Medusa VPS Docker Hosting

Medusa is an open-source automatic video library manager for TV shows, written in Python. The tool watches for new episodes of shows you track, downloads them through your configured torrent or NZB providers, renames the files, and sorts them into a clean library folder. It is the active, polished descendant of the Sick Beard project, in the same family as SickChill and SickGear. Medusa runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, NAS devices like Synology and QNAP, and inside a Docker container.

Medusa is free and open source under the GPL-3.0 license, with no paid tier and no in-app charges. The only cost in running it is the server it runs on, plus whatever you spend on indexer or NZB provider subscriptions if you use paid ones. A VPS bundles the hosting layer, fast SSD storage, and reliable 24/7 uptime into one monthly bill, so the cost of an automated TV library setup stays predictable from one month to the next.

Medusa supports both NZB and torrent download clients. On the NZB side, it works with SABnzbd and NZBGet. On the torrent side, it integrates with qBittorrent, Transmission, Deluge, rTorrent, uTorrent, and Synology Download Station. The matching is done by Medusa once a release is found, and the download client handles the actual transfer. After the file finishes, Medusa picks it up from the configured download folder, processes it, and files it into the right show and season folder for that title.

The Medusa project does not publish a hard minimum. CPU usage stays low in normal operation, but RAM use can climb over long uptimes. One documented Raspberry Pi case showed Medusa using about 730 MB after 17 hours of uptime, and similar slow growth is a known long-running pain point. The practical answer is to provision generous memory headroom. A VPS with 1 to 2 GB of RAM handles a single Medusa instance with room for the Python process to grow.

Anime support is one of the reasons many collectors pick Medusa over similar tools. The app searches AniDB for show data, handles automatic XEM scene numbering and naming, and supports DVD-order numbering, specials, and multi-episode files. Those features matter for anime, where scene, absolute, and DVD episode numbering rarely agree across release groups. The result is fewer manual fixes and cleaner files in your library. Anime-heavy libraries often run Medusa for this part of its feature set, and the savings in manual cleanup show up early.

You add a show in the web UI and pick the quality you want. Medusa pulls episode and air-date data from an indexer like TheTVDB, TVMaze, or TMDB, then searches your configured torrent and NZB providers around each new air time. When a matching release appears, Medusa sends it to your download client. After the download finishes, Medusa renames the file, generates NFO and poster files, files it into your library, and can notify your media server about the new episode.

Yes, that is the whole point of the tool. Once you set up indexers, providers, a download client, and a quality profile per show, Medusa searches around each new air time, snatches the matching release, sends it to the download client, and post-processes the result into your library on its own. Manual searches are still available when you want to pick a specific release, and the failed-download handler lets you mass-fail seasons or episodes to trigger a fresh search round.

Medusa organizes downloaded episodes into a clean folder structure any modern media server can read. Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, and Kodi pick up new files from that folder once you point the server at it. Medusa can also update the Kodi library and send notifications to Plex, Kodi, Trakt, and a list of other services when a new episode is filed. Sync with a Trakt watchlist is also built in, so your watch state stays in step across devices and clients.

Effectively yes. Medusa triggers searches around episode air times and polls the download folder on a recurring schedule, so the automation only works if the server stays up around the clock. A laptop that sleeps overnight or a desktop you reboot will miss the next morning of new releases. NAS devices and VPS plans are the usual choice for that reason. The project itself frames Medusa as set-and-forget software for always-on devices, with no manual input needed once configured.

Medusa is actively maintained and released, with version 1.0.25 published in November 2025. The GitHub repository shows more than 290 contributors and over 128 releases on record, and the LinuxServer.io Docker image was rebased on Alpine 3.22 in the same month. Community comparisons treat Medusa as one of the active Sick Beard descendants, alongside SickChill, with SickRage now defunct. New issues and pull requests are handled on a steady cadence on GitHub, so the project is far from abandonware these days.