Choose Opal if…
- You want one search across Jellyfin, torrents, live TV, YouTube, anime and manga.
- You don't want to set up or maintain a server.
- You want magnets to play like files and an AI copilot that stays on your machine.
At a glance
The short version
| Capability | Opal | Jellyfin |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A player for every source | A media server you host |
| One search across sources | Yes | Its own library |
| Play a torrent while it downloads | Yes | — |
| Live TV | Large IPTV catalog | Tuner or M3U |
| Manga and anime sources | Yes | — |
| On-device AI copilot | Yes | — |
| Server required | No | Yes |
| Serves other devices | LAN web UI | Yes, its core job |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
Compiled from each project's own documentation and licenses. Out of date? Open an issue.
Which one?
Pick by how you actually watch
Choose Jellyfin if…
- You're hosting a curated library that several people and devices stream from.
- You need user accounts, parental controls and per-user watch state.
- You want a server-side transcoding pipeline tuned for remote streaming.
They're complements, not substitutes. Jellyfin is the best free way to serve a library you own; Opal signs into that server and adds everything a server doesn't do — torrents, live TV, manga, a local AI. If you already run Jellyfin, keep it and point Opal at it.
More comparisons
Opal against the rest
Opal vs Plex
Plex is polished, proprietary and account-first. Opal is open source, local-first — and happy to play your Plex library.
Read the comparison →Opal vs Stremio
Both put many sources behind one search box. Stremio does it with add-ons and an account; Opal does it natively, in one binary.
Read the comparison →Opal vs Kodi
Kodi can be built into almost anything, one add-on at a time. Opal ships assembled.
Read the comparison →Opal vs qBittorrent
qBittorrent downloads torrents. Opal plays them — starting while the pieces are still arriving.
Read the comparison →The cheapest way to decide is to run both
Opal is GPL-3.0, needs no account, and installs in about a minute.
Download OpalFull comparison matrix