cross-posted from: https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
Edit: I have a Plex Pass. More comments saying “Just buy a plex pass” are seriously not getting it. I have a Plex Pass and my users are still getting this.
And for the thousandth person who wants to say the same things to me:
- YES I know I’m unaffected as a Plex Pass owner.
- My users were immediately angry at it, which made me angry. Our users don’t understand what plex pass is, and they shouldn’t have to, that’s why I had it. The fact that they were pinged even though it should have kept working is horribly sloppy
- Plex is still removing functionality. I don’t care that “People should pay their fair share”. If Plex wants to put every new feature behind a paywall, that’s completely okay. They are removing functionality.
- “But they have cloud costs”. Remote streaming is negligible to them. It’s a dynamic DNS service. Plex client logs in, asks where server is, plex cloud responds with the IP and port of where server is located. That’s it.
- “Good luck finding another remote streaming” - Again, Plex just opens up an IP and port. Jellyfin also just opens up an IP and port (Hold on jellyfin folks I know, security, that’s a separate conversation). All “remote streaming” is is their dynamic dns. Literal pennies to them. Know what actually is costing them money? Hosting all of that ad-supported “free” content that they’re probably losing money on.
In short, I don’t care how you justify it. Plex is doing something shitty. They’re removing functionality that has been free for years. I’m not responding to any more of your comments repeating the same arguments over and over.
I never got the idea of selfhosting but paying (except for enterprise-grade support or donations) anyway.
You know all the certs and security and port stuff you need to do? Plex does that. You just download the app, point it at your folders with media, and you’re all set both at your home and beyond it. There is no self hosted solution that is that turnkey. I really don’t understand how so many people don’t see the appeal of that. It makes quasi-selfhosting possible for people with far less technical knowledge than those of us here.
I could write a less than one page bullet point instruction and virtually anyone who knows how to work a desktop computer could get a server up and running in one or two hours tops. If they have any computer experience, more like 30 minutes.
What’s more, people with literally no computer knowledge can easily open the app and watch your stuff. They just make an account, download the app, and they’re off to the races. TV, tablet, doesn’t matter. There is no self hosted solution that is nearly as streamlined as Plex. I say this as somebody who likes jellyfin a lot. They are completely different experiences that require completely different levels of knowledge
I run into you again! This time I get to wholeheartedly agree with you! You are spot on and nailed it.
I use Plex for exactly the reasons you said because when I set it up I didn’t know anything about self hosting a media server and I wanted to share with family in other locations. I keep it because it’s so easy for my older, less tech savvy family members to access so I don’t have to be their support person for it.
I’d consider Jellyfin if the end user access was more plug and play.
The biggest thing about this is I don’t get why OP is so annoyed. If you have a Plex Pass you’re not impacted, you can still share and your users can still access your library for free, they can’t share with you without a Plex Pass but who cares.
How exactly are you aquiring a folder full of media without technical know how in the first place? (Genuine question?)
I suppose having Plex handle users is easier than creating an account but barely imo.
Not shitting on Plex either, gotta do what you want I think the problems with this kind of thing is the change, people had a free service for years and now they have to change or pay. People hate change, lol
eyyyyyy
I’d consider Jellyfin if the end user access was more plug and play.
It’s about as plug and play as any other website. They just open the app, type in the URL, and log in with their credentials and…that’s it.
After setting up an elaborate VPN scheme
No such scheme required
So you’re telling people to expose Jellyfin to the internet?
I’m not telling anyone what to do, I’m just saying the VPN is not necessary. Mine is exposed.
I LOVE Jellyfin but can only imagine the amount of work I’d have to do if I tried to get my parents and in-laws successfully using it. We all just split the cost of lifetime Plex pass the last time it was on sale.
can only imagine the amount of work I’d have to do
Insert url. Insert login credentials.
I see you know as much about Jellyfin as you do about my in-laws.
You know all the certs and security and port stuff you need to do? Plex does that. You just download the app, point it at your folders with media, and you’re all set both at your home and beyond it.
I am just gonna read your comment until here, Plex does shit if you are CGNATED, and as it is 2025 I suppose most users are, I still needed to expose through IPv6 with a reverse proxy, using a VPS or a VPN to access my Plex Server, so yeah, Plex hasn’t helped me at all since many years ago with the noob friendly approach they have.
EDIT: Oh and their relay feature is garbage, even for Plex Pass users, and I happen to be a lifetime one.
Any time you rely on another company to handle your data, you are beholden to their whims, end of story. Don’t like what they’re doing? Too bad. Give up the convenience and host it yourself, or continue to be a slave to their corporate interests.
Turns out some of us make compromises and you’re just going to have to get over that.
You use no services that have some info on you? Not one subscription service? Not one social media account? Nothing Google or Apple or Microsoft?
Downvote without explanation. Nice!
?
I assume they replied to you after someone downvoted you but before all the upvotes.
That was indeed the case. I suppose the comment didn’t contribute much.
Just tired of seeing perfectly solid comments being downvoted with no reason provided 🤷
🤷♂️
For a good while, Plex was the only game in town that did the job well, and they put the transcoding feature behind the paywall.
Given it wasn’t that expensive for a lifetime pass a number of years ago (I remember it was cheaper than a game anyway) and they still seemed relatively user-centric at the time, many people like me felt like they were supporting developers building something that was useful to us.
I still run my Plex server since it’s not really costing me not to, but I’ve been running Jellyfin too for a little while and it more or less can do the same job these days
Yup, for the time it was worth it. I got about 7 years out of my “lifetime” plex pass, and I got it on sale. All in all, I won’t say the money was wasted.
It’s 100% a waste if anyone pays for that BS monthly streaming fee though.
Wait so you’ve got a lifetime plex pass already? Then literally nothing changes for you or anyone that is streaming from your server.
I put my chips (£100) on Emby.
I haven’t regretted my purchase. I can’t sell anyone on much either, because Emby does all the same as other services, except they’ve kept adding features while Plex kept doing the Google thing and taking them away. CPU transcoding is free I believe, as is remote streaming up to 10 devices for each user… Idk I paid pretty early on, but lifetime license is where it’s at. Subscriptions just open your asshole for greedy CEOs to fuck you. Best to keep subscriptions voluntary, like donating on Github or Patreon
Emby was borne out of classic workplace toxicity, in that Jellyfin was becoming too corporate so a couple devs forked off to keep it clean.
I think you have that backwards. Jellyfin is a fork of emby
Yeah; Emby was originally called MediaBrowser and was a free open source project. ‘MediaBrowsers’ developers decided to move to a closed source paid model to establish some more consistent income and support the dedicated developers they have. Thus Emby was born.
Some users were really unhappy with this decision and forked MediaBrowsers last release to create Jellyfin. Their development has been quite a bit slower, but they’ve made some significant strides in recent years. It’s a more and more attractive option.
One of my biggest reasons for sticking with Emby (besides already having a lifetime premier license) is the dedicated clients available on more platforms. Xbone is my primary streaming device, besides android: Emby has a dedicated xbox client you can install that will take full advantage of the the hardware(more content direct plays, HEVC video for example), where as Jellyfin you’ve gotta use the web browser which is cumbersome and forces the server to transcode media a lot more.
Indeed I did, I removed my speculative comments…
I’m pretty happy with Emby, which also lets me easily do remote streaming.
In the case of plex, it’s not 100% selfhosted. There’s a dependence on plexs public infrastructure for user management/authentication. They also help bypass NAT by proxying connections through their servers so you don’t have to setup port forwarding and can even easily escape double NAT situations.
I can understand paying for that convenience, but cost keeps rising while previously free features continue to get locked behind paywalls.
Tbh, having users required to authenticate with plex.tv was enough for me to look elsewhere. The biggest reason to self host for me is to remove dependency on public services.
The central user management is not a feature, it’s a hook to force people to pay for self-hosted software.
Can’t say I disagree.
With Plex, you’re getting the easy ability to grant access to users. You get a single pane that can search across multiple Plex instances, and NAT traversal/port forwarding. Jellyfin makes you figure that out yourself.
It’s not exactly difficult if you use Tailscale or really any VPN. So I really don’t see the value for the cost; if you’re even considering self hosting a Plex server/instance, there’s a list of basic knowledge you should have or learn (like what you mentioned).
Its not difficult for technical people like you or me, but my friend who just wants to watch their favorite show on my Plex on their TV won’t know how to traffic engineer the traffic over a Tailscale network to my network. My mom won’t be installing Tailscale on her laptop and phone.
I’m also not particularly happy with giving a bunch of people VPB access to my setup. Or other potential complications that come with that setup.
I know enough to be able to lock it down, but I dont want the hassle. And other people will want it less.
As long as the technical person does all of the setup on their end, the non technical person only has to enter a domain and port in their jellyfin client.
If you want to be on the hook for all IT requests from folks you share with, this is a fine approach. There are people out there who honestly don’t have a problem with that and more power to them. I doubt they are the majority, and a lot of selfhosters completely ignore this aspect of software. There is a reason non-free services exist beyond just “capitalism bad.” I mean, capitalism indeed bad, but your time is worth something.
I guess I haven’t noticed that. The non technically literate folk I know use smart TVs, or can download Jellyfin from an app store. Then they just use the URL when the app asks for it.
There’s no other configuring to do on their end.
They also need to run a VPN client.
Because you’re not putting bare jellyfin on the internet, right? You shouldn’t be doing that for most services in the first place, but doubly so for something that has a bunch of APIs that require no authentication: https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/5415
I paid for a lifetime license years ago which is significantly cheaper than that.
It’s not exactly difficult if you use Tailscale or really any VPN. So I really don’t see the value for the cost;
Getting everyone that streams from your server to use tailscale or any other VPN every time they want to watch stuff from your server on any device they own is very difficult and basically a no-go. As someone that tried getting people who are using my plex server to use Tailscale so they could access my Overseer to request movies/shows, and basically no one would, it’s a deal breaker.
Immich has a weird “buy a licence” model which literally does nothing.
Immich, I believe, is linked to Futo. And Futo has a license model that’s basically “if you like this app, and want to support the development, consider buying a license.”
Sounds like it might be similar with Immich.
Better than “donate to this project”, since a license seems more like the user is getting something out of it, even if it’s basically a glorified donation 😂
I never even saw that, while running my own instance lol
Instantly bought the server license. Support your favorite FOSS, people.
You can selfhost for free however you want but software developers have the right to ask for money to use their software. I selfhost about 60tb of media and have paid for Plex monthly for about 10 years now. They are still so far above the competition for ease-of-use that I wouldn’t even consider switching at this point, even to save $7/month.
They have the right to ask, but I don’t have to pay. I’ve been playing with Jellyfin for about a month now, and I have to say, it’s just as easy as Plex is. The only thing I had to do myself was make my own users. In fact, I tried Jellyfin a few years ago and was unimpressed - now all I see is Plex making stuff to make advertisers happy while Jellyfin is adding stuff to make it’s users happy, to the point where I think Jellyfin has surpassed Plex.
But would you / do you voluntarily donate to Jellyfin’s development?
I get it, it is (& a lot of things are) free… but at some point the developers need to recoup something…
Otherwise Jellyfin’s development will eventually dry up as raw enthusiasm runs out.
Jellyfin have native apps that are any good? I use plex heavily on ps5, appleTV, iOS, and people’s random star TVs, all of which have really good first class apps. I also support users that are not technically inclined, so they would need to be able to just install and app and log in.
My experience with the apps has been good, I use the android TV one daily and I like it. The most I had to do was log in using the username/password and also the URL, but I plan on just giving that to my users so they know how to log in.
Is it called “jellyfin” like the server or is it another app?
Jellyfin is the server, the official apps are usually found by searching for Jellyfin just like Plex, there’s a few other ones out there with funny names that are also available. https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/
Yeah I’m familiar with server- I was asking if you were using official client apps or third party.
Exactly. This is a bet that Plex is going to lose with the proliferation of Jellyfin.
I dunno about that. Plex has lots of market share and plenty of “well I bought the pass when it was $60/$90” people aren’t gonna be personally affected by them locking more and more functionality behind the pass. So they’ll keep using it and recommending it and talking about it, and the centralized account management stuff (which Jellyfin won’t copy, because not having that is the point of selfhosting) will always be more convenient than setting up VPNs or other tools like external auth for Jellyfin sharing over the internet.
Discourse about this everywhere always boils down to the same comment: “I bought the plex pass and honestly I’d do it again for $300 just to not deal with handling my own authentication system, plex remote play Just Works”. Or something like “I refuse to use a $20 HDMI android TV box instead of my ad-ridden smart TV or PlayStation 5, and those don’t have apps for JF”. These guys are literally in this thread, on Lemmy, the Reddit for people so FOSS-friendly they use Lemmy instead of Reddit.
All fair points, just depends on where your motivation to self host comes from. $7 for a monthly sub to Plex is frankly nothing to me, I don’t even have the charge linked to my budget spreadsheet. Between Plex, VPN, my usenet provider, private tracker memberships, electricity, etc., I’m not even sure I’m saving much money versus having one or two streaming subscriptions. In other words, I don’t do it to save money.
PlexAmp alone justifies the cost even before some features got put behind a paywall but the fact that all my tech-illiterate friends can just download an app on their phones/consoles and watch whatever they want in a high bitrate off my computer makes it worth it for me. 9/10, I just watch films off VLC player anyway.
Eh, I find Emby pretty close to on-par at this point.
Lol “Your Friends at Plex”
get fucked, assholes, Jellyfin is better anyway
Doesn’t jellyfin just not do this at all? Like if you want to stream remotely you need to figure out a vpn solution to do it?
That’s correct
That is not correct. A VPN would be one method but you can also just expose the service to the internet in a number of ways and accomplish the same thing Plex provides.
You probably shouldn’t just expose jellyfin to the internet quite yet though. There are some ongoing efforts to fix unauthenticated endpoint problems.
That’s correct
Also Wireguard, which is what Tailscale uses.
Yeah, they both do. That’s a lot more manual though.
You can stream remotely via jellyfin if you expose your server to the internet. VPN is safer but not the only option.
I used a reverse proxy just fine.
No. You have to expose your server to the internet in some way bit you don’t have to set up some sort of VPN. There are plenty of people who will tell you how awful of an idea it is but if you make smart choices it’s not a big deal.
You’re 100% correct. I always find it funny how hardcore some people are with jellyfin vs Plex. I’ll probably end up getting downvotes on this but imo Plex is way simpler to setup and keep running, and as a lifetime pass owner, I’ve very rarely felt like my experience has been deteriorated by any of the changes that the jellyfin crowd freaks out about. Plus plexamp is honestly such a great music player. I’ll happily keep running Plex for the foreseeable future.
I fucking hate corporate speak.
deleted by creator
Good thing jellyfin is open source then.
That’s what Emby thought.
Trying to monetize the piracy of your users. That’s a bold business strategy.
Look, I know a lot of people could be using the sharing feature to share material that is in the public domain or that they own the copyright to, but let’s be honest: most of that sharing would be considered an “unlicensed public performance” by the MAFIAA.
They sold to private equity a couple years back. The enshittification started that day.
to monetize the piracy of your users
that’s generally what gets sites and services in ‘trouble’
Trying to monetize the piracy of your users. That’s a bold business strategy.
Some time ago, never mind how long precisely, Plex were trying to legitimise themselves, by adding streaming from official sources, etc.
I would be curious if this is meant to be a deterrent, or just to look like one by making piracy expensive, so they can eat their cake and have it too.
YES JELLYFIN! Thank you Plex for enshitifying!
And how are you doing remote streaming from friends with Jellyfin?
I’m not personally. I’d run a VPN for others to connect in. Apparently a lot of folks just expose it to the internet and then enforce logins.
Using a VPN would be local streaming with Plex, too. The new rules wouldn’t apply then.
My whole family streams from my brother’s server hundreds of km away…
I’m doing it with a jellyfin client to my friend’s jellyfin server.
My mom streams mine across an ocean.
The same way you’d set up remote plex.
Plex will have some cost associated with remote streaming, so I don’t see any issue with them charging for that.
If people don’t want to pay then they should just set it up themselves, like they would have to do with jellyfin anyways.
@ifItWasUpToMe @ripcord I’m not sure if I’m understanding. What costs are there to plex remote streaming? The streaming aspect is coming directly from my plex server public IP. I know there is some option that proxies the traffic through their servers but this isn’t enabled by default.
Mainly STUN and TURN servers to allow NAT traversal without having to configure port forwarding and leave your server exposed to the internet.
It’ll use those servers to setup a peer-to-peer connection which at that point you are streaming directly to clients.
If you want to setup a VPN for your users, or open/forward public ports to your server then you do not need to pay.
deleted by creator
I was forcing VPN for a couple years but I’ve just recently started allowlisting client IPs instead. Not as good but definitely easier.
I got the same email.
I haven’t had plex installed for over 7 years, and I’ve NEVER used the shared libraries feature.
We noticed that you’ve accessed libraries from friends and family in the past
They’ve apparently noticed activity that’s never occurred.
Others in another thread are trying to convince me that the email is wrong, that my Plex Pass should mean everyone gets to stream for free. The email, however, kinda indicates otherwise. So who knows what’s going on over there, but either way - I’m done
The email you posted specifically says if you have PLEX Pass users can stream for free.
Per the email text and Plex’s policy, they are correct - only Server Owners need the Pass.
That said I moved to Jellyfin months ago when they announced it.
Except I have a pass and my users are still getting the email. So either they’re incompetent sending out the emails, they are trying to trick my users into thinking they need to pay, or they’re lying and they will need to pay eventually… All of those reasons tell me it’s time to stop using Plex.
Yeah, they shot an email to everyone with an account, it’s pretty normal. It explicitly says:
Alternatively, server owners can buy a Plex pass
Which is pretty clear language
Only the server owner needs a plex pass, it says that in the email.
I don’t quite understand your confusion, they sent the email to everyone with an account. The email indicates clearly that if a server owner has a Plex pass, the users do not need it. The email is not “wrong”.
Instead of taking a minute to just read the entire email, they decided to go immediately to the internet to complain. Then when people explained to them multiple times what is going on they decided to argue with them instead of ya know reading the email. The internet is alive and well.
My users are upset, and that makes me upset. I’ve been fielding calls and messages from them for the last hour where they’re worried they have to start paying. So yeah, I don’t really care that it doesn’t apply to them, Plex sent an email that to the average user looks like they need to start paying. That was a shitty move on their part.
They could have done a banner on each client if they connected to a non-plex pass server and said “Hey starting in a few days, this won’t be free”, and left plex pass ones alone. They could have narrowed the emails down to “If you’ve connected to a free server in the last year”. It appears that they just blasted it out. I know for a fact that one of the accounts has never connected to a free server.e
And all of that is ignoring that it was free for a decade already, so why is it suddenly a “premium” service. So yeah, they bungled the entire situation, and I’m out.
Your users shouldn’t be upset because nothing has changed for them. It shouldn’t be the end of the world to tell your users that nothing has changed. None of my users have reached out.
I’ll agree that they should have only sent it to affected users.
Your users might be more upset that you’re pulling the plug and will require technically involved setups such as tailscale for Jellyfin. Gotta pick your battles.
Your users are upset? Either they’re damn entitled, or you’re charging them like one of those “streaming” services.
Who gets upset with an email when it clearly states what’s going on regarding the Plex Pass.
Funny to hear all the complaining from people about Plex. I’ve been using it for years and bought a lifetime pass years ago because I wanted to support them. If you’ve been using it for so long and loved it, I question why you never bought a pass?
The email says that if the admin/owner of the plex server you stream from has a Plex Pass then nothing changes.
Exhibit #46,853 for why freeware will inevitably fall out from under your feet and why you should exclusively use FOSS wherever possible.
This was announced several months ago
I’m a server owner and had no idea. If I did, I would have left then.
What’s the alternative you’re going with?
I’ve been testing out Jellyfin for a while anyway. I’m honestly surprised how much they’ve caught up
That’s another service that doesn’t provide free remote streaming, not without setting up remote access in a way that would also work for Plex. So why is this the change that’s making you leave Plex?
I don’t understand why people keep saying that. I can stream outside my network. Others can stream it from outside my network. That’s remote streaming in my book.
What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
Probably the same steps you’d need to if you use Plex and are CGNATED (thanks CGNAT for teaching me basic networking).
Jellyfin absolutely does provide free remote streaming. Plex use to, but no longer will. That is why it’s a change making people switch.
As a server owner, you should be keeping an eye on tos and updates/changes to the software you use. You probably got an email but ignored it?
So as long as the server owner has Plex pass everyone’s still able to stream from the server?
Exactly. I have a lifetime pass and everything works for me and the people I share my library with.
Well it doesn’t take effect till later in the month so it working now isn’t really pertinent.
If you as the server owner have a Plex Pass, everyone can stream from your server without paying. This removes the payment required for Android and iOS too.
As long as the library owner has a Plex Pass nothing changes for ANYONE who is streaming from that Plex Server.
the virgin Plex vs the chad Jellyfin
It was only a matter of time. Plex is a Series C startup, employs 100+ people, and has taken substantial VC investment. Those investors are expecting exponential returns, and a “one-time lifetime payment” will never sustain that sort of growth
This email is talking to you as a user of other libraries not yours, not as a server owner.
“Alternatively, server owners can purchase a Plex Pass, which will grant you continued remote streaming of libraries that you have been given access to.”
As communicated previously, Plex pass users also get the benefit of the media pass.
No, I’m a plex pass holder, and the (now two) users who have received it only use my server. They still got the email.
Okay? But they’re not holders… and their access to servers is changing and hinges on YOUR status. It’s not unreasonable to notify them about this change.
It doesn’t matter that they got the email, everyone did. You need to read it further and see that if a server owner has a Plex pass, the users do not need to pay.
Jellyfin ia great! But syncplay breaks if you snease.
Remember to take your Claritin before starting a sync play session
Weird. Never had an issue with syncplay… What’s your setup look like?
Jellyfin on arch behind nginx. I connect with VPN, through NAT or on the local network. What else to say? I have noticed that syncplay is significantly more reliable through nginx. Not sure why that is. But it is still fragile. I’ve had this issue unresolved so long that I am just living with it. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then i don’t use it.
Clients: firefox, jellyfin client, chrome, android client. The issue is pretty consistent across them all.
I mostly keep 8bit AVC/ACC, 2-channel mp4s. Some h265 as well. I have not noticed a pattern. Syncplay seem agnostic to encodings and filetypes.
I get the feeling that i am far from alone on this issue. There are threads out there.
Syncplay requires adequate hardware and network. Especially if you’re transcoding at the same time. You’re transcoding for 2 people at once, and depending on your setup sending to each person at different rates. It’s hard to coordinate that.
Enshittification engaged. /j
Welcome to jellyfin!
