Polaris
Polaris streams a personal music collection to computers and mobile devices.
About Polaris
Polaris is a self-hosted music streaming server. It lets you play a personal music collection from a computer or mobile device. The software is free and open source, and the project states that it has no premium version. It runs on Windows, Linux, BSD, or through Docker.
Polaris provides several ways to find music, including browsing by album, artist, or genre, browsing as a file tree, and per-field search. Each user can have their own playlists. The project lists first-class support for collections of 100,000+ songs as a goal, not as a verified result. An official Android app is listed. Other mobile apps listed are third-party. The demo at demo.polaris.stream uses Creative Commons music and is intended for desktop or laptop use.
Key features
- Browse music by album, artist, or genre
- Browse music as a file tree
- Search with per-field queries
- Song audio-waveform visualization
- Supports flac, mp3, mp4, mpc, ogg, opus, ape, wav, and aiff files
- Multiple users, each with their own playlists
Best for: People who want to run their own server to stream a personal music collection to computers and mobile devices.
Good for
- Free and open-source, with no premium version stated
- Runs on Windows, Linux, BSD, or through Docker
- Supports multi-value metadata fields, such as multiple artists per song
Watch out for
- Requires users to install and maintain their own self-hosted server
- The official mobile app listed is for Android; other mobile apps listed are third-party
- Support for large collections of 100,000+ songs is a stated project goal, not a confirmed result
Polaris at a glance
- Website
- github.com/agersant/polaris
- Category
- Software & Utilities › Media Players & Servers
- Type
- Open-source project
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Platforms
- Android, Linux, Windows
- Open source
- Yes · Source code
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
Guides for Media Players & Servers
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Polaris FAQ
Is there a demo I can try?
Yes. The project lists a demo at demo.polaris.stream, featuring Creative Commons music, intended for desktop or laptop computers. Access uses a shared username and password listed on the project page.
Which audio file formats are supported?
The project lists support for flac, mp3, mp4, mpc, ogg, opus, ape, wav, and aiff files.
Is there a paid version?
The project states that Polaris is free and open-source software, without any kind of premium version.
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