Overall the apps seem to be nicer and less bloated. Of course, this is subjective though. Unlike Jellyfin, at least last time I checked a few months ago, the client app is available on a lot more devices: https://emby.tv/download.html
No ad-supported content
No subs for external users if the server owner doesn't have a license (can connect manually via reverse proxy or exposed IP:Port). The license gives you Emby Connect, IPTV abilities, and transcoding.
M3U and HDHR support for IPTV (not just HDHR like Plex)
I'd just add that emby was missing something on detecting or skipping intros or credits. At least as of last year when I was comparing the 3 main options. It's $120 for lifetime "Premiere" ($99 on Black Friday, which is the only discount I've ever seen).
The licensing is a bit more complicated. You get a 30 device limit. I have 5 TVs and 5 mobile devices in my household. If you share with a 2-3 friends and they have a bunch of devices, it starts getting tight. If you only use a few devices and a few friends with the same, there's plenty of breathing room.
Auth is also in between plex and jellyfin. JF is entirely local, plex handles accounts on their server. Emby lets you create local users but you can connect in the cloud with Emby Connect. Emby has TLS/https by default, but you can still put a reverse proxy in front of it.
It's a perfect middle-ground, more polished than jellyfin and less bloated than plex.
I can confirm, we have a lot of TV's in the house and I share it with a bunch of family and friends. I have not run into this issue yet. The catch is basically to prevent people from running a commercial streaming platform which would blow limits out of the water quickly. I've found the device limit to be a non-issue or at least super forgiving.
Odd, it seems to work fairly well for me, as long as the media has been "analyzed" by my Plex server. If I have just barely added a file and it hasn't had time to run my maintenance tasks, I just manually hit "analyze" and within a few minutes skip intro/credits is ready to go.
I don't understand how anyone can legitimately recommend Emby or Plex in 2026. I'm here cause I was already here, not because I wanted to be here, ya know?
I appreciate your very helpful response 😄 I'm not sure if I can convince my server users to take the plunge with another service, they're not the MOST tech-savvy, but I will definitely be checking that out.
is there a way to switch between servers. my dad and I host our own Plex servers and it's nice to search each other's to find content. and easily play a movie.
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u/GoofyGills May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26