What is Kodi used for?

Kodi is a free media center and player for video, music and photos, built for living-room use and available on most desktop and mobile platforms. It is a good fit for home theater PC media center, browsing a personal movie and music library, and streaming media from a home network.

Yes. Kodi is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at xbmc/xbmc and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. Kodi is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host Kodi?

Yes. Kodi can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Kodi an alternative to?

Kodi is an open-source alternative to Plex, Emby, Infuse and Disney+. Other open-source alternatives to Plex include Jellyfin, Stremio and Ampache.

Is Kodi actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Kodi was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 21.3-Omega, published on 31 October 2025. The project has 21k stars on GitHub.

Kodi: open-source alternative to Plex, Emby, Infuse

About Kodi

Kodi is a media player and entertainment hub that plays most audio and video formats and organizes them into a browsable library. It is designed to work well on a home theater PC controlled with a remote from the couch, but it also works as an ordinary media player on a regular computer.

Point it at local folders or network shares and it scans the content, building a library with cover art and descriptions. It was designed for network playback, so media can be streamed from elsewhere in the house or from the internet over many protocols. Playlists, slideshows, a weather feature and audio visualizations are included, and the interface can be restyled with skins and extended with add-ons.

Kodi is written in C++ and Python and runs natively on Android, Linux, BSD, macOS, iOS, tvOS and Windows. It is developed by volunteers and run as a non-profit project by the XBMC Foundation, and it is available in more than 70 languages. The repository lists the license as 'Other', so check the project's license files for details.

Key features

Plays most audio and video formats
Media library with cover art and descriptions
Network and internet streaming playback
Skins to restyle the interface
Add-ons to extend functionality
Remote-control friendly home theater interface

Good fit for

→Home theater PC media center
→Browsing a personal movie and music library
→Streaming media from a home network

Built with: C++; Python
Tags: media-center; media-player; home-theater; htpc; streaming; add-ons; cross-platform

Kodi: questions and answers

What is Kodi used for?: Kodi is a free media center and player for video, music and photos, built for living-room use and available on most desktop and mobile platforms. It is a good fit for home theater PC media center, browsing a personal movie and music library, and streaming media from a home network.
Is Kodi open source?: Yes. Kodi is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at xbmc/xbmc and is written mainly in C++.
Is Kodi free?: Yes. Kodi is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host Kodi?: Yes. Kodi can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Kodi an alternative to?: Kodi is an open-source alternative to Plex, Emby, Infuse and Disney+. Other open-source alternatives to Plex include Jellyfin, Stremio and Ampache.
Is Kodi actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Kodi was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 21.3-Omega, published on 31 October 2025. The project has 21k stars on GitHub.