Ease of use will cost you Plex, but other methods require more work.
In the age of streaming services, maintaining your media library has become a chore. But if you’ve been looking for the best way to play your media library of movies and TV shows (all 100% legally sourced, we think), you’ve probably heard of Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby. All three are media server solutions, which allow you to serve content stored on one computer or server box to any of your other devices. Basically, they let you create your own, personal Netflix. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll quickly find that the similarities end. Each piece of software comes with its pros and cons, and the choice can quickly become confusing.
For starters, all three programs can easily let you stream media over your personal network—for example, streaming a movie from your living room computer to your living room TV. But Plex is a paid service that can cost you over time if you want to use hardware transcoding or stream media outside of your local network, such as when you’re traveling or visiting a friend’s house. Jellyfin is completely free, but it also expects you to do some heavy lifting to configure it, which can be confusing for users who have never done any networking before. Emby sits somewhere in between, offering premium tiers but allowing for some DIY configuration.
To decide which service is right for you, you’ll need to decide how freely you trade freedom and privacy for ease of use. Here’s how the three media servers compare.
Plex is expensive and proprietary, but easy to use
If you have a folder of movies and TV episodes that you want to watch on other devices without too much fuss, it’s hard to go wrong with Plex. The program guides you through the setup, and selecting your media folders is the most complicated thing you’ll encounter as a mandatory part of the process. Best of all, that basic functionality is completely free. But if you want to use hardware transcoding to get smooth playback of certain files, or if you want to stream your media over the Internet to enjoy your favorite movies in a hotel room, you’ll need to pay. After a big price increase last year, Plex offered a lifetime premium pass for $250, but as of today, that price has gone up to $750. Plex apparently wants premium users to sign up for its monthly tiers, which run $3 for basic online streaming, and $7 for extras like hardware transcoding, remote downloads, and a skip intro button.
Plex also does a lot of work on its servers, and that proprietary technology stack is what Plex Pass subscribers pay for. Its cloud backend handles logins, permissions, and other security features Jellyfin requires the user to configure manually. Its applications, available on all major platforms, are more sophisticated than the open source packages Jellyfin relies on, and they have development costs.
Jellyfin is free and open source, but requires some processing
Another well-known form of Plex is Jellyfin, and while it offers almost the same functionality, the way it gets there is very different. Jellyfin is free and open source software, which means you can’t pay for it even if you want (although you can donate to volunteers who develop it or contribute to the project yourself). But the price tag does not come to trade. On the other hand, there is more privacy and freedom. You can configure Jellyfin as you like because you do so on your own hardware with no third party involved. On the other hand, users are expected to do more technical work to configure Jellyfin on their hardware and network.
This can make initial setup a bit of a headache for those who aren’t familiar with the basics of networking. You may not be paying for remote media streaming services, but you’ll need to set up some sort of mesh network, secure tunnel, or dynamic DNS to make things work. If you don’t know those terms, Jellyfin will come with some homework. You’ll also need to connect to a database if you want your media to be indexed by title, actors, and more. With the investment of time, the Jellyfin can be tailored to your needs, but the plug-and-play simplicity of the Plex may be better suited for anyone who hates playing with computers.
Emby is left in the middle. Its subscription price is cheaper than Plex’s ($5 per month, or $119 for a lifetime license). It works more locally than Plex but requires user network configuration for remote streaming, same as Jellyfin. Still, those who don’t like Plex’s focus but can’t handle the massive Jellyfin functionality it needs can find Emby as a Goldilocks solution.
