That's all folks, Plex is starting to charge for sharing
1y 1mon ago by poptalk.scrubbles.tech/u/scrubbles in selfhosted from poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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.
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.
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.
What about combining sources? Because in plex I can search all libraries. Mine or external.
After setting up an elaborate VPN scheme
No such scheme required
So you're telling people to expose Jellyfin to the internet?
Jellyfin or Plex, needs to be done if you want remote connections without a VPN
You don't technically need it on Plex. They do have a relay feature.
The relay feature is terrible though. It ruins video quality for any stream over 1mbps unless you pay and then it still ruins any stream over 2mbps. Any good plex server will have direct connect enabled just like jellyfin.
What's the security risk you worry about having a plex media server or jellyfin server listening on the Internet?
I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just saying the VPN is not necessary. Mine is exposed.
It's not advisable to expose Jellyfin to the internet. Telling people they don't need VPN means you are encouraging them to expose it to the internet.
It's not advisable to expose Jellyfin to the internet.
Wrong.
Telling people they don't need VPN means you are encouraging them to expose it to the internet.
Wrong again.
So you don't have an actual argument and can only say it's wrong?
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
I've been "collecting" content for many years now. I learned most of what I needed to know about ripping and transcoding over the years, such that each time I need to deal with a new video format, or a new application, it's not too hard, because I'm building on everything I've already learned.
And each time I was learning new things, it's not like there was a risk that all my previous content might suddenly become unusable or inaccessible.
Meanwhile, a couple years ago I was finally able to build myself a proper NAS. While I know my way around Linux somewhat, I never kept a Linux-based daily driver because most of the apps I use regularly are on Windows, and I'm not confident about running them stably in Linux, nor am I confident about equivalent native Linux apps. And I'm not confident about setting up and administering my own server. My past experiences have shown me that whenever you need to do anything complex and specific, it involves a lot of work.
So at a coworker's suggestion, I got a Synology NAS that turned out to be a breeze to setup. And then I figured out how to get Plex server on there (not available in the Synology package manager, but the "manual" process turned out to be simple enough)
And it just WORKS! it's not perfect, but it's mostly painless to use. I was happy paying for the lifetime Plex pass at the beginning, because it handles all the routing and discovery that needs to happen to allow me to stream to my phone, or to my parents' TV when I'm visiting them.
My next NAS might not be by Synology due to their recent announcement about supported hard drives, but I'll probably be looking for something that "just works" because I can't be bothered to learn how to be a sysadmin, and risk losing my stuff because I'm making the kinds of mistakes one makes as they're learning.
Just like, if I owned a car, I wouldn't be digging under the hood to "tweak the timing" or replacing brake discs. I'd be happy paying someone I trust to do that work, leaving me with a car that "just works".
Are you me? Swap a Windows daily driver for a Mac instead and our experiences are basically identical.
I went with a 920+ but I’m also running a server on an Asus mini PC running Ubuntu to split the load for transcoding because I’ve got a lot of remote users now.
My next NAS might not be by Synology due to their recent announcement about supported hard drives,
Just on this - this was widely misrepresented just like this plex announcement is. Just so you are aware of the actual truth - the new + Synology NAS's do not require Synology branded drives. They will still accept and work with all drives including WD, Iron Wolf, Seagate, etc.
All that is changing is that only the Synology branded drives will get some of the "smart health" monitoring features and easy firmware updating (of the hdd). Nothing else is changing. You will still be able to buy all of the new Synology devices and plug in whatever HDDs you want and they'll work fine.
How many people with a folder full of media also know how to safety expose a home server to the internet? It would be less than 1%.
Meanwhile, you don't need network engineer levels of knowledge to run Plex for remote access. You download the software, choose the folder, and send your friends a share link.
This is a perspective I didn't realize. I only used Plex for a short while before switching to Jellyfin, but I didn't know Plex handled server connection like this (I think I setup direct connections from the beginning but it's been a while).
Thanks for the info!
It can but bitrate is limited without direct connect. It's an awful way to configure Plex.
How exactly are you aquiring a folder full of media without technical know how in the first place? (Genuine question?)
Because there are excellent setup guides out there that walk you through the process and allow you to set all this up without knowing anything about the individual steps you're taking.
I’d consider Jellyfin if the end user access was more plug and play.
Honestly if it could support multi-server login cleanly, that would be the trick right there.
That said, haven't had any issues, but I did have to help family set it up the first time.
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.
What's a url?
Do you mean the Facebook thing? I tried to Google the internet from the Facebooks and it didn't work. I called Comcast and I told them the problem and now I have 400 TV channels. They took your computer box, said it was bad for security. Something about shredding it. Anyway, can you get the internet to Google for me?
I see you know as much about Jellyfin as you do about my in-laws.
I'm sure he doesn't know your family as well as you do, but as for jellyfin, that's exactly what you do, open it in a browser and stream, I don't understand what's your objection to that
@MaggiWuerze@feddit.org nailed it. Jellyfin has security issues. It's better than it used to be, but it's still bad.
The giant unsecured barn door that is the Jellyfin backend
Insert virus on your server.
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.
Completely agree, and I think it’s fair for them to make it a paid feature. It’s kind of like using wireguard yourself to create a whole network vs Tailscale.
Outside of portforwarding plex ports on your router though? But yeah plex does provide a service and it is asinine the pushback this is getting.
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.
Or Lemmy
Been slowly chipping away at those for the last decade (could have gone way faster but I'm lazy), and I'm almost completely google-free. I dont use any microsoft products at home (work forces me to), and Apple can eat my ass. My phone is a completely de-googled GrapheneOS device (I don't have an issue relying on companies for hardware, just software), and hopefully in the future a Liberux or Pinephone linux phone.
I self-host my own movies, music, and cloud storage. I also host my own chat service for friends and family, built on top of XMPP. The services i do use are generally very privacy respecting like Signal for people outside of my social sphere, or freedom respecting like Lemmy (mostly weaned off of reddit).
Ahh there it is, I knew you'd do that.
I abide by my own lectures, I am actively putting effort into it and am 99% of the way there, which is 100% more than you.
Getting a little touchy are we? Try deep breaths, it helps with the anger issues 😉
I wasn't trolling, but okay. I probably should stop arguing with a bot designed to astro turf for big corporate data ownership.
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.
Yeah, they're just bitching. Pretty funny imo
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.
100% my experience as well. The external authentication requirement is what made my choose Jellyfin a couple years ago.
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
Put it behind a reverse proxy!
Great, so now the unauthenticated APIs are proxied instead of accessed directly. That changes nothing, it is still vulnerable.
I'm not sure if you know this, but...that doesn't fix most of the security issues in the linked list. All the reverse proxy does is handle hostname resolution and TLS termination (if you are using TLS). If the application being proxies still has an unauthenticated API, anyone can access it. If there's an RCE vulnerability in any of them, you might get hacked.
I run Jellyfin publicly, but I do it behind a separate, locked-down reverse proxy (e.g., it explicitly hangs up any request for a Host header other than Jellyfin's), in a kubernetes cluster, and I keep its pod isolated in its own namespace with restricted access to everything local except to my library via read-only NFS volumes hosted on a separate TrueNAS box. If there is any hack, all they get access to is a container that can read my media files. Even that kind of bothers me, honestly.
The overwhelming majority of Jellyfin users do not take precautions like this and are likely pretty vulnerable. Plex has a security team to address vulnerabilities when they happen, so those users would likely be a lot safer. I appreciate the love for FOSS on Lemmy, but it is scary how little most folks here acknowledge the tradeoffs they are making.
I've spoken out on this same issue before... and as a previous security instructor/researcher... it's fucking scary how many people shit on Plex for a platform that has had known vulnerabilities in auth for 4 years now, that's existed since the previous code-base... so at least 7 years old and those issues existed in the previous emby codebase going back over a decade.
Plex isn't perfect... there's risks involved there too... but at least when something is brought up as a significant risk it seems to get fixed outside of the implicit risks of the Plex org itself.
All I read in these threads is effectively "WAAAH I don't WANNA pay!"... Without realizing that the payment gave them something significantly more secure.
All I read in these threads is effectively "WAAAH I don't WANNA pay!"... Without realizing that the payment gave them something significantly more secure.
I've never used Plex, but the thing that stopped me from looking at it isn't that it's a paid service. It's that it's partially centralised, and starting to become hostile to its user base. This current change, locking down a previously free feature being an iconic example of that.
My partner and I fund two decently sized fediverse instances and a matrix instance mostly out of our own pockets. We do that precisely because we have both actively chosen to move away from centralised, user hostile social media platforms. And whilst Plex isn't a social media platform, it is centralised and becoming more user hostile, and I won't pay for that.
(And to be clear, I'm front of house, I'm not responsible for setting up our instances security :P)
I mean, that's effectively the same boat I'm in. I run all my own stuff in my own cluster (recently posted some of it if you check my post history).
But putting up Jellyfin for any user that isn't on your network is literally a security nightmare. I cannot run blatantly insecure software and leave it internet facing. It's one thing if it was just found and they're working on closing it... But this has been documented/known for 4 years. They're not fixing it and have shown no interest in addressing it at all.
VPN is literally the only answer... and that breaks all TV-based access outright since none of them do VPN. Basic auth doesn't work. Other forms of auths breaks all app access (leaving only browser). And each time any of these possible alternative answers come up, they've outright dismissed it.
If/When Plex finally gets hostile, I'll simply turn it off. But I can't let Jellyfin be what services my users, it just doesn't work.
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.
I will say, I really want someone* to make a Jellyfin aggregator so you can use multiple servers at once.
*Not me.
When they monitor what you watch and who you share it with, it’s enshittified. Fuck Plex. I used to be a lifetime drum thumper. Stopped a few years ago.
Plex doesn’t care about you, your comfort, ease. It wants your money and it wants to monitor and control what you do with your own data.
Fuck. That.
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 😂
Instantly bought the server license. Support your favorite FOSS, people.
I never even saw that, while running my own instance lol
Take HomeAssistant for example: you’re free to use it self-hosted, but as soon as you want to expose it securely through the Internet, there’s need for infrastructure that has costs, both in materials and labor. In HomeAssistant’s case, it’s NabuCasa that does it, and costs money, and helps fund the work of HomeAssistant’s developers.
Having things free (libre) and open source is a blessing, but we have become used, entitled, even spoiled, to enjoy the work of very specialized people for free. That’s not always feasible.
Another example, Zabbix, is totally open source and free, they only charge for support and training if you ask for them. It has worked for them for many years, but if they start to struggle with funding, I’d understand if they charged for it.
Home Assistant doesn't require to pay for anything at any point in time for any reason. If you want to expose your instance to the web, they have all the documents on how to do it yourself. There's absolutely nothing "hidden" behind a paywall. The only reason to say is if you want Nabu Casa to handle exposing your instance to the internet and various cloud services like Google Assistant/Alexa. The reason to pay Nabu Casa is if you don't have the technical know how (or lazy like me) and to help fund Home Assistant (which I want).
That's all to say that Plex and Home Assistant are not similar in their pay scheme. It'd be more akin if Jellyfin started charging users to allow a one click way to stream outside the home with no obligation to.
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.
Jellyfin have native apps that are any good? I use plex heavily on ps5, appleTV, iOS, and people’s random smart 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.
Mostly official, I tried finamp a while back, but not in the last couple of years. Official ones work great
Thanks!!
No Jellyfin app on AppleTV or PS5.
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.
Yup, like why I bought Plex pass at the time. I was happy to pay for the good work they were doing. They had nice uis, their code was stable, and new features rolled out regularly. I'll happily be doing the same for jellyfin.
Plex wants people to pay now for the same functionality. Big difference in my book.
Ahh, I see what you mean. Being asked to pay twice isn't nice...
Jellyfin refuses donations so even if I (not the one you're responding to) wanted to, I would not be able to.
Pretty funny one has to keep reducing features and increase prices, while the other is actively refusing funds because they have enough already.
Not quite. Jellyfin does take in donations, but they intentionally hide this feature on their website – first you need to go to their Contribute page, then you need to read "Find a way to contribute" blurb and notice and click Other, then you need to click Help Pay for Expenses, then they give you a speech practically asking you to reconsider:
As a project, we generally do not like asking for donations - we are entirely volunteer-run and intend to keep Jellyfin free as in beer, as well as free as in speech, forever. We do not wish, support, nor intend donations to privilege any user's voice or priorities. That said, if you do want to help us cover some operating expenses like our VPS hosting, domains, developer licenses, metadata API keys, and other incidental expenses, check out our OpenCollective page to donate. Our entire budget as well as all expenses are publicly visible there.
And then you have to click that link and intentionally donate money – any amount you want either one time or monthly. The level of integrity compared to Plex – who take in VC money hand over fist and are descending into nickel-and-diming their customers – isn't night-and-day: it's the surface of a star and the center of the Boötes Void.
Indeed it is technically possible to donate, but like you said, they are really not making it easy nor do they depend on it for survival.
Money corrupts and makes aligning user needs and profitability quite difficult, as we see with Plex now
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
Seems like it was only a matter of time.
20% more will jump to Jellyfin. The other 80% will entrench and talk even more about how great Plex is. I mean Jesus, $250 to watch pirated movies. lol wtf It's also fucking wild to me that people are defending a monetization model that is on self hosted hardware. Like, I gotta pay for my server and then a license to avoid buying DVDs. Fuck it, at this point just buy the fucking movie.
Ya'll are brain dead. Plex loves you tho.
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.
They took VC funding (which is also bad), selling to private equity is very different (they strip mine businesses).
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.
It's not that expensive. You can buy a lifetime pass for like $70 when it goes on sale. That's like half the price I pay to Comcast each month for my internet.
Not anymore. They changed the prices and discounts by quite a bit.
Dotcom's been doing it for decades and he's rich as hell. Even after losing 95% of his money since 2012 he's still got $10mil.
not a plex user but someone buried the lede here... to me, this is the neon sign that screams GTFO:
we noticed that you've accessed libraries in the past
what business of yours is it to notice my private comings and goings?! what other actionable intel do y'all keep in your logs?! bye!
Guess it’s time to start using jellyfin and contributing
Oh no a paid, proprietary, piece of shit software does something shitty. Who could've ever saw this coming?!
I've said it for years anytime anyone mentioned running a Plex server. As soon as you install that on your server or your homelab it's no longer your server. Proprietary software is malware
Welcome to jellyfin!
Exhibit #46,853 for why freeware will inevitably fall out from under your feet and why you should exclusively use FOSS wherever possible.
"On 21 May 2008, XBMC developer Elan Feingold forked the source code of XBMC and started a new project called Plex"
GPL v2 source.
They've long been suspected of being greedy lil GPL violaters.
The more users on Jellyfin the better shot it has at getting more developer attention and users willing to contribute financially even if just occasional one off donation. How it goes with any open source application. More users, more developer interest, more feedback from users, subset of users willing to financially support the project
I've only ever used jellyfin and have no complaints.
I avoided plex and went with jellyfill because it's free/libre software.
YES JELLYFIN! Thank you Plex for enshitifying!
Dropped this for jellyfin years ago
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
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 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?
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.
You shouldn't blame Plex for your or your users illiteracy
I thought illiterate user friendliness was plex's number 1 feature? That's what half the comments in here are saying.
The email says that if the admin/owner of the plex server you stream from has a Plex Pass then nothing changes.
Thank you for posting this. I thought it was just me.
In my case, one user actually lost access entirely to my libraries, the updated app was trying to force him to buy a personal pass, even though I have a Plex pass.
I had him reset his app and clear cache, to no avail. I ended up having to REMOVE his access to my libraries, and then reshare them to him, before he could access them again.
He was quite upset at Plex during the entire process.
Then the next day, he got this same email, and was frustrated all over again thinking he was gonna have to fight it again.
Really terrible customer service here, very sloppy. Aside from the fact that this is a greedy cash grab, it's just being done poorly.
Jellyfin still isn't feature packed enough for me to switch to, unfortunately.
I don't use Plex. I have never used Plex. But based on the one time I tried, this doesn't surprise me even a little bit.
Years ago I installed it on my NAS, it was a one click download package. I installed it and hit the button to set it up. And then it prompted me to make a cloud account.
Why do I need a cloud account? I am logging into my local server and I am not sharing anything with anybody nor am I subscribing to any cloud services. I have no need of a cloud account. But, the way they built the thing, you need a cloud account to log into your local system.
I did not create a cloud account. I uninstalled it. I concluded that a company that claims to care about user privacy, but requires cloud integration in an area that absolutely does not require cloud anything, does not actually give a shit about privacy. I Googled and found that the requirement for a cloud account was, at the time, a fairly new thing. Lots of people didn't like it. I concluded that this company was beginning to enshittify, although this was years ago and none of us had heard that word yet. But either way, it was obvious that the company was moving in a not customer-friendly direction and I did not want to be along for the ride.
My choice has been proven right several times over the years since. And yes, every time they remove a feature, or make some other customer unfriendly decision, I retell this story.
The moral here is that a company either cares about its customers or it doesn't, and it's usually pretty easy to tell which one fairly quickly. When one bad decision is made, and not corrected, others will follow.
Synology is the latest example of that. For anyone not paying attention, they have recently announced that their 2025 series units will only work with Synology branded hard drives, which are of course more expensive than standard Seagate or Western Digital drives (which work just fine). But if you look, the bread crumbs are there and form a trail. Over the last few years they have removed features, for example the device is no longer can decode h.265 surveillance video, and the units will no longer display SMART data for 'unsupported' drives. I say no longer because they used to, but an update changed that so they no longer do.
Bottom line though is don't do business with companies that don't respect you.
My bad, this is all because I finally decided to purchase a lifetime pass.
So as long as the server owner has Plex pass everyone's still able to stream from the server?
"your friends"
dude my friends don't charge me for shit
Heloooooo Jellyfin!
Jellyfin. Tailscale. Bob's your uncle.
Fuck them, glad I switched to Jellyfin years ago.
Friendship ended with plex, jellyfin is new best friend.
Playon, Evernote, Lastpass, there have been plenty of examples.
Whenever a company starts charging for previously free features, it's time to GTFO, even if you're on their pay side.
I've got lifetime Plexpass, but I can read the writing on the wall. It's only a matter of time before they enshittify my product or stop providing updates. They'll sunset Plex and start Plex+ or some shit, give em a year or so.
Get your Jellyfin installed and working, they can work beside each other. Tailscale if it's just you, reverse proxy if you have the fam on in.
People are saying switch to jellyfin, which I'm all for. But you're expecting a service which will make remote access easy like Plex ur kinda fucked.
I mean if have to set up wireguard or whatever for Jellyfin you could just do the same for Plex?
Again go to jellyfin either way, proprietary software can suck my gurl cawk, but either way you need a VPN or open ports.
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?
Jellyfin absolutely does provide free remote streaming. Plex use to, but no longer will. That is why it’s a change making people switch.
I'll ask you the same question... What steps did you take to get it streaming outside of your house?
You can forward a port in your router like you would with Plex, or you can use a reverse proxy, or Tailscale Funnel if you want to get jazzy wit it.
Then all you do on the client side is pop in the address.
like you would with Plex
And that's the point I'm making. The work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is the same work to expose Plex. This change to Plex just charges for the relay servers, you can still do free remote streaming in the same way Jellyfin does. So if feels a bit ridiculous to claim Plex is dead and everyone should switch to Jellyfin, when Jellyfin isn't actually providing anything Plex doesn't still do for free.
You’ve misunderstood Plex’s announcement.
This change to Plex just charges for the relay servers, you can still do free remote streaming in the same way Jellyfin does.
This is not correct. The change to Plex affects all remote streaming, regardless of whether you’re using the relay or direct streaming.
To be clear,
- You have configured Plex for remote streaming without a relay - You will need to pay for Plex Pass or the Watch Pass
- You have configured Jellyfin for remote streaming the same way as you would with Plex - Free.
It still works with internal streaming, and if you configure the networking correctly it won't know the difference. If you setup Tailscale, you can still do Plex remote streaming for free. You just can't rely on plex.tv to relay your connection automatically.
Ok so before when you said:
The work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is the same work to expose Plex.
What you actually meant was the work required to expose Jellyfin to the world is entirely different from the work you have to do to now expose Plex without paying. And the simplest solution of forwarding a port will no longer work for free, and anyone you share it with now also has to connect their device to Tailscale (if they even can on their device) even if they’re non-technical? And to be frank I’m not even sure doing all that will even work.
Where as with Jellyfin you can remotely stream without having to do ANY of that, for free…
Are you starting to understand why this might make people just switch to Jellyfin?
You can still just forward a port. Just expose the web ui port to the world, the same way Jellyfin does. That's not recommended though, it has potential security issues. The recommended way would require a reverse proxy or tailscale. Then you're right back to the same issues no matter the service you're using.
You can still just forward a port. Just expose the web ui port to the world, the same way Jellyfin does.
You can if you pay. If you aren’t paying, you can not remotely stream this way using Plex. I’m not sure what about this is so difficult for you to understand.
You can if you don't pay. The only thing they're blocking is traffic through their servers. If you expose the port to your local instance, they have no control over it. I'm not sure what about this is so difficult for you to understand.
You can if you don't pay.
No, you can’t.
The only thing they're blocking is traffic through their servers. If you expose the port to your local instance, they have no control over it.
Once again, this is wrong. They do have control over it, and they are blocking traffic to your server even if you don’t go through theirs, unless you pay.
You cannot do what you’re suggesting if you don’t pay, on Plex. You can only do it for free with Jellyfin.
Yes you can. If you know what you're doing with networking, the Plex instance will have no idea whether you're remote or not. You can make every remote user look like they're internal to your network. Plex would have no way to stop that. They could incorporate more intense DRM, requiring things like same GPS location, but even that could likely be spoofed.
You’re saying two completely different incompatible things. In your last comment you said “You can just forward a port”. You can’t “just forward a port” or do any of the other things you suggested with Plex for free. Period.
The second thing you’re saying is using a VPN to trick Plex into thinking you’re local. You may be able to do that, but that’s entirely different from “just forwarding a port” or using a reverse proxy, or any of the other normal, easy ways to remotely stream over Jellyfin. It’s not only more work than sharing Jellyfin, but it’s also very limiting based on your users devices. For example, many people are streaming Plex, Emby, Jellyfin on RokuTVs. RokuTVs have an app for Jellyfin that can just connect directly, but it does not have a Tailscale client. So if you want to trick Plex into thinking they’re local, you’d now have to pay money to get them a new device, and then you’d have the configure the VPN on it, and troubleshoot that when it breaks. A lot of people are going to just opt for Jellyfin which is much easier and doesn’t require buying new hardware.
The point that you are entirely failing to grasp is that unless you want to pay up for Plex streaming, it is much simpler, with less limitations, to just switch to Jellyfin for remote streaming.
You don't need a VPN to trick Plex. Exposing the web ui to the world will likely show traffic coming from your router, which is internal. If it doesn't, you may have to mess with some settings, but a VPN isn't required to access the web ui.
Jellyfin is also very limiting based on your users devices. There is no Jellyfin app for Samsung TVs (without sideloading) or Playstation. Users there are shit out of luck.
The thing you're failing to grasp is that Jellyfin is not nearly as simple as you're making it out to be. They both have trade offs. One or which being every single Jellyfin app is complete trash.
If Jellyfin works better for you fucking go for it, but claiming this is the death of Plex, Jellyfin is way easier, is laughable.
You don't need a VPN to trick Plex. Exposing the web ui to the world will likely show traffic coming from your router, which is internal.
This is not the case at all. That’s not how routing, nor port forwarding works. This will work on Jellyfin, but if you do it on Plex without paying, this will be blocked. You are still fundamentally misunderstanding how literally all of this works. And it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering if you’re actually this confidently ignorant, or if you’re just a troll, given the only comments on your account are pro-Plex and anti-Jellyfin.
Jellyfin is also very limiting based on your users devices. There is no Jellyfin app for Samsung TVs (without sideloading) or Playstation. Users there are shit out of luck.
Users there would be shit out of luck with Plex too, because neither of those platforms support Tailscale or any other VPN. More clients support Jellyfin than VPN apps, so if you’re not paying for Plex, then Jellyfin is less limiting than Plex.
The thing you're failing to grasp is that Jellyfin is not nearly as simple as you're making it out to be.
What you’ve failed to grasp is that Jellyfin is exactly as simple as I’ve made it out to be. You can forward a port, give your client an address to pop in, and remote streaming will work flawlessly, for free. You cannot do that same process with Plex for free. Only if you pay for it.
Give the address of the server and login info
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).
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?
It seems like multiple things are being conflated here and I'm not sure what the reality is because I've never used Plex.
Some people claim this has something to do with Plex needing to pay for NAT traversal infrastructure. Okay, that seems sort of silly but at least there's the excuse that their servers are involved in the streaming somehow.
But their wording is very broad, just calling it "remote streaming." That led me to this article on the Plex support website, which walks people through setting up port forwarding in order to enable "remote streaming"! So that excuse doesn't really seem to hold water. What exactly is being paid for here then? How do they define what "local streaming" is?
As long as the library owner has a Plex Pass nothing changes for ANYONE who is streaming from that Plex Server.
Enshittification marches on.
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
That was announced 2 months ago?
I'm coming up on 5 years as a Plex pass owner, so my users and I will not be impacted by this change. In five more years if they asked me nicely to pay another $89 to support the service I would. Send me some stickers and put a badge on my server. I get a lot of use out of the software/service, as do my family members.
I will say, I am quite annoyed at the wording and audience of this email. Jellyfin is just not an option for me until there is excellent feature parity with Plex. I know they are a lot of Jellyfin fans here, in my opinion, Plex is a significantly better experience for me.
I'll be honest, I thought Plex Pass was always a requirement for this 😅
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 "Remote watch 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.
And as a Plex pass user nothing will change for you or your users.
In 2012 (ish), I bought a lifetime subscription for a flat $75. Over the next few years of using it, they got worse and worse with shit like this, so I switched to Emby for a bit, and then Jellyfin. I never shared with friends, tho, because I have no friends, so it was always just a pretty interface and convenience for me. Lately, I've just been opening the files directly in VLC, because Remmina is refusing to connect to my media server, and I can't be arsed to figure out why.
Once you invite an MBA in you can never uninvite them…
Uninstalled. I don't mind as much for sharing my library but if I have to pay to stream MY OWN SERVERS CONTENT using your service, that's a hard pass. My homes all use jellyfin now
The beginning of enshittification.
Prices will keep climbing, functionality reduced in favor of service tiers, and of course ads, ads, and ads.
I have a lifetime Plex Pass, but I stopped using Plex a couple months ago after finally diving into Jellyfin. Even ignoring everything else, just the performance difference made the change worth it. Everything from UI responsiveness on smart TV apps to library scans on the server.
I see some posts taking about jellyfin and tailscale and I find it interesting that it's not mentioned tailscale is a private company. Why are they not being held to the same standard as Plex? How long before it becomes enshittified? I saw they have a free plan but give it time until they realize the number of users in the free tier are large enough to monetize.
edit: I'm prepared to be down voted but mark this and see where it ends up at.
Edit2: and I'm not defending Plex. I agree it's a shitty move.
I bought Plex Pass when it was $75 for the lifetime option.
I prefer Jellyfin, but sharing is harder for family members with it because I can't get them to just log in without existing credentials (Google Account, Apple ID, etc). Trying to convince my 67 year old mother-in-law to enter a URL, username, and password into an app with a remote is like asking my child to eat broccoli.
For now, I'll keep running dual stack with both. If Plex pulls lifetime passes, even though it'll be a PITA, I'll convert everyone to Jellyfin despite the pain.
But it's included in a plex pass. I know a lot of people were saying, a while back, they were happy to purchase a lifetime pass, so as to support the software. I didn't actually realise you could share without the plex pass. I thought that was always a thing.
Ditched this crapware for Jellyfin several years ago. Glad I did. It's been great.
I started on Plex and even considered a lifetime Plex pass, but I felt like it was more interested in showing their content than my content. It was a lot of effort just to show music and movies.
My family and I use jellyfin every day now, and a key thing is it starts off boring but it shows your music, your movies, your books, your photos.
For folks who migrate who were paying, consider a donation to projects you make heavy use of. They don't usually have big companies behind them and can use the help.
Been on Plex for years, I will be fully migrated to Jellyfin by the end of the week
This doesn't really affect my household. My wife, my daughter, and I all have lifetime PlexPasses.
That said, this level of enshitification has me wishing there were options (yes I know about Emby and Jellyfin and I've investigated both more than once) but they have me ensnared by PlexAmp and Sonos integration. I've been around since before anyone had even seen the letters MP3 strung together, and I have never had a music player as capable as PlexAmp.
Jellyfin ia great! But syncplay breaks if you snease.
the virgin Plex vs the chad Jellyfin
Enshittification engaged. /j
The business model here is to basically paywall one user sharing (probably) pirated content with another person?
This will affect any server that does not already have a Plex Pass/ Lifetime Plex Pass. If your server does not have one, your remote users will have to pay. The service Plex provides is still worth it though, it largely just works on dozens of platforms and that shit isn't free to make.
Sharing a Jellyfin server with others remotely is still a lot more complicated than it needs to be to compete (no, it's not as simple as opening a port, and if you think so then you're either lucky or you aren't sharing with lots of folks). I run both and I would never try to share Jellyfin with non-technical people. Honestly, I wish Jellyfin would start offering an optional paid relay service to fund their development. They could use the revenue to improve their app ecosystem and still produce mostly open-source software. Homeassistant does this with Nabu Casa and it's great!
That being said, the new Plex Android app kinda sucks ass. If there was anything that would make me switch it wouldn't be having to pay for software, or services it'd be a garbage experience on my most common platform.
Huh? I share my Jellyfin instance to people that are as tech savvy as a Neanderthal and besides some rare hickups everything works acceptably.
All I can say is that is not at all like my experience with Jellyfin. Every person I've ever shared it with wanted to go back to Plex. Most complaints had to do with the jankiness of the various apps. Lots of issues with the UIs acting funny, a few connection drops, and some settings not getting respected. I do also recall an episode of Severance that would not stream in the correct color space in Jellyfin but worked perfectly in Plex.
Well, my users never used Plex before (me neither), maybe that helped to keep the expectations in check.
Jellyfin takes more work, but can be a "simple" end user experience if you set it up for them.
Use a reverse proxy to get a letsenceypt cert for your jellyfin server. SWAG, Caddy, lots of options. Then setup a free tailscale account and add your jellyfin server to your tailnet. Install the jellyfin and tailscale apps on the user android tv/apple tv/computer, then enroll the devices in your tailnet.
They will have always on, ssl secured, vpn protected media sharing for free.
Yeah, I'm not interested in setting all that up and maintaining it for every user I share with. For myself, this is exactly how I access Jellyfin remotely, but I am not explaining to my remote family members how to set up a VPN on their TV.
1000%, and those who’ve drank the Jellyfin Flavor Aid just don’t understand.
I'm not a diehard fan of plex or anything, but I would never be able to get my mother in law to properly set up any type of VPN. None of my users are technically inclined. Until Jellyfin has a different solution, I will unfortunately be sticking with Plex.
The lift here is that you setup the end users client. If they aren't local, buy one and ship it. Since it will be on your always on tailscale vpn, you can then interact with it remotely if needed.
Android tvs can be had for $35, Raspi 5 are around the same range, with apple tvs about $130. Have people pony up the cash and mail one of what they want out to them.
That may be too much to ask if you share to a lot of casual friends/family, but its been a successful answer for me.
If it was just my parents and I using it, that'd be fine, but it's not. In my experience, nothing is quite as simple as "always on", and if something breaks, even unrelated to tailscale or anything I set up, I'll be to blame even when it wasn't my fault.
It just wouldn't work for my users, unfortunately, and I don't want to be responsible for endpoints on networks that someone else owns. I'm not denying that it's possible or that it works for some people.
That's the real benefit of a solution like Plex - it makes it so I only have to manage my own network, and if I want to invite someone new, I just ask them for the email attached to their Plex account, and I'm done.
I also am curious where you're finding rpi's for $35.
I can't remember what I did, but I had it so the user just had to know the ip address and the port. Enter that into the jellyfin app on a tv and they could hook up pretty easily. That was with a reverse proxy I believe but I'm not really great with the setup, just followed a tutorial.
Wonder how long those 2.99 a month figures will last. I give it a year before there's no seperate remote streaming package and the only remaining one is >10$. The main appeal of Plex was not paying. It's used by pirates. The goal is content for free. It's no longer free. I don't care at all if random people can use my Plex server. If they are unwilling to adapt to a new platform, then I guess they'll resubscribe to Netflix. Most of them never unsubscribed from Netflix to begin with.
This was the end for me. Used Plex for almost a decade. I'm off to Jellyfin. It's actually almost no change whatsoever to integrate it into my home setup.
thats closed software 101 now, hook us then make us pay if only there was something that was always free forever
What was the appeal of Plex anyway?
Should have use libre software from the start my guy! Jellyfin / Kodi let's go
I'm done with Plex - They won't get my recommendations. My holdoff buying PlexPass were the little bugs that always mattered - Pausing for more than a few minutes HARD locked up the stream, the stream had to re-init to load subtitles, and then the MAJOR issue with "What files is Plex NOT seeing" and other indexing issues. I paid for my Android app, happily. But now, telling me I can't stream my own media, after paying for the app? Y'all can F right off with that. I'll be finally setting up Jellyfin ASAP.
LOL, aren't there at least a half dozen open source alternatives for Plex?
I am also a Plex pass person. Multiple times over in fact. I actually have a dedicated account for my server administrator that's separate from the account I use to watch content. Both have Plex pass lifetime.
I've been familiar with this coming down the pipeline for a while and because I have Plex pass, I too, am unaffected, as are my users.
At the same time: here is a piece of software that I paid for. It's "server" software, sure, but it's just a software package. What it does isn't really relevant. The fact is that it processes data stored on my systems, processing by my systems, using my hardware, and sends that data over the Internet, using the Internet connection I pay for separately, and delivers that data directly to the people I've designated as capable of doing so.
The only part of this process that Plex, the company, has any involvement in, is limited to: issuing an SSL certificate, managing user accounts and passwords, and brokering where to find data (pointers to my systems).
You can get a free SSL certificate from let's encrypt. User accounts, authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), is a function of pretty much everything that you remotely connect to, whether a Windows SMB/cifs share, your email, even logging into your own local computer regardless of OS..... And honestly, brokering the connection isn't dissimilar to how torrent trackers work, DNS or a goddamned IP address punched into a browser.
They're offering shockingly little for what they're asking, and the only thing that's on the list that would be costly in the slightest is having a DNS name for the server (registration of the domain, DNS services, etc). And given the scale that they're doing these things at, the individual costs per name is literally pennies per year.
This is not a good look at all.
I have domain names coming out of my ears. I'm tempted to buy one more and just offer to anyone that wants it, to have a subdomain name under that to run their Plex alternative on, so you can get a let's encrypt SSL certificate, and stay safe on the Internet. I don't want the feds snooping into what totally legal Linux ISOs are being shared.
I just don't know how to program at all, so I have no idea how I would go about setting up a system for that. The concept would be to automate it, and have people create an account, then request a DNS name under one of my DNS domains, and have a setting if you want it to have an A record, AAAA record, or cname (if you have a ddns setup). Once the request is in, it would connect to be DNS provider and add the record for you.
The part I'd want to have as a check on the system is to make sure that you're hosting jellyfin or something from the address you submit, to prevent people from using it for unrelated purposes; but even with that.... Do I care of people do that? Probably not. I would limit how many addresses you can have per account.
Indeed, no need to have Plex anymore. Will probably set up a family VPN and we can all stream directly from my harddrives, bandwidth is not an issue anyway.
I have plex set up with cloudflare tunnels, with the url configured in plex under Settings > Network > Custom server access URLs, does this mean that my users will no longer be able to view content inside the plex app or app.plex.tv? The enshittification is real
I don't get why you're being downvoted for spitting facts.
Until they revoke it
They doubled the price lol. And why pay $80 for something that they have the right to gut at any time?
I didn't know why anyone who has Plex would pay for a pass. The whole time I used it, I never felt any need for additional features.
if you like software you should support it.
Seriously for the 1000th time I have a plex pass.
How mamy months of server costs do you think those lifetime passes cover? If everyone just paid once for a lifetime then plex as a service could no longer function.
It will be if you depend on plex for streaming
Point is you are setting yourself up for disappointment in the future.
Like you see this constant cycle of software becoming wosre as the companies want more and more money and your response is just "yeah but it wont affect my use case so i dont care"
Yeah im sure when it comes to plex, the app based off making pirates into paying customers, it wont fall victim to the same thing.
Gee leopards seem to be getting awful fat lately.
I have both running, but Jellyfin simply cannot fulfill the role Plex currently serves. If there comes a point where it can and Plex actually deteriorates to a point where I don't want to use it anymore I will switch. I just don't get why the Jellyfin fanbase has to be so goddamn emotional about this
It's your problem now. This is the kind of thing that happens.
yes, but actually no.
Plex pass members can continue sharing.
this isn't directed just at you, but the whole jellyfin community in general.
not sure why, but the jellyfin community seems to be becoming toxic as fuck. I'm getting hard "best friend" vibes from it. if the Plex community leaves for jellyfin it'll be on their own terms. just be welcoming to us and your numbers will grow.
if y'all keep acting like a jealous "guy" friend we're likely to go somewhere else.
Uh, ok
It's not though, because as someone that has a Plex Pass nothing changes for them or anyone who streams from their server.
Server costs? Plex's serverside only handles auth and verification. Once the client connects to the server, any media is sent peer to peer. There's no stage where the video goes "to plex" or "from plex". Saying plex needs to charge a sub fee to make up for bandwidth is like saying qbittorrent should do the same.
Unless you're talking about the content Plex serves, the ones you have to walk every user of your Plex server through deleting from their apps' homepage.
Im talking about all of plexs infrastructure, the hosting for the app, providing tunnels for users without port fwding, maintaining user accounts and usage data, emails... A lot goes into running a service like plex besides just "auth and verification"…and thats not even including the staff required to maintain it and developers to keep all the apps updated.
People use Plex?
Use jellyfin, it's much better. Also do not kill Elon Musk and Donald Trump, as much as they may deserve death.
It was announced some time ago. I started using Tailscale because of that
I am very fortunate in that before Plex I found and used ps3 media server/universal media server. Because of that, it always felt odd paying just to stream my own content on my own hardware. I am certainly not against paying developers, but Plex always felt like paying for another service, not donating to an awesome Dev cause I love what they do. Another reason I stopped using Plex, I couldn't get anyone but myself to give a dam and use Plex, (suddenly, when NETFLIX gets The Last Air Bender, NOW my sibling wants to binge watch it. 🙁). Jellyfin has served me just fine so far, it fucks up only in the same situation plex did, when I try watching with someone else.
I've been a lifetime Plex pass holder since forever. And that even covers my brother accessing the server? He doesn't even need one?
Seems fair to me for a platform I use daily for a decade.
Correct, only the server owner needs the pass.
This has caused a lot of controversy because it was a free feature since Plex started and they're now locking it behind a subscription.
Indeed. The entitlement that some folks online have towards Plex is embarrassing sometimes.
I don't know if you're trying to exclaim that it doesn't cover it, or that it's a fair thing.
I'm a Plex pass holder on my server - and my user does not have a plex pass. From what I'm reading they need to pay a subscription to access my (Plex pass) server.
That isn't true. A Plex pass from the server owner will cover access for all users
Yeah if you already have a lifetime pass then essentially nothing changes. They also did the right thing about giving people a pretty good heads up to purchase a lifetime pass before they raised the price.
Your users may have gotten the notice (my family didn't) but they can ignore it if the server owner has a lifetime pass.
What do you want me to say? I hold a plex pass. I'm the server owner. My users are receiving that email.
Yes, they're being advertised to. In theory this is because they might be clients for non-Pass servers in addition to yours. In practice, Plex could easily verify Plex client accounts that don't run a server or have access to non-Pass servers and skip sending this marketing email to those accounts. What they're doing is trying to convince your users they need to pay a sub fee (even though they don't), because it's free money in Plex's pocket if the users do click the thing and say "welp, still cheaper than netflix"
Any users of your plex-pass verified server do not need to pay anything to keep streaming it. You had to pay a lot more for the lifetime or subscription to enable it, but by doing so any users you share with don't need to pay a dime. You reading this press release and seeing your users get emails and assuming that your users now need to pay for something isn't you being stupid, it's the intended result of their deliberately confusing messaging. One user shrugging and saying "guess it's $7/mo now" is free money for the company.
Their email and even their “Plex: Free vs Paid” page is confusing. However, the “Requirements for Remote Playback of Personal Media“ is more clear.
I do not have a Plex Pass, but I stream remotely from a Plex Media Server
To stream video remotely from a Plex Media Server, you will need either a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription on your account or the admin of the Plex Media Server from which you stream will need a Plex Pass subscription on their account.
Yes, that is correct. It's because the people that read the email only, or read the email and click one (1) link, are likely to be less familiar with Plex as a platform than the server owner. Plex the company would very much like people to pay them $7 a month forever for literally nothing.
If that's the case, then best case they're being incredbily scummy and my users are getting lied to. Of which, I won't just let them pay monthly for something they don't need.
It's scummy advertising, yes. Designed to prey on a Plex server operator's likely-less-tech-literate users.
And that should be enough right there to get all server owners to drop Plex
but it's not, because "i got it so cheap for $60 ten years ago / $90 five years ago / $120 yesterday" and "securely opening a port and enabling OAuth for jellyfin takes more than one click".
The "lifetime" Plex Pass was a genius marketing move, because people are permanently inertia-locked into the cost they sunk. For nearly a decade now the refrain is "I just have a Plex pass. I bought it for $30 less than its current cost and it works great for me, sucks that it's now $90/$120/$240 but IMO it's worth it :)". Don't forget that making you pay $60 or $90 or $120 or $240 to use your own GPU for hardware encoding was always a scumware tactic, even if they put up a $15/mo subscription next to that one-time cost so that the one-time cost looks like "a good deal".
I know I'm one of them, and at the time and even now I supported it. They were adding features, they did plexamp! It was great, and I was happy to help pay for development. Now though? Nothing worthwhile added in years, and just more ways to nickle and dime. Not to mention the ad-riddled free "content" they're shoving in front of my users. Nope, I'm done. My lifetime plex pass ended up being about $10 per year that I used it, and I'll say I'm content with that.
to use your own GPU for hardware encoding was always a scumware tactic
It costs them money to distribute the codec. It's not scumware. Otherwise they would have to make install/setup of plex a 2 step process... and updates would be annoying as shit.
They need you to pay so they can push codecs with their updates/install.
I'm fine with the one time payment. I donate to shit I use regardless.
They likely streamed from some other Plex server in the past, and that's why they're getting the email. The email specifically states that if the server owner has a plex pass, you don't need one.
I got the email earlier today and it couldn't be clearer:
As a server owner, if you elect to upgrade to a Plex Pass, anyone with access to your server can continue streaming your server content remotely as part of your subscription benefits.
I know for a fact that minimum one of them has not, the second email I would be extremely surprised if they had.
Read the email again. The key word in their marketing slop is “alternatively”. You have a Plex Pass and are the server admin. Your users need to do nothing.
Unfortunately, that does mean I have to respond to messages from all my users asking what that email means and convince them they can just ignore it.
A second “nice” part of this change is that iOS users no longer have to buy the Plex app on the App Store to stream longer than a minute. The app is only like 5 bucks one time, but it was a barrier when trying to convince stubborn people to just fucking TRY my Plex server.
Can I still watch for free from my pc to my tv locally through the Plex app?
I switched to Jellyfin recently and I mostly prefer it over Plex, except for lack of organization tools and the goddamn roulette wheel that is seeking. Why is it that seeking defaults to 30 second intervals, requires a click to confirm, and occasionally just jumps to some random point near the beginning of the file? Great software overall, but it's wild to me that this basic playback functionality is so hit or miss.
I've used it briefly in the past but with all the streaming services popping up and prices going up I thought it will be a matter of time for Plex to follow suit. So I moved to Jellyfin and never looked back. I kept account (ok I forgot about it) but when I saw that email today in my mailbox I just logged in and deleted it.
Do you guys know a way on jellyfin to download media to the phone in lower quality/ less storage intense? This is the only thing I miss in my jellyfin instance
Jellyfin. I've been waiting for Plex to do this for years. Enshitification is everywhere.
Your users are getting that because they have a plex account that they use to stream. They might stream from just you, but they could stream from any other shared server they're connect to. That's why they get this email.
If you have a plex pass and are a server owner, they can ignore this and keep streaming from you for free.
If they try to stream from a server owner who does not have plex pass, it won't work unless the user themselves have a plex watch pass, which let's them stream from any server that doesn't have plex pass.
Since you have plex pass, your users won't be impacted at all.
How does this affect people who bought the lifetime service back in 2010?
Totally agree with this. Plex has been drifting away from what made it great — the whole “own your media” ethos. I’ve been slowly moving my setup toward Jellyfin too, and honestly, it feels so much more in line with self-hosted values.
If anyone still wants a simple, lightweight media streaming option (especially for Android devices), CloudStream APK has been surprisingly solid no paywalls, no cloud lock-ins.
"Your friends" hahaha good joke
I love Plex and will continue using it. I bought a lifetime Plex Pass years ago for and have no regrets. My Plex Pass means none of my watchers have to worry about paying anything.
The Remote Watch Pass is only needed if neither you nor the server owner have a Plex pass: https://support.plex.tv/articles/requirements-for-remote-playback-of-personal-media/
When using an affected platform to stream personal video content remotely from a Plex Media Server, then one of the following needs to be true:
- The admin account for the Plex Media Server has an active Plex Pass (which also allows remote playback for any other user streaming from that server)
- Your account has an active Plex Pass
- Your account has an active Remote Watch Pass
The remote playback restrictions do not apply to streaming music content to Plexamp or photos to our Plex Photos app.
What's Plex's use case? Why not just mpv locally?
As someone, who started with jellyfin, I never saw the reasons for the existence of Plex. There is no difference and people pay for it?
Hey Plex users, save your money and buy a coffee for the jellyfin team!
jellyfin should make a plugin that changes their name to remote watch pass
Some pretty easy work arounds.
Edit: Okay since I got the downvote. The easiest way to overcome this garbage is to make it appear that all traffic is coming from the local network. This is really trivial these days. Just use a a tunnel/vpn. I recommend wireguard for how simple the client operates. The client is available for many platforms including crapple devices and android.
I feel like people getting mad at this shit don't even use plex. I run my server on lifetime pass. Have it on my Nas with overseer, radarr, sonarr, all that shit. Just a couple of months of not having subscriptions for me and my family pays for plex. If you log on plex once a month this shit ain't for you to worry about.
OP couldn't comprehend an email, and when everyone tried to reassure them that nothing for them has changed they doubled down. The closest thing to justification I can figure is "all my clients are borderline illiterate as well and it upset them".
How in the world could you be upset that a product you already paid for is not providing that specific feature for free anymore. They've even made the phone software free!
Every time one of these gets posted I say "wait what? That was free before??"
This is the kind of feature I think is reasonable to charge for. As were the others people were complaining about. Plex lifetime pass is a one time fee.