What is Hound? ​

Hound is a fully-featured media server, like Jellyfin or Plex, but with the additional ability to stream content through P2P (torrent) or HTTP/Debrid sources. With Hound, you get the benefits of fully controlling your media like Jellyfin, but can also stream instantly like Stremio. It's the best of both worlds.

• Github Repo

Hound is fully open source (AGPLv3) and self-hosted.

Demo ​

Access the demo here

username: selfhosted
password: password

The web app is not optimized for mobile yet, try using a desktop.

Features ​

These features come out of the box, without having to deploy additional services:

• Stream and download your own content from your drives, or stream content directly from P2P (torrent) and HTTP/Debrid sources through Stremio addons
• Trakt-like features, all your watches are automatically tracked and easily browsable
• Create custom collections/lists
• Add reviews and comments to your media
• Android and Android TV clients (iOS and tvOS coming soon)
• Focus on UI/UX, and Admin experience
• Really fast to setup, zero to watching content in <10 mins, few dependencies

Hound vs. Alternatives ​

Why was Hound Made? ​

I originally built Hound as a movie/show tracker a few years ago. I wanted a self-hosted version of Trakt with good UI/UX.

Some time ago, I set up a Jellyfin server for my family, but after a lot of effort deploying the whole suite, I came to the dreadful realization that they still preferred Netflix anyway.

Here are the observations that led me to build Hound:

Instant Streaming is important for a lot of people

• 'Storage is cheap,' is increasingly not true. The upfront cost of a few drives can be non-trivial for many, before extra electricity costs. Add redundancy, and we're looking at thousands.
• Sometimes, someone requests a full show, watches the first episode, and loses interest in 10 minutes. I find this wasteful.
• While hosting your own media is the correct self-hosted approach, from a user perspective, many prefer streaming.
• Although in the Plex/Jellyfin ecosystem, requesting media is now user-friendly and efficient, it still can't beat finding something, pressing play, and watching immediately, in seconds.

But I like having control over my media

• Movies and shows that I really like, and are particular about, I want to store
• I like the feeling of knowing that what's stored on my server, they can never be taken away from me

I wanted a solution where I could decide, when to download and when to stream.

To achieve both, I needed Jellyfin + the stack and Stremio, but this creates a fragmented experience, and Stremio isn't self-hosted. So I repurposed Hound from a media tracker to a media server. This had the added benefit of a well-integrated media server + tracker in one app.

About Hound's Pricing Model ​

Early on, I decided that Hound would be a paid app so I could continue its development. I thought a long time on the right pricing model, before landing on this one:

Hound is completely free for one user, one-time paid license to unlock unlimited users.

The core philosophy behind this is to allow users to fully try all features, without restriction, so they can make an informed choice on whether or not to purchase Hound. There are no restrictions to the number of devices.

Self-hosting and privacy is core to Hound's philosophy ​

Self-hosting is the core philosophy behind Hound, and although it has a paid option, it is fully open-source and forkable by anyone. Your data stays in your server always, and nothing is sent to Hound's servers (becase Hound servers don't exist).

If you choose to purchase a license, activation is completely offline.

This means I can't stop you from forking Hound and remove the activation checks. Instead of doing this, if you are not able to support Hound financially, I invite you to contribute to the project if you can, and keys will be given to dedicated contributors.

AI Policy ​

Hound is not vibe-coded. I started developing Hound years ago and even made a reddit post about it. Since then, a lot has changed in the software development landscape.

Here's my current development approach:

• I use AI to throw around ideas, and have a discussion on potential solutions to implement a new feature, or architectural decision
• I often disagree with AI's opinions. eg. Since I know the project best, there are times to make practical decisions over theoretically 'correct' ones
• Once I've decided on a plan, I code everything myself.

Actual coding is rarely the development bottleneck in Hound, when you plan well, the actual code changes should be short and surgical. I know the codebase better, and I've found that using AI to code doesn't speed up the process. With AI, the time spent debugging offsets any time saved.

I don't use AI to write for me either, everything in the documentation, repos, are my own writing. Pinky promise.

Contributing ​

Right now, I'm the only one working on Hound, so contributors are very welcome!

Feel free to report bugs on Github, or make a pull request.

General Guidelines ​

• Don't vibe-code, you need to understand every line of code in a PR. I recommend following my approach in the AI section above.
• PRs should be as surgical as possible. Fix or add one thing at a time.
• If you'd like to add a new feature, especially a major one, please discuss this with me first, or open an issue.
• You're free to make third-party clients and tools for Hound, refer to the API Documentation in this site. We encourage these to be open-source as well!
• Feel free to contact me for any help, such as understanding the codebase, help setting up the dev environment, etc.