Runs on your own hardware
Home Media Hub
Your media library on your own hardware, reachable from anywhere over Tailscale or a port you forward, with no cloud and no subscription.
People who own their files and want to keep it that way.
The price is set at $100 for a perpetual license covering one server at a time. Home Media Hub Manager for Windows is published as an unsigned preview, with a 14-day trial on each server. Keys aren’t on sale yet.
- Your phoneanywhere
- Tailscale or your routerHTTPS
- Home Media Huba service at home
- Your driveread in place
Library
- heist.mp4mp4 · h264 · aacdirect
- E03.mkvmkv · hevc · eac3HLS
- beach.movmov · h264 · aacdirect
- live-set.aviavi · mpeg4 · mp3HLS
Category: Shows › Nature › Season 1 on drive-b
- ✗Container
mkvnot mp4 / m4v / webm / mov - ✓Video
hevcplays in a browser - ✗Audio
eac3not aac / opus / mp3
GET /api/media/2/playback
{ "mode": "hls",
"url": "/api/media/2/hls/master.m3u8" }
ffmpeg converts it on the fly: H.264 (libx264 veryfast), AAC at 160k, in 4-second segments. Playback starts once the first ones exist.
What it does
Your media on your hardware, reachable from anywhere, with no cloud and no subscription.
Video your browser can play directly streams as-is, and everything else gets converted to HLS on the fly. All your drives show up as one library with full-text search and filters, sorted automatically based on your folder structure. You can also put your own branding on it.
- 01
Plays files directly when it can, and converts to HLS on the fly when it can’t
- 02
One searchable library across multiple drives, organized from your folder structure
- 03
Embedded and separate subtitle files, playback speed, and pick up where you left off
- 04
A manager app that installs the server as a service, and looks after its connection, license, settings and media folders
- 05
Reachable from anywhere over Tailscale, or directly with HTTPS on a port you forward
Sorting
Your folders are the catalog.
You point Home Media Hub at the drives you already have, as libraries. Every folder above a file becomes a category, so nothing needs tagging by hand, and full-text search and filters work across all of them at once. A watcher picks up new files as they land.
/media/drive-a/Movies/Action/2021/heist.mp4 Movies › Action › 2021 /media/drive-b/Shows/Nature/Season 1/E03.mkv Shows › Nature › Season 1
Getting in
Install it once, then choose the way in.
Home Media Hub Manager installs the server as a system service, with Node.js and ffmpeg included, so there’s no Docker to set up. With Tailscale, only your tailnet can reach it, and no ports get forwarded. With a direct connection, it serves HTTPS on a port you forward on your router, with a self-signed certificate or your own. Nothing passes through us either way.
# In the manager, under Connection Tailscale https://<name>.<tailnet>.ts.net your tailnet only, no port forward Direct https://<your address>:8443 you forward the port on your router
Where it stands
An early release, not on sale yet.
Version 0.0.10 of the manager is published for Windows as an unsigned preview, so your computer warns before it runs. Every server gets 14 days of full use. After that a $100 key, paid once, covers one server, but keys aren’t on sale yet. The server has unit and integration tests and a Playwright suite that runs the main flows in a real browser. There’s also an iPhone app that talks to the same server, and it isn’t on the App Store. Home Media Hub was called Free-WAN until November 2026.
Price
$100. One time.
One key covers one server at a time, Windows or macOS, for as long as you want to run it. The web app and the iPhone app are free and need no key.
- $100
- one time
- 1 server
- Windows or macOS, one key
- Web and iPhone apps
- Free, no key
- One server at a timeWindows or macOS, installed with the manager. When you replace a computer, release its seat from the manager, or from the My servers page if the old one is gone.
- The web and iPhone apps, freeBrowse, search and play your library from a browser or an iPhone. Neither needs a key, and they don’t count as your server.
- A 14-day trial on every serverEvery server gets 14 days of full use from its first start. After that, browsing, search, playback and sign-in keep working. Only the job queue (scans, thumbnails, clip exports, commands and plugins) waits until a key is entered, and then it runs.
- Activate once, then offlineA server gets its license from our activation service once, when you enter the key. After that it checks the license itself, and only contacts us again if you release its seat.
- Version 1 updatesFixes and improvements in version 1 are included.
Specification
What it’s built with, and when.
Pulled from the repository each time this site is built.
- State
- Shipping
- Discipline
- Applications
- Shape
- Installed software
- Started
- Jun 2026
- Last change
- Oct 2026
- Commits
- 150
- TypeScript
- Tauri
- Rust
- ffmpeg
- HLS
- Tailscale
- TypeScript 76%
- Swift 18%
- JavaScript 4%
Related work
Built alongside Home Media Hub
Try it
Try Home Media Hub on your desktop
Download Home Media Hub Manager for Windows, and try the server free for 14 days. Keys aren’t on sale yet.
- Price
- $100
- Paid
- one time
- Covers
- one owner, one server at a time
- Refund
- 30 days
Nothing is being charged today. There's no pre-order, no deposit, and no waiting list. If you want to know when it opens, send an email and you'll get one reply when it does.