Koel
Koel is a free, open-source music streaming solution that turns your personal collection into a sleek, modern web-based listening experience. Built on Laravel and Vue, it scans your music library and serves it back through a fast, polished interface that works in any browser — with playlists, smart playlists, scrobbling, podcasts and radio all included out of the box. It also speaks the Subsonic and OpenSubsonic API, so you can point any compatible client at your library instead of being stuck inside the web player.
Key Features
- Web-based streaming — Stream your whole library from any modern browser with a clean, Spotify-inspired interface
- Playlists & smart playlists — Curate static playlists or let rules build smart playlists automatically
- Radio & podcasts — Built-in radio-style listening and podcast support
- Media management — Upload, delete and edit metadata like title, artist, album and track in an uncluttered interface, with compilation albums and artwork handled cleanly
- Integrations — Automatic enrichment from MusicBrainz, Wikipedia, Last.fm, Spotify and YouTube
- Scrobbling — Track your plays to Last.fm
- Subsonic-compatible — Speaks the Subsonic and OpenSubsonic API, so any compatible client can stream your library
- Mobile apps — A native Koel Player companion app for iOS and Android
- Extras — Equalizer, visualizers, cross-device playback sync and transparent lossless support
Why Use Koel?
Koel strikes the sweet spot between a polished commercial streaming service and a server you fully own. It is genuinely easy to get running (Laravel, Vue and Docker), looks modern from day one, and bundles features — smart playlists, radio, podcasts, an equalizer and third-party integrations — that many self-hosted music servers leave out or add on. Thanks to its Subsonic API you are never locked into the web player, and the community version stays free and open source under the MIT Licence.
Use Cases
- Streaming a personal music library from your own server to any device
- Replacing a commercial streaming subscription with a self-hosted, privacy-respecting collection
- Hosting music for a household or small organisation behind one clean, modern interface
Alternatives
Koel sits alongside several other excellent self-hosted music servers in this directory:
- Navidrome — a lightweight web-based music server, also Subsonic-compatible
- Funkwhale — a federated, multi-user music server built on ActivityPub
- Ampache — a long-standing web-based audio and video streaming server
- Audiobookshelf — focused on audiobooks and podcasts
- AzuraCast — internet radio station management and streaming
Platform
Linux · macOS · Windows · Docker · Web · Android · iOS
Licence
MIT License