Snapcast

Snapcast

Snapcast is an open source multi-room audio streaming software designed to synchronize audio playback across multiple devices. It allows connecting multiple audio playback devices like Bluetooth speakers, Raspberry Pis or PCs together to play audio in perfect sync on all devices.
Audio & Music Multi-Room Audio
Snapcast image
audio music streaming multiroom open-source
Snapcast alternatives ➤

Snapcast: Open Source Multi-Room Audio Streaming Software

Connect multiple audio playback devices like Bluetooth speakers, Raspberry Pis or PCs for synchronized audio playback across devices

What is Snapcast?

Snapcast is an open source, multi-room audio streaming software that is designed to synchronize audio playback across multiple devices and rooms. It works by connecting multiple audio playback devices like Bluetooth speakers, Raspberry Pis, PCs, or other Snapserver instances together on a local network to create a whole-house audio system.

Once connected, any audio played on one of the devices gets streamed via LAN to the other connected devices with very low latency. This allows perfectly synchronized audio playback across all synced devices regardless of where they are located. For example, you can have the same song playing from your living room, kitchen, and outdoor patio speakers in perfect sync.

Some key features and capabilities of Snapcast include:

  • Supports a wide variety of audio output devices like Bluetooth speakers, Raspberry Pis, PCs, Chromecasts, and more
  • Very low audio latency for tight sync between devices
  • Streams audio over local network via TCP/IP
  • Can group and ungroup clients on-the-fly
  • Touch-based user control with Snapweb
  • Works with other home automation systems
  • Free and open source software

Overall, Snapcast is an ideal solution for building a synchronized, whole-house audio system on a budget by utilizing existing local networked devices as audio endpoints. Its open source nature, flexibility, broad device support, tight synchronization, and ease of use make it a great choice for multi-room streaming audio.

Snapcast Features

Features

  1. Multi-room audio streaming
  2. Synchronized audio playback across multiple devices
  3. Support for a variety of audio input sources and output sinks
  4. Latency compensation for synchronized playback
  5. Client-server architecture
  6. Audio streaming over LAN

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Open source and free

Works across different platforms and devices

Easy to set up and use

Good audio quality with low latency

Active development community

Cons

Limited configuration options

No mobile app

Can be complex for larger installations

Requires devices to be on the same network

Official Links

Official Website
https://github.com/badaix/snapcast

The Best Snapcast Alternatives

Top Audio & Music and Multi-Room Audio and other similar apps like Snapcast

Here are some alternatives to Snapcast:

SoundWire icon
SoundWire
AudioRelay icon
AudioRelay
WiFi Audio Wireless Speaker icon
WiFi Audio Wireless Speaker
AirPlay icon
AirPlay
Suggest an alternative ❐

SoundWire icon

SoundWire

SoundWire is software designed for streaming audio between devices. It works by installing the SoundWire server on one device, like a desktop computer, and the SoundWire companion app on another device like a phone, tablet, or another computer.Once connected over the same WiFi network, SoundWire allows seamless streaming of audio...
SoundWire image
AudioRelay icon

AudioRelay

AudioRelay is a software service that specializes in real-time transcription and captioning for a variety of situations. It uses automated speech recognition technology to instantly convert audio from microphones into text transcripts and captions.Some key features and benefits of AudioRelay include:Accurate real-time transcription and captioning for meetings, conference calls, live...
AudioRelay image
WiFi Audio Wireless Speaker icon

WiFi Audio Wireless Speaker

A WiFi audio wireless speaker, sometimes called a smart speaker, is a type of wireless speaker that connects to your home WiFi network to enable streaming audio capabilities. This allows you to play music, podcasts, audiobooks and more from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Audible or internet radio stations...
WiFi Audio Wireless Speaker image
AirPlay icon

AirPlay

AirPlay is a proprietary protocol developed by Apple Inc. that allows wireless streaming between Apple devices and AirPlay-enabled speakers, TVs, AV receivers, and other hardware. It enables users to stream audio, video, device screens, photos, gameplay, and more wirelessly from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac to an Apple...
AirPlay image