What a media server is
A media server is a program you install on a computer or a NAS. It builds its own catalog of your movies, shows, music and photos, and streams them to apps on your TVs, phones and tablets. Plenty of people love them, and for a large video collection on many screens they are the right tool.
What they usually ask of you
You install the server and keep it updated. You create user accounts, and in many products an online account too. You install an app on each device, and in some products features such as remote access or downloads sit behind a paid plan. Your catalog, and the organizing work you do in it, usually lives in the server's own database. Video comes first, and photos and music are sometimes handled by separate or secondary apps.
That's a lot to take on just to see your own photos and play your own music.
What Raza asks of you instead
Install Raza Photos or Raza Songs on your Mac, pick the folders where your photos or music already live, and switch on library sharing. Open the app on your iPhone or iPad and the library is there. There is no separate server program, no account, no plan, and no catalog to rebuild: your files stay where they are, and the changes you make from your phone are written back into them in open formats. Getting started →
Side by side
Media servers differ from each other, so the left column describes the typical case, not any one product.
| A typical media server | Raza Photos, Raza Songs | |
|---|---|---|
| What you install | A server program on a computer or NAS, plus an app on each device | One Mac app, plus the iPhone or iPad app |
| Accounts | User accounts, and often an online account | None. Read-only toggles per device |
| Cost | Free, subscription or lifetime, depending on the product. Some features on paid plans | Free today. Any future price would be a one-time purchase |
| Where your organizing work lives | Usually the server's own database | Your files, as XMP/EXIF and audio tags |
| If the software disappears | You rebuild the catalog elsewhere | Your files are as you left them, readable by any app that opens them |
| Best at | Video, live TV and big collections on many screens | Photos and music from your Mac's folders on your Apple devices |
| Photos and music | Supported, sometimes in separate or secondary apps | Each has its own app: faces, map, HDR and Live Photos in Raza Photos; gapless playback and AirPlay in Raza Songs |
| The apps themselves | Built for many platforms. Some parts of the experience are web-based | Native Swift apps for Mac, iPhone and iPad |
| Devices | TVs, game consoles, Android, Windows, Linux, web | Mac, iPhone, iPad. Requires macOS 26 and iOS 26 or later |
| People in the house | Individual profiles and parental controls | One shared library. Read-only server or per-device read-only |
| Away from home | Built in, or on a paid plan, depending on the product | Optional, off by default, through Tailscale |
When a media server is the better choice
If your collection is mostly movies and shows, if you want live TV or recording, if you want to watch on a TV, a game console or an Android phone, if each family member needs their own profile and parental controls, or if you want the library to live on a NAS instead of a Mac, a media server does what Raza doesn't. Raza Photos and Raza Songs run on Apple devices only, and the Mac has to be on.
When Raza is
Your photos and music already sit in folders on a Mac. You want them on every iPhone and iPad in the house without running a server, creating accounts or paying a monthly fee. And you want the work you put into organizing them to live in your own files, so that it outlasts any app, including this one.