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Snapcast

Snapcast is available in the NetActuate Marketplace as a one-click, open-source appliance you can deploy into any NetActuate PoP. Synchronized multi-room audio: one server streams in sync to every client. It is grouped under the Media & Streaming category.

What It Does​

Snapcast is an open-source, multi-room synchronous audio streaming server. The snapserver reads a shared audio stream and pushes it to any number of snapclients so every room plays exactly the same sound at exactly the same time, with no echo between rooms. It pairs naturally with Mopidy, Music Player Daemon, Spotify (librespot), AirPlay and any PCM source, and it ships with the Snapweb browser control UI so you can manage groups, clients and volumes from any device.

Key features

  • Synchronized, low-latency playback across many clients in perfect time
  • Snapweb browser control UI plus a JSON-RPC API on port 1780
  • Works with Mopidy, MPD, Spotify (librespot), AirPlay, process and pipe sources
  • FLAC, Opus, Ogg and PCM transport codecs, tunable buffer and latency
  • Group clients into zones and control per-client volume and mute
  • Lightweight and self-hosted: one small server, clients on any platform

Use cases

  • Whole-home or whole-venue audio that stays in sync room to room
  • A self-hosted alternative to proprietary multi-room speaker ecosystems
  • Central audio distribution for offices, bars, gyms and events

Why run it on the NetActuate edge Hosting snapserver in a PoP close to your clients keeps the control path and stream distribution short and stable, so playback stays tightly synchronized and responsive as you add rooms and listeners.

Upstream attribution: Snapcast is developed and maintained by Johannes M. Pohl and contributors (https://github.com/badaix/snapcast) and is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. This appliance packages the unmodified upstream Snapcast 0.35.0 snapserver release on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream project.

Vendor and Project​

Snapcast is an open-source project, offered here under the Open Source listing with best-effort community support.

NetActuate supports the underlying infrastructure. Application-level support follows the listing SLA class (open-source, best effort).

Sizing​

vCPURAMDisk
Minimum1512 MB5 GB
Recommended11 GB10 GB

No VPU (hardware acceleration) is required for this appliance. Choose a size at deploy based on your expected load.

Configuration Fields​

When you deploy, you provide these fields. They are written into the appliance at first boot.

FieldRequiredDefaultNotes
Server NameNoSnapcastName of the default audio source/stream that clients connect to, shown in the Snapweb UI. Defaults to Snapcast.

Using the Appliance​

Snapcast is up

  1. Open the control UI. Browse to http://YOUR_VM_IP:1780/ for Snapweb, the web control interface and JSON-RPC API.
  2. Feed audio in. The server exposes a named PCM input pipe at /var/lib/snapserver/snapfifo; point a source (Mopidy, MPD, librespot, or any process that writes PCM) at it, or edit /etc/snapserver.conf to add sources.
  3. Connect clients. Install snapclient on your devices and point them at YOUR_VM_IP (audio stream port 1704, control port 1705); they appear in Snapweb and play in sync.
  4. Name it. The default stream name is the Server Name you set at deploy.

FAQ​

Is there a software license fee? No. Snapcast is open source and free to run. You pay only for the NetActuate infrastructure and bandwidth.

Which port does the appliance serve on? The primary service is published on port 1780 by default; see the configuration fields for any adjustable ports.

Who supports it? NetActuate operates the underlying infrastructure. The application itself is community-supported open source (best-effort SLA class).

Version and Changelog​

VersionStatusReleased
0.35.0Current (default)2026-07-11

Deploy​

Need Help?​

Contact support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal.