The Media Server is the heart of the Cardinal ecosystem, and powers all of your self-hosted apps.

Features

Get all Cardinal apps for free with Cardinal Media Server. Comes with a dashboard and everything needed to run your apps. No sign up required.

For audiophiles and casuals alike, with a set of features that long time music collectors will love.

Collect, curate, and rediscover your music every day with Cardinal Music's modern interface and powerful audio playback features.

Made to handle the era of camera ubiquity, and the lifetime of photographs that comes with it.

Archive a lifetime of photographs, and keep them safe from prying eyes. Only you can be trusted as the keeper of your photos and videos.

Embrace your inner projectionist and never worry about your favourite show leaving again.

Take back the future of movie and TV streaming in your home, and get that familiar online streaming experience for your own media.

_Cardinal Accounts_ provide **Identity** and **SSO** services for all Cardinal apps using Cardinal's cloud infrastructure. Accounts are free to create and use. Optional [paid subscriptions](https://cardinalapps.io/pricing) are available that unlock capabilities in your self-hosted apps, and grant you access to Cardinal's other cloud services.

Using a Cardinal Account is entirely optional, and you have the option of using your Cardinal apps offline, logged out, and restricted to the local network. However, users that use a free or paid account will benefit from these fundamental improvements to their apps:

### Secure Authentication for Your Apps

Using a Cardinal Account enables secure cloud authentication for your apps. The cloud authentication paradigm means that your self-hosted apps are relieved of most credential management duties, so that you don't have to worry about how your server is storing passwords or how your users will get their password reset emails.

A single identity provider also makes it easy for you to run multiple Media Server instances without having to juggle logins. Using `stable` and `beta` in parallel has never been easier.

### Connecting Users

Cardinal Accounts also make it easy for server owners to onboard new users. There's no need to manually create and issue account credentials, instead just click once to copy a link that you can send to anyone, or type the username of an existing Cardinal Account and we'll email them for you.

Information on how Cloud Accounts integrate with your Media Server.

Use a Cardinal Account

Secure authentication for your Cardinal apps.

Cloud Services

Pricing Q&A

Early Adoption Phase

Login with Cardinal

Secure authentication for your Cardinal apps, and for your users.

Admin Dashboard

Includes a powerful web dashboard for operating your Media Server.

RBAC

Includes a Role-Based Access Control layer so you can control exactly what your users can access.

Media File Indexing

Index your music, photos, movie, and TV files without having to change your folder structure.

Libraries

Select folders to create a library, and browse your media in slices that are more meaningful to you.

Offline access

You don't need a Cardinal account—or even an internet connection—to use your apps on the local network.

Open API

Ships with an open, documented API that your apps can integrate with.

Explore Your Music

Browse artists, releases, and tracks. Sort, reorder, and filter. All with a modern, fast web UI.

Photo archive

Use a powerful interface to scrub through decades of photographs.

Your own theater

Enjoy your own movies & TV with that familiar online streaming experience.

Self-Hosted Apps

Cardinal is free to use; no account required.

Relay access

Avoid exposing your Media Server to the internet by using Cardinal's secure relay servers.

Privacy First

Stay off the grid, or opt into Cardinal's cloud services. The choice is yours.

Web scale at home

Designed around being container-first, with plug-and-play support for PostgreSQL.

Modern web apps

Comes bundled with the Music, Photos, and Cinema web apps.

Collections

Group your movies & TV by series and saga to browse by collection.

Custom TV channels

Create and manage custom TV channels, each with their own program lineup.

Face detection

Free, as in free beer

There is no cost to use Cardinal's self-hosted apps. They are yours to use for free, forever.

Genres

Browse and play your music according to genre.

HEIC support

View HEIC photos on any device, even ones that don't support the format natively.

No Ads

Your apps will never contain ads. Enjoy clean, crisp interfaces without annoying distractions.

No signup needed

Cardinal's cloud accounts are optional, and you have access to all of the features without one.

OCR support

Use optical character recognition to make text in photos searchable.

Photo albums

Playback history

Keep a complete history of everything you've listened to.

Playlists

Make playlists for any occasion, and get smart playlist suggestions.

Favourites

Onc click keeps all your favourites nearby.

Smart suggestions

Get better suggestions over time as Cardinal Music adapts to your listening habits.

Transcoding

Transcode your video and audio for greater client device support.

Use your photos from Google Photos

Cardinal fully supports the format exported by Google Takeout, so that you can make the move.

Pricing

Cardinal is free to use; no account required.

Pricing Q&A

Is technical support available?