Helix vs Noctis

Comparing two open source alternatives to Spotify and Tidal. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Helix

AGPL-3.0

Self-hosted music player with Pandora-style stations, shared listening lobbies, and playlist imports, built on a Subsonic-compatible library.

MIT

Cross-platform lossless music player with rich library management, synced lyrics, and gapless playback for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

	Helix	Noctis
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	No
GitHub Stars	39	270
Forks	2	16
Open Issues	2	15
Last Commit	Sep 9, 2026	Oct 10, 2026
First Released	Feb 12, 2026	Mar 19, 2026
Categories	Music Player Music Discovery	Music Player
Tags	#music #streaming #subsonic #media-server	#audio #desktop-app #cross-platform #lyrics #lossless

Helix39

Noctis

A self-hosted, cross-platform podcast management system with a modern Rust and Python stack.

Android music app that plays YouTube Music, Gaana and Saavn plus your local files through one ad-free interface.

A free, open-source cross-platform music player for Navidrome, Jellyfin, Plex and other Subsonic-compatible servers.

Self-hosted music server focused on metadata integration and UI, with music videos as first-class citizens and mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Self-hosted podcast server that uses AI to automatically remove ads from episodes before you hit play.

Modern, lightweight self-hosted music server compatible with Subsonic/Airsonic clients — stream your music everywhere.