Triple in price is crazy, especially that high of a price to stream your own content!
At that price, I would be worried that they aren't doing too well financially. I would be worried that I paid that much only for the company to go under or limit its use a couple of years later.
How can they justify an exponential price increase like this? The blog post doesn’t really mention new features aside from bringing features from the desktop website to the mobile app…
Even though I bought my lifetime membership years ago, I think it’s time to explore other options. I don’t like this.
Jellyfin continues to be a noticeable downgrade from Plex, but it is chugging along to being as good. If you're already a Plex lifetime subscriber the only logical move is to make sure your library is setup in a way that is compatible with both. There is no reason yet to switch away from Plex, unless you've had that terrible UI forced on you on Roku. I can switch at any moment when ever some MBA decides to enshittify something important.
I have no idea who will ever buy a lifetime pass at 10x what I paid for Plex in 2019. I struggled with the decision to pay $75 back then. There were effectively zero competitors to their product then.
One is that they don't really want to sell a lifetime subscription, but it'll look bad if they discontinue the option. This way, they effectively don't sell them anymore, but there aren't people all screaming "They've discontinued lifetime subscriptions. How long until they take away the ones they sold before?!"
Another possible explanation is that it's just a ruse to sell more subscriptions. They probably sold a ton of subscriptions last time a price increase was announced. So, if they need a cash infusion, just announce another price increase. Then, when it turns out nobody buys at $750, decrease the price later on to return to normal.
TFA outright states that they don’t want to sell the Lifetime option anymore but don’t want to rug pull customers that want it, so they’re increasing the cost substantially to a price they’d be happy with
I’m curious how they determined $750 is fair. Is it just N * Annual_Price and if so why is this value of N fair? But they likely won’t say
Same! At first I was wary of using it because the UI looked less polished, but from the start the stability has been vastly superior and now the UI is much better too.
as a bonus, I have a old version Emby Theather (the windows form based one) that plays 4K with no issues on my computer unlike browsers that fail at that.
For me, constant streaming hiccups, when the two were on the same physical network (Cat6 end-to-end). It may be the Apple TV Jellyfin app, but all the advice online is "re-encode your content so Jellyfin works correctly" (with everyone suggesting a different "correct" format).
Ultimately Plex "just works" for the most part, including channel information for live TV. Jellyfin is very impressive, for free.
It is just hard to sustain multiple apps across platforms, when you have little to no income to hire developers.
I have content in mkv and mp4, SDR and HDR, 264 and 265. I stream from a Jellyfin container with an onboard Intel GPU passed through for transcoding as needed. The client is a 8 series NUC on gigabit using the Flatpak Jellyfin app on a Fedora 44 install. I've yet to encounter any issues with any of my library.
There's little reason at this price. I run both, Plex for people who are already used to it, and Jellyfin for myself and anyone new. At around ~$100 I think the Plex experience was better enough to justify it, personally.
I believe of Plex/Jellyfin/Emby, only Plex has a app for PS5. From what I gather Sony are rather strict about who they allow to develop PS5 apps, and Plex is a "strategic partner" ($$$).
For me, and despite the constant enshitification of Plex, the apps are still better.
But I'm really close to the tipping point, I've been tinkering with making Kodi not suck but custom themes really seem like piles of unsuported plugins.
Historically, Plex was the only show in town - and the only non-DLNA server you could access from most streaming devices. That's changing now, but it's not changing that fast. I believe our older google streamers still don't have a jellyfin app (though I could be wrong). We simply run both services in any case.
Some of us already have a lifetime subscription, why move to Jellyfin?
I'd have to set it up and tell all the consumers of my server to move apps, and not all of them are tech literate. It would take a lot of enshittification to force me to move.
Because Plex provides a way for me to share my server with my friends. They're mostly not very technical, but they can handle "sign up for this free account and install an app and you can stream from my basement like it's Netflix".
Jellyfin has no such solution that I can tell. Stuff like give them access over Tailscale is not the same user friendly option that Plex has. When there's an actual alternative for easily sharing with friends, I'll consider it. Til then I've had a lifetime Plex Pass for around a decade.
I have a remote Jellyfin setup as a server that streams. It's entirely in the cloud. It's far easier to share with friends as none of them are required to buy a Plex account.
None of mine are required to buy a plex account either. They just need to make a free account. Me running it with Plex Pass means they don't have to pay to stream it.
I bought a "lifetime" Plex pass for about $75 way back when, and within 6 months they'd banned my account for using a VPS for my media server. No way to appeal, no recourse. You'd have to be mad to give these scammers $750.
Yeah, no, that price does not justify the service.
I got mine for $250. Plex worked great. Then they added streaming tie-ins and promotional services I didn’t ask for, making them opt-out instead of opt-in.
They changed how my apps worked.
They made my users sign up for Plex accounts instead of letting me manage them locally.
They then tried making it appear like users had to pay to use my library, even though I had paid for a lifetime pass.
Then they actually did make it require a Plex Pass to stream remote content.
It’s my fucking content, Plex, and this nonsense is why I stood up Jellyfin as an escape hatch.
My favorite feature of Plex is that it resets the subtitle track to `None` when the next episode in a series starts. I love manually switching on the same named subtitle track every 30 minutes! $749 is actually too cheap for such an amazing feature.
Steep price, but honestly makes a lot of sense. Lifetime licenses are never sustainable when you own a lot of infrastructure. Plex owns the auth, the reverse proxy infrastructure (to make it dead simple to setup), and a ton of development overhead and backend licensing deals.
They obviously want to shift people to a monthly plan, but still give that lifetime. If I were to buy today vs when I originally, it would still be cost effective.
There are alternatives, so users that don't want to shell up the 150$ now can jump over to. It's closed source software and the users have the opportunity to shift (or build a competing software that meets more of their core needs).
So soon after an abysmally bad and unpopular redesign? Why would I make a long term commitment to a platform that removes features and worsens over time?
Plex has slowly been going down the drain. I could be convinced to buy a lifetime pass for $90 (even if it's just for paying to watch my own content), but $750 is strictly "get outta here" territory.
With how it's been stagnating recently, even the current prices are a hard sell for me, especially given how "lifetime" with tech companies tends to mean "~five years". I switched to Jellyfin and haven't looked back.
I’m still salty that their last app platform rewrite dropped Watch Together as a supported feature. Server still supports it, browser clients still support it, as well as the older Plex apps if you were prescient enough to turn off automatic app updates and manually keep refusing to update the Plex app.
This is a feature I use multiple times per week with friends who live states away. I can’t believe they just dropped it.
Jellyfin have that feature now working well. Presumably this is the one where if you pause to go to the bathroom it pauses for the other person too and doesn't go out of sync even if one connection has slow internet for example.
It's been death by many cuts for me with Plex. This follows the recent change where if a device on your network is not in the same IP range (say you have some clients on 192.168.1.x and some on 192.168.2.x, but on same subnet), Plex considers this to be remote access and demands payment now. I believe this is a response to users who run Plex on their own VPN rather than pay Plex the sub fee for their remote access solution.
I'm not reconfiguring my LAN because Plex can't identify remote traffic accurately.
I'm kind of feeling similarly, albeit I've been a Lifetime holder for a while now. So on the other side of the coin is what it would take for me to finally leave. In retrospect, Plex has probably been work $750 for the way I've used it, which I've been doing for easily 15 years now, but if I was not currently a Lifetime subscriber, I'm not sure I'd see the value. That said, I don't want to move platforms, nor do I want to have to set up the family members who steam from my server on something else.
"Tip!: This feature requires an active Plex Pass subscription for the Plex Media Server admin Plex account. Addresses can be specified either as an individual IP address or a range (using IP/netmasks). Do not include spaces or tabs."
This is now a feature toggle hidden behind a PlexPass sub, you used to be able to do this on the free version until the changes in 2025 to make remote access a chargeable feature.
"Very few people will need to set or change this preference. It simply lets you specify which IP addresses or networks will be considered to be “local” to you..."
"Tip!: This feature requires an active Plex Pass subscription for the Plex Media Server admin Plex account. Addresses can be specified either as an individual IP address or a range (using IP/netmasks). Do not include spaces or tabs."
i just use kodi for my content. Data is on my router's hard drive, and before that it was some USB spinning rust attached to the ISP's router, and it just works (Well, TV series needs to be stored with the required folder structure / names to be recognized, but that's it)
That's my usecase, so i never got the PLEX appeal (if i'm outside i just stream from the usual sources)
Say what?
I open it, i have the list of movies, i select one. What else do you need?
You can also install alternate UIs. There is one that makes the whole thing like an android TV. I tried, i removed it. I prefer the stock Kodi interface (not perfect, but doesn't try to sell me anything.)
I run Jellyfin because I want my media on my network and I don't want some intermediary getting any data about me or my friends or controlling what I can do.
Smart move. Lifetime passes are not very sustainable for a business. Especially when they own and run a lot of the flow. This prices out most purchases and gets folks funneled into regular payments.
I use Jellyfin now but still think it’s an overall downgrade compared to the plex experience. Plex just works without any setup in my experience where I have always had hiccups with Jellyfin.
Happy to continue paying annual for Plex as I think it's worth it, but I'm definitely also installing Jellyfin alongside and starting to look at what really limits swapping completely. Currently that's mostly things like missing PlayStation apps, need for plugins to handle certain features, more complex accounts/auth story, etc.
I'm hopeful that with AI development (on a short leash), the Jellyfin core contributors can increase velocity somewhat and really close the gap.
If Jellyfin had a PS5 app I would switch to it instantly, it’s the only thing keeping me on plex right now. Are there other similar apps for streaming your own media to a playstation?
I ran a plex server for about a dozen years just to watch local movies and photos on a couple of rokus. No matter how they pushed, I never created an account because I didn't like the idea of remote access proxied through them.
It ran on a desktop pc that we would just boot when we wanted to watch something. It met our needs. Considered a lifetime pass back in the day just to support the project, although the constant churn of "look at me!" stuff made me quickly realize that their goals were not mine.
A few months ago I finally got around to building a NAS, and discovered that plex won't even run now without a pass. Moved to Jellyfin and never looked back. Getting hardware accel configured took a day or so, but we now use it 10x as much as the old plex server.
FYI, getting hardware acceleration for Intel working with Jellyfin is pretty straightforward. The key thing is that you have to put the server acct into the render group, then pass through the dri device. I also pass through the video group, but I don't think that is strictly necessary. NVIDIA seems a bit different but I can't speak to that. Docker compose file looks something like the following (uids and gids may vary)
> I didn't like the idea of remote access proxied through them
This is not and has never been required. If by remote access you mean actually streaming from the public Internet, their proxies are a low-bitrate fallback in case you can't connect directly - and it can be disabled altogether IIRC.
Remote access is provided through them. The content is not. The access is. We're far past the point of quibbling technicalities to defend your chosen celebrity-company
The solution I use for remote access is tailnet plus exit nodes. It also is probably more secure as the attack surface is wireguard + the tailscale control plane rather than an entire internet facing Plex server.
I had a jellyfin server on the same machine as my plex. I really tried to use both, the jellyfin experience was so much worse overall.
It had one technical feature that I valued (the ability to tone/color map dolby vision content for non dolby vision devices), but that was such a minimal feature for me (very little of my content is in the proprietary dolby vision colorspace).
I have a lifetime Plex Pass, but I'd gleefully dump it for open source if the experience were as good.
But as you say, it's not, and the lack of churn (only patch releases and one blog post this last 6 months) doesn't inspire me to think it's getting better nearly quick enough.
Are you talking about the Jellyfin server? It is quite an active project. Last release was 10.11.8 about a month ago, and github says that there have been 1049 commits to master since then.
Honest question, I haven't looked in a while - what does Plex offer over Jellyfin that would make it worth a monthly payment, or even $250-$750 one-time? When I ran the calculus a few years ago I came up empty.
there's 2 (or 3) broad groups of people who 'might' use plex. and it seems that neither group can understand the use case of the others which leads to massive confusion.
group 1: somebody just wants to watch a movie they've downloaded. They either double click the movie file and maybe connect with a hdmi to a tv. Advanced group one users might eve use a usb drive / stick and plug it into a TV for computerless playback. Usually only a single user, or users who don't mind doing it 'manually'
group2: has a 'collection' is concerned with the 'library' of content possibly has a nas or media pc that handles playback. Jelly fin works fine here, and these guys who haven't used plex DO NOT understand why people would use plex given all the objections. (i'm including you in this group, as 'the interface sucked' Possibly a technical user that wants more than just a directory of movie files. I'd say usually a solo user or a shared setup on family tvs within the same network.
group3: These are folk who may be technical, but don't want to waste time pfaffing with linux configs etc . The shit really hits the fan here because this group will also likely want to share their library with family and friends, and perhaps use apps on their TV/devices to access the content, from different places. Plex is AS EASY as netflix to setup in this way. You invite your users from within plex. They create a plex account for free and they download an app on their TV or tablet from the app store, Sign in, and start watching. It (your server) tracks users, progress, between devices and everything just works in a nice way, there is basically zero configuration required.
of course there's overlap and this is broad strokes, but I see these issues pop up on these discussion all the time . The comment above that said 'just use jellyfin' is like saying 'just use linux 15 years ago' is on the money. Jelly fin is cool, but it's needs heavy dose of polish and more TV apps. Half the TV's in my house don't have a jelly fin app but they do have a plex app . I don't even need to check what my freinds and family have, plex app availability is a given.
You are not wrong, I am in group 2. I have a small library of movies/anime/tv series that I want to stream over my local network to watch on Android TV. Users are myself, wife and daughter.
I tried plex a while ago and I really disliked the interface and how it worked. I recently tried Jellyfin and found it pretty amazing instead. Setting it up was pretty alright.
As for TVs, My LG TVs have no native Jellyfin app, but it was easily solvable with Android TV boxes that I already had nonetheless.
i do agree the interface can be a bit odd in places, but it takes about 5 minutes to learn, really. Disabling all the plex crap helps a lot so i see only my own content.
As for the tv apps -- yes exactly you already had an android tv box but if you didnt? Then you have to get one, set that up, now you are 2 steps removed from what you are trying to acheive. And what about if you wanted to share your content with grandma or family elsewhere in the country? it's not easy.
Also you just unlocked horror memories of set top boxes etc. I remember years ago i used to run a decent setup with audio, hdmi matrix and various inputs, like a firetv, or a popcorn hour, as well as PC, consoles etc . ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE getting family to be able to use it. they could never get the input right, or the audio right or something. god i forgot how mauch i hate plugging stuff in to the family tv. Thank goodness for smart apps lol! WAF is through the roof. Never thought Id say that.
Now I have a Wiim Pro with ARC HDMI and a Sony android TV. never need to touch anything. all controlled on the tv remote, audio, source and it all just works.
The app ecosystem argument is totally valid, yeah. Paying to get access to that makes sense if you and the people you are sharing with benefit from that.
I guess I view the server-side as mostly fungible, because me and all the people I share with are more technical, have a separate media player (Apple TV etc), and are either light users content with the Jellyfin app, or use a third-party app like Infuse on iOS. I look at the media server software as more like a "media fileshare with metadata and easy user management", but I get why that's not the case for everyone.
> Today we’re announcing an important pricing update. Starting July 1, 2026, the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass will increase to $749.99 USD.
> …
> You have until 12:01 AM UTC on July 1, 2026, to get a Lifetime Plex Pass at the current price of $249.99 USD here. If you’ve been considering it, now’s a great time to buy.
Are you kidding me? This is ludicrous.
> As mentioned in the messaging above, this adjustment ensures that the price of a Lifetime Plex Pass continues to more accurately reflect its true value. Over the years, as our software and product has evolved, the breadth of features and benefits included with your Plex Pass has expanded. This increase ensures we can continue to invest resources into building and maintaining the Plex personal media software, while continuing to offer a Lifetime option.
I don't know how much engineering time is spent maintaining this app, but I haven't wanted (or used) any features added since ~2014 when I found this be a great app for locally streaming my massive Blu-Ray and DVD library. Streaming television, music, whatever else they've added is completely ignored.
I gave up on Plex and just vibe coded a couple quick solutions instead:
- Direct streaming 4K blu-ray atmos rips to home theater: just connected a PC via long HDMI fiber optic cable
- Library organization: tinyMediaManager is awesome for this.
- Watching ad hoc on iPad/iPhone: built a simple Next.js app that lists my movies and and a python script that encodes movies as MP4 and creates HLS playlists. No more real time transcoding.
- Downloading movies to my iPad for long flights: vibe coded an iOS app Claude handled all the AV code to download the same HLS streams.
God Plex sucks now. The mobile Photos app is basically abandonware that threw out 80% of the functionality from when photos were handled in the main app. Still glad I snatched up the lifetime pass when it was $150, but they're doing their best to make it money wasted.
The writing was on the wall years ago. Those of us who have seen this film before knew where this was going.
A few years ago I went full Jellyfin for my media server needs and never looked back. Yes, some people complained Jellyfin client apps weren't as polished. However if you want to pay you can get the likes of Infuse or sign up for a Netpute beta.
There was no arguing with Plex fanboys though and I think even the most ardent fans will slowly start to give up over the next few years. This is a win for Open Source. I can only see the Jellyfin ecosystem advantages starting to compound.
Since everyone hates Plex here apparently here's a positive feedback. I bought the lifetime pass for $90 a few years ago and didn't even use it that much at first. I just launched Plex Server from my MacBook from time to time to watch movies on my TV that were not available on Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+ (I subscribed to all three), because it was apparently the easiest way to watch a movie on TV from a laptop without using an HDMI cable.
With time passing and the pricing of 3 platforms becoming more and more ridiculous for less and less convenience, I completely migrated to Plex 2 years ago. It's been working flawlessly so far. The UX is not perfect but good enough, it syncs with my phone and iPad, I can download episodes in advance when traveling, I can share access with friends easily... Probably the best $90 I've ever spent for a lifetime pass.
Maybe Jellyfin or Emby would work just as well, I honestly don't know. But Plex is fine.
as someone who bought a lifetime pass years ago when it was cheap, I'm more concerned about this indicating that they are in desparate straits and are heading towards going out of business.
I like plex, I've tried jellyfin and emby and plex has always come out ahead (handling the metadata and the general user experience) and if plex goes bellyup i guess I'll move, but I'll be sad. At least I feel I've gotten my value out of my lifetime plex pass.
I bought a “Lifetime” pass from PlayOn. They literally just renamed the product (all the old naming is still permeated through the code) and then said the license was no longer valid, killed the working features by forcing an upgrade to their new product, and suggested I purchase a new subscription instead.
“Lifetime” license is a never again purchase for me, but I hope Plex users fair better.
This stance seems weird to me. Do you really want to be locked into paying subscriptions for everything and have to rent all your software?
You got burned by a crappy company and we desperately need laws about being made whole when a company shuts down it's servers, but demanding everything be a subscription seems like a bad approach in the mean time.
I wanted to download and watch YouTube videos. The YouTube app on the Roku is not great and I had all kinds of issues with trying to use the YouTube app on my phone. I was trying to use Plex and it was really clumsy for handling things like this. I'm trying to have something on while exercising so I want to hit as few buttons as possible.
Gemini recommended Jellyfin specifically for this situation and coded me something that deletes the videos once they've been watched in Jellyfin. Before I was manually deleting videos I'd watched.
I bought Plex Pass a long time ago and it continues to work great for serving up movies but it was really bad with the YouTube videos. I have some home movies that I'm going to try with Jellyfin that I'd given up on using with Plex.
tiernano | 8 hours ago
rationalist | 7 hours ago
It is currently $250 until July 1, 2026.
It was $100 when I bought it back in 2022.
Triple in price is crazy, especially that high of a price to stream your own content!
At that price, I would be worried that they aren't doing too well financially. I would be worried that I paid that much only for the company to go under or limit its use a couple of years later.
colechristensen | 7 hours ago
TitaRusell | 6 hours ago
fetus8 | 7 hours ago
Even though I bought my lifetime membership years ago, I think it’s time to explore other options. I don’t like this.
[OP] Larrikin | 7 hours ago
I have no idea who will ever buy a lifetime pass at 10x what I paid for Plex in 2019. I struggled with the decision to pay $75 back then. There were effectively zero competitors to their product then.
unethical_ban | 7 hours ago
Oh and user management is local, which I prefer.
frez1 | 6 hours ago
goolz | 6 hours ago
flir | 6 hours ago
RajT88 | 5 hours ago
The big thing is time investment. It is not for people who need it to "just work" - it is very much a tinkerer platform at this point.
protimewaster | 7 hours ago
One is that they don't really want to sell a lifetime subscription, but it'll look bad if they discontinue the option. This way, they effectively don't sell them anymore, but there aren't people all screaming "They've discontinued lifetime subscriptions. How long until they take away the ones they sold before?!"
Another possible explanation is that it's just a ruse to sell more subscriptions. They probably sold a ton of subscriptions last time a price increase was announced. So, if they need a cash infusion, just announce another price increase. Then, when it turns out nobody buys at $750, decrease the price later on to return to normal.
frenchtoast8 | 6 hours ago
I’m curious how they determined $750 is fair. Is it just N * Annual_Price and if so why is this value of N fair? But they likely won’t say
chillfox | 6 hours ago
crorella | 5 hours ago
as a bonus, I have a old version Emby Theather (the windows form based one) that plays 4K with no issues on my computer unlike browsers that fail at that.
adampunk | 7 hours ago
Would we all call it an upgrade?
orthoxerox | 7 hours ago
Someone1234 | 7 hours ago
Ultimately Plex "just works" for the most part, including channel information for live TV. Jellyfin is very impressive, for free.
It is just hard to sustain multiple apps across platforms, when you have little to no income to hire developers.
cricalix | 6 hours ago
Anecdotes aren't data and all that.
s_dev | 5 hours ago
https://firecore.com/infuse
trynumber9 | 6 hours ago
samfriedman | 6 hours ago
tym0 | 6 hours ago
aeturnum | 6 hours ago
enlyth | 6 hours ago
I'd have to set it up and tell all the consumers of my server to move apps, and not all of them are tech literate. It would take a lot of enshittification to force me to move.
surajrmal | 6 hours ago
joecot | 5 hours ago
Jellyfin has no such solution that I can tell. Stuff like give them access over Tailscale is not the same user friendly option that Plex has. When there's an actual alternative for easily sharing with friends, I'll consider it. Til then I've had a lifetime Plex Pass for around a decade.
s_dev | 2 hours ago
joecot | 44 minutes ago
TiredOfLife | 5 hours ago
drcongo | 7 hours ago
subscribed | 2 hours ago
stego-tech | 7 hours ago
I got mine for $250. Plex worked great. Then they added streaming tie-ins and promotional services I didn’t ask for, making them opt-out instead of opt-in.
They changed how my apps worked.
They made my users sign up for Plex accounts instead of letting me manage them locally.
They then tried making it appear like users had to pay to use my library, even though I had paid for a lifetime pass.
Then they actually did make it require a Plex Pass to stream remote content.
It’s my fucking content, Plex, and this nonsense is why I stood up Jellyfin as an escape hatch.
Good fucking riddance.
charlesabarnes | 7 hours ago
dkuntz2 | 7 hours ago
QGQBGdeZREunxLe | 7 hours ago
steviedotboston | 7 hours ago
akersten | 7 hours ago
m-s-y | 6 hours ago
It’s not a server or session level setting for some reason.
archi42 | 2 hours ago
majora2007 | 6 hours ago
They obviously want to shift people to a monthly plan, but still give that lifetime. If I were to buy today vs when I originally, it would still be cost effective.
There are alternatives, so users that don't want to shell up the 150$ now can jump over to. It's closed source software and the users have the opportunity to shift (or build a competing software that meets more of their core needs).
add-sub-mul-div | 6 hours ago
stavros | 6 hours ago
With how it's been stagnating recently, even the current prices are a hard sell for me, especially given how "lifetime" with tech companies tends to mean "~five years". I switched to Jellyfin and haven't looked back.
0xc133 | 6 hours ago
This is a feature I use multiple times per week with friends who live states away. I can’t believe they just dropped it.
s_dev | 5 hours ago
archi42 | 2 hours ago
And that's why these days, I run Jellyfin on a VPS for watch parties (similar situation as yours), while sticking with Plex for family use.
giobox | 6 hours ago
I'm not reconfiguring my LAN because Plex can't identify remote traffic accurately.
eddieroger | 6 hours ago
bigstrat2003 | 6 hours ago
giobox | 2 hours ago
> https://support.plex.tv/articles/200430283-network/
"Tip!: This feature requires an active Plex Pass subscription for the Plex Media Server admin Plex account. Addresses can be specified either as an individual IP address or a range (using IP/netmasks). Do not include spaces or tabs."
jaffa2 | 3 hours ago
giobox | 2 hours ago
> https://support.plex.tv/articles/200430283-network/
Scroll to "LAN Networks"
"Very few people will need to set or change this preference. It simply lets you specify which IP addresses or networks will be considered to be “local” to you..."
"Tip!: This feature requires an active Plex Pass subscription for the Plex Media Server admin Plex account. Addresses can be specified either as an individual IP address or a range (using IP/netmasks). Do not include spaces or tabs."
jaffa2 | 2 hours ago
frizlab | 6 hours ago
monegator | 6 hours ago
i just use kodi for my content. Data is on my router's hard drive, and before that it was some USB spinning rust attached to the ISP's router, and it just works (Well, TV series needs to be stored with the required folder structure / names to be recognized, but that's it)
That's my usecase, so i never got the PLEX appeal (if i'm outside i just stream from the usual sources)
thiht | 4 hours ago
monegator | 4 minutes ago
You can also install alternate UIs. There is one that makes the whole thing like an android TV. I tried, i removed it. I prefer the stock Kodi interface (not perfect, but doesn't try to sell me anything.)
amiga386 | 6 hours ago
infecto | 6 hours ago
I use Jellyfin now but still think it’s an overall downgrade compared to the plex experience. Plex just works without any setup in my experience where I have always had hiccups with Jellyfin.
king_geedorah | 6 hours ago
Fokamul | 6 hours ago
subscribed | 2 hours ago
samfriedman | 6 hours ago
pirates | 6 hours ago
squeedles | 6 hours ago
It ran on a desktop pc that we would just boot when we wanted to watch something. It met our needs. Considered a lifetime pass back in the day just to support the project, although the constant churn of "look at me!" stuff made me quickly realize that their goals were not mine.
A few months ago I finally got around to building a NAS, and discovered that plex won't even run now without a pass. Moved to Jellyfin and never looked back. Getting hardware accel configured took a day or so, but we now use it 10x as much as the old plex server.
squeedles | 6 hours ago
cassianoleal | 5 hours ago
This is not and has never been required. If by remote access you mean actually streaming from the public Internet, their proxies are a low-bitrate fallback in case you can't connect directly - and it can be disabled altogether IIRC.
halJordan | 2 hours ago
ls612 | an hour ago
compsciphd | 3 hours ago
It had one technical feature that I valued (the ability to tone/color map dolby vision content for non dolby vision devices), but that was such a minimal feature for me (very little of my content is in the proprietary dolby vision colorspace).
oliwarner | an hour ago
But as you say, it's not, and the lack of churn (only patch releases and one blog post this last 6 months) doesn't inspire me to think it's getting better nearly quick enough.
squeedles | 57 minutes ago
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/releases/tag/v10.11.8
The clients are even more active
mcpeepants | 6 hours ago
hellisothers | 6 hours ago
surgical_fire | 6 hours ago
I used Plex for a bit years ago but I bounced off as I thought the interface really sucked.
jaffa2 | 2 hours ago
group 1: somebody just wants to watch a movie they've downloaded. They either double click the movie file and maybe connect with a hdmi to a tv. Advanced group one users might eve use a usb drive / stick and plug it into a TV for computerless playback. Usually only a single user, or users who don't mind doing it 'manually'
group2: has a 'collection' is concerned with the 'library' of content possibly has a nas or media pc that handles playback. Jelly fin works fine here, and these guys who haven't used plex DO NOT understand why people would use plex given all the objections. (i'm including you in this group, as 'the interface sucked' Possibly a technical user that wants more than just a directory of movie files. I'd say usually a solo user or a shared setup on family tvs within the same network.
group3: These are folk who may be technical, but don't want to waste time pfaffing with linux configs etc . The shit really hits the fan here because this group will also likely want to share their library with family and friends, and perhaps use apps on their TV/devices to access the content, from different places. Plex is AS EASY as netflix to setup in this way. You invite your users from within plex. They create a plex account for free and they download an app on their TV or tablet from the app store, Sign in, and start watching. It (your server) tracks users, progress, between devices and everything just works in a nice way, there is basically zero configuration required.
of course there's overlap and this is broad strokes, but I see these issues pop up on these discussion all the time . The comment above that said 'just use jellyfin' is like saying 'just use linux 15 years ago' is on the money. Jelly fin is cool, but it's needs heavy dose of polish and more TV apps. Half the TV's in my house don't have a jelly fin app but they do have a plex app . I don't even need to check what my freinds and family have, plex app availability is a given.
surgical_fire | an hour ago
I tried plex a while ago and I really disliked the interface and how it worked. I recently tried Jellyfin and found it pretty amazing instead. Setting it up was pretty alright.
As for TVs, My LG TVs have no native Jellyfin app, but it was easily solvable with Android TV boxes that I already had nonetheless.
jaffa2 | an hour ago
i do agree the interface can be a bit odd in places, but it takes about 5 minutes to learn, really. Disabling all the plex crap helps a lot so i see only my own content.
As for the tv apps -- yes exactly you already had an android tv box but if you didnt? Then you have to get one, set that up, now you are 2 steps removed from what you are trying to acheive. And what about if you wanted to share your content with grandma or family elsewhere in the country? it's not easy.
Also you just unlocked horror memories of set top boxes etc. I remember years ago i used to run a decent setup with audio, hdmi matrix and various inputs, like a firetv, or a popcorn hour, as well as PC, consoles etc . ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE getting family to be able to use it. they could never get the input right, or the audio right or something. god i forgot how mauch i hate plugging stuff in to the family tv. Thank goodness for smart apps lol! WAF is through the roof. Never thought Id say that.
Now I have a Wiim Pro with ARC HDMI and a Sony android TV. never need to touch anything. all controlled on the tv remote, audio, source and it all just works.
mcpeepants | 59 minutes ago
I guess I view the server-side as mostly fungible, because me and all the people I share with are more technical, have a separate media player (Apple TV etc), and are either light users content with the Jellyfin app, or use a third-party app like Infuse on iOS. I look at the media server software as more like a "media fileshare with metadata and easy user management", but I get why that's not the case for everyone.
alsetmusic | 6 hours ago
> …
> You have until 12:01 AM UTC on July 1, 2026, to get a Lifetime Plex Pass at the current price of $249.99 USD here. If you’ve been considering it, now’s a great time to buy.
Are you kidding me? This is ludicrous.
> As mentioned in the messaging above, this adjustment ensures that the price of a Lifetime Plex Pass continues to more accurately reflect its true value. Over the years, as our software and product has evolved, the breadth of features and benefits included with your Plex Pass has expanded. This increase ensures we can continue to invest resources into building and maintaining the Plex personal media software, while continuing to offer a Lifetime option.
I don't know how much engineering time is spent maintaining this app, but I haven't wanted (or used) any features added since ~2014 when I found this be a great app for locally streaming my massive Blu-Ray and DVD library. Streaming television, music, whatever else they've added is completely ignored.
Edit: local => locally
cowlby | 6 hours ago
- Direct streaming 4K blu-ray atmos rips to home theater: just connected a PC via long HDMI fiber optic cable
- Library organization: tinyMediaManager is awesome for this.
- Watching ad hoc on iPad/iPhone: built a simple Next.js app that lists my movies and and a python script that encodes movies as MP4 and creates HLS playlists. No more real time transcoding.
- Downloading movies to my iPad for long flights: vibe coded an iOS app Claude handled all the AV code to download the same HLS streams.
xnx | 6 hours ago
cassianoleal | 3 hours ago
Brendinooo | 6 hours ago
Not sure I understand all of the complaining? I got Plex because it let me host all of my music and had apps that worked without much fuss.
This is still true. Are the problems more related to using it for video?
trauco | 6 hours ago
EPWN3D | 6 hours ago
r0ckarong | 6 hours ago
s_dev | 6 hours ago
A few years ago I went full Jellyfin for my media server needs and never looked back. Yes, some people complained Jellyfin client apps weren't as polished. However if you want to pay you can get the likes of Infuse or sign up for a Netpute beta.
There was no arguing with Plex fanboys though and I think even the most ardent fans will slowly start to give up over the next few years. This is a win for Open Source. I can only see the Jellyfin ecosystem advantages starting to compound.
https://neptuneplayer.com/
m4tthumphrey | 5 hours ago
Honestly Plex has been wearing me down for years but I'm too lazy to move to an alternative.
spants | 5 hours ago
thiht | 4 hours ago
With time passing and the pricing of 3 platforms becoming more and more ridiculous for less and less convenience, I completely migrated to Plex 2 years ago. It's been working flawlessly so far. The UX is not perfect but good enough, it syncs with my phone and iPad, I can download episodes in advance when traveling, I can share access with friends easily... Probably the best $90 I've ever spent for a lifetime pass.
Maybe Jellyfin or Emby would work just as well, I honestly don't know. But Plex is fine.
compsciphd | 3 hours ago
I like plex, I've tried jellyfin and emby and plex has always come out ahead (handling the metadata and the general user experience) and if plex goes bellyup i guess I'll move, but I'll be sad. At least I feel I've gotten my value out of my lifetime plex pass.
therealpygon | 3 hours ago
“Lifetime” license is a never again purchase for me, but I hope Plex users fair better.
[OP] Larrikin | 2 hours ago
You got burned by a crappy company and we desperately need laws about being made whole when a company shuts down it's servers, but demanding everything be a subscription seems like a bad approach in the mean time.
therealpygon | 2 hours ago
jdeibele | an hour ago
Gemini recommended Jellyfin specifically for this situation and coded me something that deletes the videos once they've been watched in Jellyfin. Before I was manually deleting videos I'd watched.
I bought Plex Pass a long time ago and it continues to work great for serving up movies but it was really bad with the YouTube videos. I have some home movies that I'm going to try with Jellyfin that I'd given up on using with Plex.