariaDB and Redis on a RepoCloud VPS with dedicated CPU, RAM, and SSD. AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Point Emby at your movie, music, and photo libraries and it becomes a private streaming service: metadata and artwork arrive from TMDB and TVDB, everything lands in a polished browsable interface, and media transcodes on the fly whenever a client can't play the original format. The client reach is the selling point: native apps span Android TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Fire TV, Roku, LG and Samsung smart TVs, iOS, Android, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, plus web browsers and desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and DLNA devices are auto-detected for casting and remote control. Multi-user support gives each household member their own account, watch history, favorites, and recommendations, with genuinely capable parental controls: content restrictions, access schedules, time limits, and live monitoring with remote control of kids' sessions. Live TV works with hardware tuners like HDHomeRun or M3U playlists, with free guide data in the US, Canada, and UK. The server and core features are free; an optional Premiere key adds hardware-accelerated transcoding, DVR recording, offline sync, and Cinema Mode intros.

Browse trending titles, search anything, request it in two clicks: Jellyseerr gives Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex users a beautiful storefront for the media library. Born as the Overseerr fork that added Jellyfin and Emby support (the projects have since unified as Seerr), it handles the full request lifecycle - users authenticate with their existing media-server accounts, pick individual seasons or movies in a clean interface, and admins approve or decline from a simple queue, including on mobile. Approved requests flow straight to Sonarr and Radarr, which handle acquisition automatically, with support for separate 4K server instances. Regular library scans keep availability accurate, so users see instantly what already exists instead of requesting duplicates. A granular permission system controls who can request what - auto-approval for trusted users, quotas and limits elsewhere - and override rules adjust request routing by user, tag, or other conditions. Watchlist and blocklist functions curate discovery, notifications reach email, Discord, Telegram, Slack, Pushover, and Pushbullet, and both PostgreSQL and SQLite are supported. Localized into many languages, it turns "can you add this movie?" texts into a self-service system that runs itself.

Automating media server storage reclamation, Maintainerr is an open-source library maintenance platform that identifies unwatched, abandoned, or stale movies and shows across Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby and clears them on a schedule. Storage drives fill up rapidly when household members request four-season series or high-bitrate films, watch a single episode, and abandon the rest indefinitely. Instead of forcing administrators to audit disks by hand, the rule engine evaluates metadata from your media server alongside Tautulli watch histories, Seerr and Ombi request records, and Radarr, Sonarr, or Sportarr profiles every eight hours. Matching items enter a staging collection that syncs back to your media server home screen as a Leaving Soon row, complete with dynamic poster overlays displaying the exact removal date so viewers have a grace period to finish watching. Before enabling any destructive workflow, you can run the Test Media inspector against any movie or episode to preview rule evaluations and protect favorites with global or per-collection exclusions. Once the countdown expires, the collection handler deletes or unmonitors files, updates import-list exclusions so automated lists never re-download removed titles, clears orphaned requests in Seerr and Ombi, removes leftover sidecar folders, and dispatches alerts through Discord, Slack, Telegram, Pushover, Gotify, Email, or webhooks. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. MIT licensed.

The moment after ShadowPlay saves a great clip is what Fireshare was built for: your friends see it now, not after a YouTube upload, processing queue, and platform terms review. Drop videos into a watched folder and this Flask/React application generates a unique shareable URL for each one, complete with Open Graph metadata - so pasting the link into Discord, Twitter, or Slack produces a proper embed with title, description, and video thumbnail instead of a raw URL. Viewers need no account and no app. Visibility is per-file: public (browseable on your feed), private (unlisted, reachable only by direct link), or password protected. For game clips specifically, Fireshare organizes automatically - clips sort by game with cover art pulled from SteamGridDB, no manual tagging - while tags and full-library search cover everything else. Optional transcoding (CPU or GPU) creates lower-quality renditions so viewers on weak connections get automatic quality adaptation, and video cropping trims clips in place. The extras round out a genuinely finished tool: view counters, timestamped share links, a shuffle button, restrictable uploads, Discord notifications for new videos, an RSS feed of the public feed, mobile support, and LDAP for multi-user setups. No storage limits, no watermarks, no platform deciding what stays up. GPL-licensed.

Point OBS or a hardware encoder at Restreamer's built-in RTMP or SRT ingest and it serves your website while rebroadcasting to YouTube Live, Twitch, Facebook, Vimeo, TikTok, LinkedIn, PeerTube, and anything else that accepts RTMP, SRT, or HLS - a complete self-hosted live-streaming server from datarhei. That multistreaming normally costs a monthly Restream.io subscription; here it's one FFmpeg process per destination on your own hardware. The web UI is genuinely approachable, with a wizard that walks beginners through camera setup, while professionals get the full surface: multiple audio/video inputs (USB, RTSP network cameras, virtual devices), codec and processing settings, separate audio muxing, and hardware acceleration via Nvidia CUDA, Intel VAAPI, or Raspberry Pi. Serving your own audience is first-class - a built-in Video.js player embeds in your site, a ready-made publication website streams without any embedding work, HLS chunk sizes are tunable, and automatic Let's Encrypt handles HTTPS. Viewer and bandwidth monitoring with limits keeps traffic costs predictable, and it's GDPR-friendly: no third-party provider, no audience data stored. A fully Swagger-documented REST API drives automation. SRT support keeps latency under a second.