ROM Librarian vs RomM

ROM Librarian is a free, open-source desktop application for managing retro gaming ROM collections on Windows and Linux. It renames batches with regular expressions, showing previews, handling filename collisions, and supporting undo. Its DAT rename tool matches ROMs with No-Intro or MAME DAT files using CRC32, MD5, and SHA1 hashes. The application compresses ROMs to ZIP or 7z and extracts both archive types. It converts CUE/BIN and ISO disc images to CHD; Windows includes chdman, while Linux users must have chdman in PATH. Renaming can update EmulationStation or RetroPie gamelist.xml metadata, with restoration through undo. Multi-disc detection creates M3U playlists. Duplicate detection uses SHA1 or MD5 and preferences for region, size, and date. A Linux command-line interface supports scripted operations. The MIT-licensed project credits RobotWizard.

RomM is a free, self-hosted app for scanning, enriching, browsing, and playing a ROM collection. The project says it supports more than 400 platforms, including multi-disk games, DLCs, mods, hacks, and manuals. Compatible games can run in a browser through EmulatorJS and Ruffle without setup, while saves and states sync across devices with conflict resolution. Metadata providers include IGDB, ScreenScraper, LaunchBox, and MobyGames; RomM can also fetch artwork from SteamGridDB and track RetroAchievements. A built-in patcher applies ROM hacks and translations. The project lists granular per-user permissions, OIDC single sign-on, a REST API, and exports for ES-DE and Pegasus. Official clients include a Windows Playnite plugin, the Android Argosy handheld launcher, and the Linux Grout handheld client. A native iOS app is a community project, and the team says it does not regularly review community project source code. RomM is AGPL-3.0 licensed, with no tracking or paid features. Setup help and community discussion are available through Discord.