DroppedNeedle vs Meelo
Comparing two open source alternatives to Spotify and Apple Music and Tidal. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.
DroppedNeedle
AGPL-3.0Self-hosted music request and discovery server that drives your own download clients, verifies every file, and shelves it in a library you own.
Meelo
GPL-3.0Self-hosted music server focused on metadata integration and UI, with music videos as first-class citizens and mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Side-by-side comparison
| DroppedNeedle | Meelo | |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| GitHub Stars | 1,474 | 1,442 |
| Forks | 78 | 42 |
| Open Issues | 191 | 62 |
| Last Commit | Oct 8, 2026 | Oct 12, 2026 |
| First Released | Oct 10, 2025 | May 5, 2022 |
| Categories | ||
| Tags |
GitHub stars over time
GitHub stars over time
Similar open source alternatives
Noctis
Cross-platform lossless music player with rich library management, synced lyrics, and gapless playback for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Spotify
PinePods
A self-hosted, cross-platform podcast management system with a modern Rust and Python stack.
Apple Podcasts
Sunoh
Android music app that plays YouTube Music, Gaana and Saavn plus your local files through one ad-free interface.
Spotify
Yuzic
A free, open-source cross-platform music player for Navidrome, Jellyfin, Plex and other Subsonic-compatible servers.
Spotify
MinusPod
Self-hosted podcast server that uses AI to automatically remove ads from episodes before you hit play.
Apple Podcasts
Navidrome
Modern, lightweight self-hosted music server compatible with Subsonic/Airsonic clients — stream your music everywhere.
Spotify