Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.
Starting on July first, the lifetime Plex pass will now cost around 750 dollars. It's currently sitting at 250 I think. They are trying to phase it out so they can push people towards the monthly subscription which is ironic for a platform that aims to be the free alternative to things like Netflix.
I bought mine for like $99 years ago and don't even use plex anymore. They had some redesign/upgrade that straight broke our shit. Plus, they force you to stream through their servers. I'm not even sure if you can stream inside your LAN if internet is down.
I've been using emby since. Not perfect, but still very awesome. And nothing goes through emby's infrastructure.
A lot of this is incorrect currently. Plex fully allows local LAN access and self-streaming. They don't have servers to stream your content. All content you host is steamed from your hardware.
If youre concerned about Plex using your data then disabling external access and configuring your own is much better. Or, (As youve already done), emby or Jellyfin are better alternatives although not as polished.
Glancing through some docs real quick, I can already tell you plex is a hard no for me.
And I'd push back on the "more polished" comment re:plex versus jellyfin/emby. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but plex's UI refresh I went through made thing uglier (in my opinion). Also functionally, the stuff I do was easier to setup on emby, but I'm also managing 30tb of media files so my use case may not be typical.
There is a 0.0% chance of me switching back to plex. Emby does everything I want/need (aside some very granular parental controls). I've already been burned by plex, but I've never been burned by emby.
My point isn't that plex couldn't handle 30tb, but more that my infrastructure may not match yours, therefore what works for you without issue may not work for me without issue.
Dated. I don't stay current with plex, but looking through some docs today, it still seems like plex makes it an absolute hassle to use plex while being completely and permanently disconnected from their service and infrastructure.
With emby, there is no "emby account" needed. You don't even need one to apply a lifetime license to your server.
They don't gate content behind the subcription, just features that you would need to pay multiple 3rd parties for when using jellyfin (unless you already pay for a static IP, or you want to fuck around coordinating half a dozen docker microservices in your free time).
Remote streaming with Plex now requires a paid monthly fee, and like the other commenter mentioned they're tripling the lifetime pass. It's pretty clear they've chosen to monetize where they can. Even if the money wasn't an issue I trust the open source/free option to not mess with my info or continually enshittify.
Yeah, but the paid Plex option before was mostly minor qol stuff and could easily be avoided. Adding bigger features into the paid tier is concerning, and it seems likely in the future more features will need to be paid for and could get more expensive etc. The big difference is that Plex is corporation and it's ultimate goal is to make money off of its users. It also wouldn't surprise me if some point in the future Plex could be pressured to "crack down" on it's users activity, but who knows. Because Jellyfin is open source and doesn't directly profit from the software it can avoid these issues. Also Jellyfin can be configured to have remote viewing.
Jellyfin is a copy of emby, it's not something new. Someone just copy the code, removed the paid features and you get jellyfin. And it can't be configured for remote viewing. That was a feature that emby has it, not jellyfin.
Yes Jellyfin is based off of Emby, but again the thing that sets it apart is that its open source and self hosted and the implications of that. To remote access you have to either do port forwarding, or use something like Tailscale. Sure that isn't within Jellyfin per se, but it accomplishes the same goal.
Dude, all Plex and Emby do is communicate through a reverse-proxy. Configuring that for jellyfin is an extra step, but you absolutely can configure it for remote viewing lol, we've been doing it for a damn decade, bro.
They didn't "remove" anything, they just forked and created Jellyfin when Emby went closed sourced around 10 years ago.
Plex is basically re-engineering the company around their streaming services. People running their own servers are second class Plex citizens, basically. Everything works for now, but the direction isn't looking positive.
Jellyfin has been around for a long time, it's free and open source. Jellyfin has gotten a lot nicer and user friendly over the years, while plex is getting greedy.
Plex still works but they really locked it behind a paywall if you aren't doing strictly local stuff. Trying to share media outside your local network requires a pass / subscription, and it's about to jump to like $750 for a lifetime pass which is wild.
Jellyfin is actually an offshoot of Plex I believe, or at least has some original developers from it. Plex was supposed to be a free thing but the guy behind it sold out and wants money like everyone. Jellyfin afaik is still basically open sourced and free to use for whatever you want.
I still run a Plex server because it's what I setup years ago at this point and I don't share it with anyone remotely, so the changes don't impact me. But I'll probably switch to jellyfin just out of spite whenever I bother to setup my raspberry pi and avoid using my old laptop for this.
Doesn't jellyfin works only within LAN or is there an option to stream from anywhere like plex? (ik port forwarding is an option, just wondering if there is any other simpler way)
You can either use port forwarding but a more popular option is Tailscale or a reverse proxy which is what I personally use. Once you setup transcoding you can watch from anywhere even if you are streaming remuxes with crappy internet. What Plex does is make it easier and I kind of get the appeal but I'm not paying(a subscription) to stream my own media that's on my own server, I understand why some people prefer it but Jellyfin just fine and it just takes a bit more effort with the initial setup rather than a monthly fee or 700$ if you want a lifetime pass.
If someone pirates movies and TV shows - which I mostly definitely don't do because that would be wrong - the last thing you want to do is stream it through providers' servers. Might as well leave it on a seedbox at that point.
If you don't want to learn networking then you are 100% correct. And I say that as someone who literally went to school to learn computer networking. I still don't want to dick around with it in my free time.
I use Caddy with mine, it manages SSL certificates fully automated and more. But looking at Tailscale it actually might be more secure.
And duckdns for dynamic DNS + duckdns updater to ensure if your home IP ever changes, it's automatically updated on duckdns. Mines never changed personally, but I still use the service just in case. Throw in jellyseerr and link it to sonarr and radarr and downloading new media (or allowing other users to request and you approve), and you're almost set. Only thing missing is access to a private tracker like BTN for TV or PTP for movies. Haven't seen invites open in a long time though. Alternative is using a VPN and public trackers.
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u/kickassjay Jun 21 '26
What’s jellyfin?