What is SRS used for?

SRS is a high-performance media server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, SRT, MPEG-DASH and GB28181 for live streaming and low-latency video. It is a good fit for live streaming platforms, low-latency WebRTC video delivery, and ingesting and repackaging camera streams.

Yes. SRS is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ossrs/srs and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. SRS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

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

What is SRS an alternative to?

SRS is an open-source alternative to Mux, Restream, Dacast and Wowza. Other open-source alternatives to Mux include Ant Media Server and OvenMediaEngine.

Is SRS actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to SRS was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.0-r2, published on 24 September 2026. The project has 29k stars on GitHub.

SRS: open-source alternative to Mux, Restream, Dacast

About SRS

SRS, short for Simple Realtime Server, is an open-source real-time media server for live streaming and video communication. It handles many protocols in one product, among them RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, SRT, HTTP-FLV, MPEG-DASH and the GB28181 surveillance standard, and supports video codecs including H.264, H.265, AV1 and VP9 and audio codecs including AAC, Opus and G.711.

It runs on Linux and macOS across a wide range of processor architectures, from x86-64 and ARM variants to Apple M1, RISC-V, LoongArch and MIPS. The getting-started guide recommends running SRS in Docker, after which you open the local web console on port 8080 and push a stream with FFmpeg or OBS to an RTMP address, then play it back with common players using whichever protocol you prefer. A mirror registry is mentioned for users in China.

SRS is written in C++ and licensed under MIT, though some third-party libraries carry their own licenses. Topics point to low-latency streaming, live broadcasting and video conferencing. It suits teams building live video platforms, surveillance ingest or conferencing backends who want to run their own media server.

Key features

RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP-FLV and SRT support
MPEG-DASH and GB28181 support
H.264, H.265, AV1 and VP9 codecs
Runs on many CPU architectures
Docker-based quick start
Works with FFmpeg and OBS publishers

Good fit for

→Live streaming platforms
→Low-latency WebRTC video delivery
→Ingesting and repackaging camera streams

Built with: C++
Tags: media-server; live-streaming; webrtc; rtmp; hls; srt; video; cpp; self-hosted

SRS: questions and answers

What is SRS used for?: SRS is a high-performance media server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, SRT, MPEG-DASH and GB28181 for live streaming and low-latency video. It is a good fit for live streaming platforms, low-latency WebRTC video delivery, and ingesting and repackaging camera streams.
Is SRS open source?: Yes. SRS is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ossrs/srs and is written mainly in C++.
Is SRS free?: Yes. SRS is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host SRS?: Yes. SRS can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is SRS an alternative to?: SRS is an open-source alternative to Mux, Restream, Dacast and Wowza. Other open-source alternatives to Mux include Ant Media Server and OvenMediaEngine.
Is SRS actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to SRS was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.0-r2, published on 24 September 2026. The project has 29k stars on GitHub.