Comparison · Open-source web radio management

Multilarm vs AzuraCast: an honest comparison

A self-hosted web radio management suite: several stations on one box, an automatic DJ, live DJ streaming and Icecast, SHOUTcast or HLS output.

Checked against published documentation on 2026-09-13

AzuraCast is the right choice if you are running one or more internet radio stations and want a polished web interface to run them from. Multilarm is the right choice if the audio is for a building — bells, announcements, background music, priority and emergency handling on speakers you already own. Multilarm has no streaming output and no remote DJ, and says so on this page and in its published feature matrix.

This page is written by the makers of one of the two products, so the only version worth publishing is one that is specific about where the other one wins. Every section below names a buyer who should not choose Multilarm.

What AzuraCast is

AzuraCast is a self-hosted web radio management suite that installs as a set of containers and gives each station a media manager, playlists, an automatic DJ, live DJ handover, listener statistics and a public player page, streaming to Icecast, SHOUTcast or HLS.

It is on this list because it is the product people mean when they ask whether Multilarm can 'run a radio station', and the honest answer is that for that job AzuraCast is better and Multilarm is not trying.

Where AzuraCast is better

Streaming to the public internet — Icecast, SHOUTcast and HLS, with listener statistics and reporting. Multilarm publishes this as absent: its engine encodes WAV and FLAC only, so it has nothing to feed a streaming server with.
Several independent stations on one installation, each with its own media, playlists, streams and users. Multilarm is one site per installation, with zones inside it.
Live DJ streaming, including from a browser, with automatic handover back to the automatic DJ afterwards. Multilarm has no remote presenter path at all.
Free and open source under the Apache licence, with an active community and frequent releases.
A genuinely good web interface for media, playlists and scheduling, including uploading media over SFTP and pulling it from remote storage.

Where Multilarm is better

The building is the point, not the audience. Term dates, exam weeks, shift patterns and bank holidays are first-class, and a bell at 08:45 is a schedule entry rather than a show.
One thing interrupts another correctly. Announcements duck the music, speech outranks music, and an emergency outranks the lot, on a priority mixer built for exactly that.
A physical emergency button, a relay output and an audit ledger of what fired and when — with a published statement that this is not fire-alarm equipment and does not replace one.
No container host. It installs as an ordinary service on Windows, Debian or a Raspberry Pi image, and a site can be handed to somebody who is not a developer.
It works with the internet unplugged and no inbound ports open, including the text to speech, which runs on the device in English.
Rooms that are in phase with each other rather than in phase with a stream: a corridor and the hall it opens onto do not echo, and a probe prints the measured figures for your network.
Signed updates, a diagnostics battery, a network monitor and somebody to ask when it does not work.

Side by side

Cells reading “Not published” mean we could not find the answer in Open source (AzuraCast)’s own documentation on 2026-09-13. That is not the same as “no”, and this table will not pretend it is.

Capability	AzuraCast	Multilarm
Streaming to public internet listeners	Yes — Icecast, SHOUTcast and HLS	Not built — the engine encodes WAV and FLAC only, and features.json publishes this as absent
Several independent stations on one installation	Yes	One site per installation, with zones inside it
Live or remote DJ, including from a browser	Yes	Live microphone at the machine only
Listener statistics and reporting	Yes	Local listener count only — there is no public stream to measure
Automatic music rotation with separation rules	Yes — an automatic DJ with playlist weighting	Yes — weighted rotation, artist and track separation, and a dead-air guard
Play log and reporting-return exports	Yes	Yes — monthly CSV, with PRS, PPL and SoundExchange shapes
Scheduled bells and a school or shift timetable	Out of scope by design — it is a station product	Yes
Announcements ducked over the programme	Out of scope by design	Yes
Offline text to speech	Out of scope by design	Yes — offline, English only
Emergency button, relay output and audit ledger	Out of scope by design	Yes — and it is not fire-alarm equipment
Synchronised playback across separate machines	Via the stream, with the delay a stream implies	Yes — a sender and its followers, matched within a few milliseconds
Runs with no internet connection	Not published as a supported mode	Yes — offline is the normal case
Install shape	Docker on a Linux server	Windows installer, Debian package, Raspberry Pi image or a prebuilt appliance
Cost	Free and open source (Apache)	Free for personal non-commercial use; perpetual licence otherwise
Support	Community	Vendor

Choose AzuraCast if

You are broadcasting to listeners on the internet, and that is the point of the system.
You need more than one station on one box.
Presenters go live from somewhere else, or from a browser.
You want open source, and running Docker on a Linux server suits you.

Choose Multilarm if

The speakers are in a building and the difficulty is the timetable, the announcements and what happens when two things want the speakers at once.
There is an emergency requirement with a button, a relay and a record of what happened.
The site is offline, or opening inbound ports is not acceptable.
It has to run on a Raspberry Pi that somebody who is not a developer can be handed.

How to check any of this

Multilarm’s own capabilities are published as machine-readable data at features.json, including every feature it does not have and the ones it has deliberately declined to build. Measured performance figures, with the method for each, are on the measured data page. The canonical facts about licensing, offline operation and the fire-alarm boundary are at facts.json. If anything on this page is wrong, say so and it will be corrected.

FAQ

Can Multilarm replace AzuraCast for an internet station?

No. It has no Icecast, SHOUTcast or HLS output and no remote DJ, and neither is on a roadmap being promised here. If listeners on the internet are the point, AzuraCast is the right product.

Can they run alongside each other?

Yes. A venue that broadcasts can run AzuraCast for the stream and Multilarm for the building — bells, announcements, zones, and the emergency path that has to outrank the music.

Does Multilarm need Docker?

It does not. It installs as a Windows installer, a Debian package, a Raspberry Pi image or a prebuilt appliance, and runs as an ordinary service with no container host to maintain.

Sources

Everything stated here about another product is taken from that vendor's own public documentation on the date shown, and is limited to what they publish about themselves. Products change; if something below is out of date or wrong, tell us and it will be corrected. Where we could not find a published answer the table says so rather than guessing.

Not sure this is the right purchase for your building? Ask a specific question — including whether you should be buying something else.