People who are staying on Plex, have you tried Jellyfin? What about it do you not prefer? (real question) - AOS for Lemmy.World - A generic Lemmy server for everyone to use.

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People who are staying on Plex, have you tried Jellyfin? What about it do you not prefer? (real question)

26d 5h ago by discuss.online/u/kiol in selfhosted

Honest question, because I know multiple people who are not looking to jump ship since they already have the Plex Pass.

Ease of use for my users across multiple platforms with minimal tech knowledge on their end. I'm sharing my library with ranges from 12yo to 70. I need it to "just work" and it does that perfectly.

Same here. Plex just works for my folks with 0 tech literacy. I may try Jellyfin in the future, but I have a few friends that primarily access Plex via Playstation 4/5, and I know there's no support there yet.

Yeah, lacking the client is not good. https://features.jellyfin.org/posts/2751/playstation-5-support

Couldn't upvote this harder. Tried Jellyfin for 5 mins and was super confused why I couldn't find sharing options. After googling and reading about reverse proxies and buying domains and shit I said fuck it and uninstalled

Yes. Same.

Totally understandable, however basic tailscale version is free and you can just have that installed on all of the connected devices as a "reverse proxy". You then use the ip adress from the server or main computer with the files and connect to its tailscale provided ip adress after turning it on and as long as you have port 8096 open on the server computer (http:/with your adress here:8096) you can connect to the server through the jellyfin app on the device you've installed it on.

Yeah, I think you lost them after the first paragraph. 😉

I am tinkering constantly with my home setup, but I am lacking the time to set up everything to my liking.

So I am using neither Plex or Jellyfin, I am using Kodi and have a Webdav share available for when I am away on holiday. 😬😁

But then I am only sharing with my closest family in my home network. Somehow it seems everyone is providing a streaming service for half the neighborhood and the remote family (or possibly a polycule with the drama associated, IIRC).

I found that the most simplicity way of doing it if you want remote acess otherwise you can connect locally without tailscale

I never fully understood this argument as you would have to do that anyways with plex unless you're using their proxy which would just artificially rate limit all of your users. But I do realize that jellyfin doesn't have an email invite system in place which really is my biggest issue

What's the "that" that you'd have to do anyway with Plex? I had to do nothing of the sort. I asky friends and family to make a Plex account and ask what email address they used. Then I give that email access to my library

This.

Did you try Jellyfin? I've had success with Jellyfin once I've been the one setting up the TV app, etc. It did just work, because users found it very simple in comparison to Plex. If anything, they like how Plex shows more things beyond the collection.

I've been the one setting up the TV app, etc.

That is exactly the issue. I can’t personally set up the app for all my users. Most of them are not in my household.

Me either, but I don't expect them to setup any sort of app themself (including Plex).

That's his point though, he does expect them to be able to set up themselves, and apparently Plex is good for that.

Yes, in my case I personally had to setup both clients (Plex and Jellyfin) for the family members myself.

And right back to https://lemmy.cafe/comment/17371392

Ah, the answer to that.... I configured the server beforehand and installed it at their house as a gift, so I have persistent SSH access over VPN and can administer it remotely at will within tmux. Has worked for several years.

Surely you must be trolling at this point

i thought this posy was "what may i be missing by not using plex" - nope! - its "list your reasonfor not using jellyfin so i can argue with you"

Great; I’ll have you do support and ongoing maintenance for all of my plex users.

The extent of the setup for Plex is to log in with your email and password, pick which shared libraries you want to be pinned to your home screen, and then browse. My parents in their 70s were able to figure it out and all I had to do from my end was grant them access to the libraries I wanted to share with a simple check box.

Had to find it, but there is a new tvOS app that looks very nice: Moonfin

Thanks do letting me know about this. I tried it and it does look good. Sadly for me at least it does perform well. Moves slow between options and libraries. And the Live TV Guide isn't working at all. That could be a me issue, but the slowness is unacceptable. Once I have more time I will play it more and probably reach out to the Dev.

I use both at home, mostly plex though and I have about a dozen people who watch remotely and keeping the remote access private and secure I'm not putting jellyfin behind a public reverse proxy. Not feasible to setup wire guard for a dozen people across 4 states and troubleshooting those tunnels when Plex does all that for me. Plus Plex allows them to manage and reset their password without my intervention

I've never understood this stance. You do you, but if I'm offering to host stuff for friends or family for free, they can at least learn to operate that thing on their end.

Edited to add, wow I did not expect this to be such a hot take. Fuck me I guess lol.

What do they need to even learn? How to login using the username you gave them?

Surely you haven't exposed your Jellyfin to the open net, since even the devs admit that that is a terrible idea

Got a link for the dev recommendation? I hadn't heard about that

My Jellyfin is exposed to the open net and it’s completely fine, but users don’t need to know any technical details about that. They just need to know how to login.

Theres a reason everyone uses a VPN to allow remote streaming for their Jellyfin. The things as open as a barns door, so you should not just open it to the public. Like I said, even the devs say not to do that, its just not secure enough

You’re just spreading fud. Jellyfin devs actually have documentation on how to expose it to the net. Why would they do that if it were unsafe?https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/networking/

I’ve been using it this way for a couple years now and we are good. Never used Plex. I’m using only Jellyfin. So, I’ll pass on your advice. Thanks.

According to your own link that you totally read : "Note that opening a port gives full access to that port to the next higher Network. Opening a port directly to the Internet is therefore insecure and not recommended." and "forwarding its Ports directly to the internet (not recommended!)"

Yeah, no shit. That’s not an issue with jellyfin, that’s general advice for any application you’re hosting. Use a reverse proxy instead. That is also in the documentation.

Using a knife might cut you when you hold it by the blade, does that mean no one should hold it by the handle?

Well I was just answering your question about "why would jellyfin have documentation about opening it to the web if unsafe?" by pointing out that while they do tell you how to, they also explains the risks associated with doing so. Having documentation about something doesn't mean that the devs endorse this usage.

People are arguing that Jellyfin is inherently unsafe, or more so than another web application like plex and therefore if you provide friends access to it, they MUST use a VPN. That’s not true. You can host Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy and it’s accessible just like other web applications. Your friends don’t need to learn how to use a VPN. They can login just like they login to other websites.

Ok, where did I say any of that exactly? I never said it was a jellyfin only issue anywhere, and I sure as hell didn't say anything about VPN, as much as you didn't say anything about a proxy until now. And congrats on using a proxy and exposing your server to said proxy, you're just proving my point by not exposing directly to the internet as your previous comments implied.

It seems to depend on how you are granting access and have configured the server... if they have to setup VPN access in order to access Jellyfin, as opposed to logging into plex website.

No, that doesn't change anything about what I said really.

To me, if I'm hosting something for my friends and family, they can put in the effort to learn how to use it. Period. Whether that's as simple as logging in through a browser, installing an app, or using a VPN. They can learn, or they can pay for Netflix (as an example, since we're discussing a media server originally).

In my experience getting dozens of people on to my server, plenty will happily choose to pay for Netflix. I want people to choose my server over paid streaming, so I offer both Plex and Jellyfin, and to date not a single person has stuck with Jellyfin, and several have gotten my invite email, took a look at the FAQ on how to request media, and continued using paid streaming.

I'd want them to as well, but I'd also expect them to put in the bare minimum effort considering I'm taking over server admin duties and costs.

Lifetime subscriber when it was like $75 bux

Setup and runs on my NAS (unRAID) Uses a small GPU to transcode as needed Shared only with non technical family members

Has worked as is for YEARS.

So, the question is, am I looking for something to replace a working free (prepaid) solution I have? That answer is nope.

Having non-technical family on board is priceless tbh.

Yeah, my mom uses it. My mom. I have to remove search bars from her chrome like it's 2005.

This is my POV. It already works perfectly, is prepaid, and is accessible to my nontechnical users. Switching would be a major pain for a worse experience.

Also, Plexamp.

Someday in the future no doubt Plex will enshittify for lifetime users such that it will justify a change, but that hasn't happened.

+1 to all of this. I paid for it when it was $90 lifetime, before either Jellyfin was popular before I heard of it, who knows. It works fine. No reason to put extra effort into replacing something that I have no problems or qualms with.

WhatI've noticed is that people who prioritize privacy and just want to watch their downloads on their tv usually use jellyfin and people who prioritize ux slickness and want to run an IPTV service for their friends and family usually use plex.

It's not a matter of privacy vs UX. I actually think Plex has ruined their UX. But if you have friends and family, some are tech-illiterate, some have their own media servers, and you all want to share with each other quickly and easily, Plex is the only viable option. Same if it's just you, but you travel a lot, and want to watch something from your home server without lugging around a device that has access to your VPN and a screen/hdmi-out.

Jellyfin is really only viable if it's just you on your own network.

I tried Jellyfin once about a year ago and it was... OK I guess? Certainly nowhere near as polished as the rabid fan base would have me believe, and there was something in my library that it flat out refused to play.

If I didn't already have a lifetime Plex Pass, and it was just me hosting my own media for a user count of one, then sure, I'd use it. But none of those things are true. I need something that "just works" and Plex fits that bill.

Like most people here, I bought a lifetime pass when it was $75 and it's paid for itself over and over again in the time since. I honestly think I've had more than $750 worth of value from my purchase. Sure they've made some odd decisions recently, but until they start actively taking away functionality or rescind existing lifetime subs then I will continue to use it.

Meanwhile, not to belittle you personally, but the fact that every thread that mentions Plex in any way, good or bad, is guaranteed to be dominated by people circle-jerking over their beloved Jellyfin has put me completely off the project, to the point that I've had to add the word to my blocklist. Obviously that's not working too well or I wouldn't have seen this post!

The client apps on Apple TV are just not good. I have tried swiftfin which is slow and I find it not very visually appealing. There there is infuse which does look better, but is missing features and requires a subscription for full functionality. If there is a app I'm missing I would be happy to try it.

I keep Jellyfin up to date and check in or it from time to time. Even have watchstate so my watched history stays updated. Hoping one day there will be a good Apple TV app and I could fully switch.

Same boat on Swiftfin and Infuse.

There’s one I recently found called Moonfin that does many things well. It’s my current go-to until official apps catch up.

I hadn’t heard of Moonfin before, it looks promising as an Apple TV client. Any pitfalls with it?

I use it on my tablet and it direct plays all of my (limited) media, and also handles and organizes downloads to the device with reencoding options. Playback is more reliable and efficient compared to Swiftfin. UI seems modeled after existing streaming services.

They also have a plugin that “updates” your existing Jellyfin install so the features show up on the official client, but uses code injection which I didn’t like and so did not partake. The sense I get is that they push for features and implementation while official Jellyfin development takes a much more conservative approach. I hope they can work together some day.

I'm in the same boat. Considering swapping out for a Linux based media box instead of the AppleTV.

Kodi works well as a frontend to Jellyfin and Plex

I hate this answer so much. I get that it works, but it feels like a kludge

Great; how do I load that in my AppleTV?

... but you're better of just using Kodi's own video/tv management.

Absolutely, my other friends are doing the same. They keep their state synced between services and keep checking in on the AppleTV client improvements for Swiftfin.

I use Jellyfin on my phone and just do the screen share to my AppleTV.

Infuse is fine. Subscription has a lifetime option, or it’s $1/month.

Lifetime Pass holder here. Used to run Jellyfin alongside Plex. Had crashing issues and had to shut Jellyfin down for quite a bit. Came back after a while and started Jellyfin from scratch. None of my users ever chose Jellyfin over Plex.

The UI is slower (at least on Windows), clunkier, and uglier. Hopefully this gets fixed in the upcoming big update they have planned for the desktop client. Their Roku app is actually on par with Plex's though.
The admin dashboard is confusing and in my opinion awful.
Downloaded content is not viewable within the app on Android. This is the complaint I've heard the most from my user who made a significant effort to switch. Ironically, after the New Experience update this became less of an issue since Plex ruined downloads.
Plexamp's UI, radios, and sonic similarity feature were, last I checked, unmatched by a long-shot. I use my music library heavily. If I make the switch fully away from Plex, I'll probably opt for something more specialized like Navidrome.
Manually setting the edition of a movie is so much easier on Plex, and for someone who likes to have multiple editions, it's less confusing for the user to see each edition individually labelled in the library than selecting the movie and being expected to know which file name they should pick. Not every file is named to Jellyfin's standards because that would make them harder to add to my torrent client, and some don't have their editions in the file name at all and I just have them hand-labelled in Plex based on run time.
I'm still trying to setup my DVR in Jellyfin and can't get it to work. Plex works fine, Jellyfin just won't. It's a moot point at the moment, but once I do get it to work, unless things have changed over the years, the channel guide is a whole other set of challenges.

I'm willing to deal with this personally simply because Plex creates just as much, if not more of a headache for me as an administrator and the bloat is ridiculous, but not a single one of my users has switched, and I don't blame them. They don't have to deal with the administrative difficulties, so there's no benefit to them except being able to download files to their system instead of just in the app, which none of them care about. If nobody is going to use it, my focus ends up being on Plex anyway. I have been pushing Jellyfin for a year and a half. None of my friends or family want to use it unless Plex borks something, and even then they want Plex back.

Jellyfin just isn't on par with Plex, no matter how much I wish it was. It's death by a thousand cuts on both the user and administrative ends. It would be one thing if I were a free user or actively paying for Plex, but as a Lifetime Pass holder, I just can't justify it yet.

Problem is access outside your home for family and friends.

There are serious security gaps that make it a non starter to expose to the internet.

I've been using Jellyfin ever since they forked out of Emby, and honestly, it's the biggest complaint that I have. It is incredibly difficult to make it available to friends and family who are on various devices, networks, so on and so forth.

Whereas Plex "just works."

I’m not switching at this time because I already bought a lifetime pass about 7 years ago. If ANY of my functionality gets changed by Plex then I’ll be switching

They already changed the authentication system a few years ago. Everything goes through their server now. You can't self-host it.

Running Plex locally is still perfectly viable without going through their servers

Can you explain what you mean by not being able to self-host?

They can't because they're just plain wrong. I've been self-hosting Plex (lifetime pass) for years so idk what they're on about

You can, and whitelist your local network so you don’t have to log in.

I don't know what this means and maybe I'm just not techy enough, but all my shit is on my PC, and if my PC is turned off it doesn't work. Are you saying it goes through their servers? I'm just curious why it matters.

I absolutely love jellyfin and frequently take advantage of its features. But the client absolutely suck butt. When I can hardly get my mom to remember which app on her TV lets her watch what, I can't also have her fucking around with play buttons that don't do what they say, a "continue watching" list that's often haunted by episodes that have been marked as watched, or inscrutable menu icons mashed into the top-right corner of a media browser.

And don't get me started on getting people logged in on the client.

This is all a fascinating thread because everyone says Plex "just works"

I started using jellyfin about 6 months ago. I don't really know anything about plex use. However, jellyfin worked out of the box for me. Set up with a docker container and have never had any problems with it.

Its never failed to load media, or loaded duplicates or any of the other random things others have mentioned here.

For the most part it feels like people in the thread have just used Plex for a long time and had their first impression of jellyfin years ago and probably haven't checked it out since.

Which, fair play to them, life gets busy and setting up and migrating a media library is something that takes at least a couple hours which could be spent doing anything else.

If people are new, I'm sure they won't even bother with Plex and their ridiculously high fees. I cannot see Plex maintaining their userbase at this rate.

With them unable to maintain their userbase, I give it a year before they cancel lifetime passes and 2 years or so before it's completely enshitified and unusable.

Agree with most of the other comments here, but number one for me is PlexAmp.

100%, Plexamp is amazing when you really get into it.

Dedicated music on Jellyfin is something I've never been able to wrap my head around. Would be curious if others have figured something out that works really well within the same ecosystem.

Navidrome. It's lightweight and works with any subsonic app.

100% this. I couldn’t find any other good carplay music player that wasn’t a subscription like Spotify.

Finamp exists, and it's just as good.

I’ve used FinAmp. It’s not “just as good.”

Correct; it’s no where NEAR Plexamp.

I like Plex.

When I bought my Plex lifetime pass I saw it as an investment. So far, it's paid off handsomely.

I'm still getting great experiences, able to access it from anywhere in the world, on basically any device, seamlessly and simply.

I get it that the jellyfin community is really excited about their thing - I just am not.

I've run jellyfin, it was kind of cool I guess, but there was nothing compelling about it. So I uninstalled it. What is jellyfin's "must have" feature, anyway?

I wouldn't go out and build a new car when I'm perfectly happy with my 10-year old sedan. If you're expecting me to go through that just because the new ones cost more than I spent years ago, you're insane. I wouldn't go and re paint my house just because the old company now charges new customers more for their paint.

I paid for it, it works well. There's no reason (except all the FUD I keep seeing on lemmy,) to even think about dismantling and recreating it with something new.

Keep building your dream tool Jellyfin people - Godspeed, but your community should target acquiring net-new users instead of trying to scare and poach happy users away from what they already have.

I already own a lifetime Plex pass, so I have no reason to stop using it. They are high thinking that anyone will pay $750 for lifetime. I paid under $100 but frankly I would have paid more, I use it every day. I’m glad that the devs there were able to get paid and provide for their families while making Plex. Plex works incredibly well for me and my family, I will use it for as long as I am able to.

I struggle to understand why JF users seem to want Plex users to convert so badly. I used JF for a while but things are great on Plex. If I thought JF was better I would switch and my metadata is well prepared for the day I need to.

I got started with jellyfin and never used Plex but there's a bunch of rough edges:

No apps on several smart tv/streaming stick stores, Vizio has an app for plex but not jellyfin so I would need to buy a new streaming device. Yes smart tvs spy on you but the alternatives people recommend either spy on you just as much or are expensive (Nvidia shield) and most of them still require side loading so it's a major obstacle for sharing with anyone else.
Casting from the mobile app won't play at full resolution, you can get around this by using VLC as your player and casting from that but that causes it to frequently lose watch progress. Also stopping casting or playing the next episode doesn't work properly with VLC and you need to rapidly mash "back" to get into the jellyfin app again and queue up a new episode.
The current release of Jellyfin desktop won't play audio for iptv streams, this is fixed in the dev branch but I have yet to find a build without other critical bugs so I'll likely need to wait for the next release which currently has no target date.
The browser version has spotty controller support that stops working constantly. When it does work it lacks any way to access context menus to mark shows as watched etc. If you're using a flatpak browser to run it on steam deck or whatever, you'll have codec and passthrough issues (Chrome is the only flatpak with decent codec support).
Others have mentioned the security issues which you can bypass by putting authentik or something in front of it but then you can only share with people using browser.

What about exposing through Pangolin tunnel, Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel approach? Would that allow proper client access?

Same problem regarding security because if you leave it up to jellyfin to do auth you are betting on the wrong horse. With pangolin auth in front of it you have the same problem as before. Clients can't handle the additional auth.

Or am I misunderstanding the concept of tunnels wrong? I am using pangolin as a reverse proxy with nice VPN management included. How do you the tail scale style "connect this client to this network that has the jellyfin server on it" thingy?

You have a VPS that relays the pangolin tunnel and a reverse proxy serving the tunnel through a cloudfare + fail2ban protected domain. It should be really cheap since the vps only really runs for the initial auth and connection, and once in a while to update the tunnel IPs. You just give people a domain and a credential for the client.

It sounds complicated but isn't really. I did it once but then returned to plain tailscale since I don't really share my server with many people.

I'm still not seeing how this solves the issue. You either use Cloudflare or your reverse proxy as the auth, which is secure but then people can only use your Jellyfin server through a web browser, or you publish actual Jellyfin and use its auth, but now you rely on its poor security.

Are you saying you integrate fail to ban with Jellyfin's auth? If so that's alright, but won't stop anyone from using an exploit, just brute force attacks. I'm still also not sure why the VPS is required at all.

I am aware how it works but have trouble to set my pangolin up just Like the tail scale app to create this kind of network instead of just serving the content as a vps via an URL

Cloudflare doesn't allow streaming large quantities of data through their tunnels. At least it's against their ToS.

When setup with tunnels, cloudflare doesn't see any media traffic. Cloudflare only needs to serve the auth and handshakes. The actual traffic is IP to IP, TLS encrypted if you setup a domain correctly. Or just use something like tailscale that sets up the certificates and domains for you.

Lifetime pass, it still works well so why would I switch?

I tried Jellyfin probably 2 years ago and it was fine but Plex is just "plug n play" in regard to my family setting it up themselves with little help from me.

Plexamp is the only way I stream music too so that's a big reason why I won't move yet.

Navidrome plus Arpeggi, Narjo or Symphonium are pretty much equivalent

“Pretty much” doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

That’s a lot of apps to replace the functionality of one. Pass.

You only need the server and one app

Ok, which app for iOS replaces ALL Plexamp functionality?

TL; DR: UX, UI, and memory.

Memory usage is a significant concern. It immediately made my NAS completely crash when attempting to scan the (not even very large) library. Plex, right now, as of writing, when idle, uses 30MB, compared to the 3.1GB reported by Jellyfin when I last tried it, which was the last reading before my NAS died a tragic death of RAM starvation.

The apps are bad. A browser isn’t a good solution - see HDR, 10bit, 5.1, Atmos, and bit-perfect support. Remote access is complex, particularly for those behind CG-NAT, and encryption for remote access is even more convoluted; Plex does it in one checkbox. Some of that is architectural, some financial, but the end result is a worse experience for me.

The UI design is such that any server slowdown affects responsiveness severely, even for simple actions, which unfortunately speaks volumes about how much of a priority the actual user experience is - that’s not something I’m compatible with as a person in general.

Third-party apps are not good either for my platforms, I deemed them to be unusable unstable and amusingly poorly designed - that’s including the Swift and Flutter versions, the latter of which’s design and UX I found incredibly obtuse. Stretching a phone app for desktop use feels a bit like stretching your ballsack into a wind sail - maybe just get a sail mate.

I genuinely wanted to like Jellyfin, I hate proprietary software, let alone paid software, LET ALONE paid piracy software. But JF still has so many areas like these that are just incredibly frustrating to deal with. Plex’s dogshit decisions are not impacting me much (Lifetime), I have established custom setups around the desktop Plex clients to make them usable, so I see no immediate reason to switch until Jellyfin addresses its memory usage and considers using a non-skid language for an application that’s essentially a file server, set of ffmpeg scripts and a metadata database.

Have lifetime already. No reason to jump. Generally it just works.

No need to have another project while Plex still works fine.

I run both, I got the lifetime license for under $100 and it is much easier to have my various family members install the Plex app and then login than to get them on my VPN to access Jellyfin.

Grandma ain't installing Tailscale

Jellyfin is great and I run both. However, sharing access with family is a PITA compared to Plex. I paid for Plex Pass lifetime at the $75 and have no reason to fully move. Keeping Jellyfin around in case Plex tries to rug pull lifetime passes, though.

I'm not using Plex, but I feel like I can answer my complaints about using jellyfin.

My biggest complaint is the lack of clients. It is such a pain in the butt to install jellyFin on all of my products.

My second complaint is the security design. They've had open issues about unauthenticated endpoints for three or four years now. And whenever the issue gets so old that it starts to look bad, they refactor the issue into a newer issue abd bury it in the sand.

For a while this was done under the guise of maintaining legacy client support, but just recently it looks like they're starting to focus on more security, and I've noticed some of those security holes are being closed finally, but it's a major concern for me that they've been open for as long as they have.

My second complaint is the security design. They've had open issues about unauthenticated endpoints for three or four years now. And whenever the issue gets so old that it starts to look bad, they refactor the issue into a newer issue abd bury it in the sand.

You mean that one issue that is still open and linked in the "security and quality" tab on github?

i feel like one issue is a bit of a downplay here, considering that it's 12 different issues being shown as one mega issue. but yes that has most of them

But that's also the most recent version of it. Some of those issues that they have listed there has had previous issues that were closed to be consolidated into that mega issue, which then was closed to be split into their own issues again.

i feel like one issue is a bit of a downplay here,

But how does it matter if the issue is closed or open? It is linked and stated early and tracked.

That issues get merged and closed is quite normal when there arw duplicates.

Also, i think the oppoaite. The issues get 'upplayed'. Which one of these are you actually worried about? And how does they affrct you?

Doesn't it affect all of us in that we cannot safely run it exposed to the internet? I mean I still yolo it and run my jellyfin completely exposed because there's no way I'm guiding anyone through setting up wire guard or configuring clients to do additional auth, but still. I would love to not worry about that.

The question is, are the vulnerabilities actually a risk for your setup?

Should they be fixed? Absolutely.

But do they affect you? For me its basically a no.

A vulnability can be a nothing burger or critical issue that needa to be fixed. But it depends.

If it's a nothing burger then they should come out and say it's fine to run your instance publicly then

No, it is impossible to certify security, it's only possible to certify insecurity.

They could only say something like "it's designed to run exposed" or something like it.

You can pay for the audit if you like and still there would be no certainty.

I assume, before they say something like that they want a completely new API. But this would break every single client.

How come this is not an issue for other projects then? Why isn't Overseer also saying "don't host this publicly because we can't also can't guarantee perfect security? Is the issue really just that they can't prove security or is there an actual security issue with the API? From what you're saying it sounds like the only issue is that they haven't done an audit but that it's otherwise fine, but other people are saying there are actual security holes regardless of whether an audit is performed.

Like, I'm fine running stuff publicly that hasn't been audited like most of the stuff I self host. Why are people treating jellyfin differently than other self hosted projects that haven't been audited?

I am saying that the mentioned security vulnerbility is not as big as ppm make it to be. The bad thing right now is that IF you know the exact path of a media item you can probe if its there. As soon as you varg your path by just single character from the default/guides that are out there, this is basically no longer practical.

Is this ok? No. But to fix this, every Client would be broken.

The current API dies not follow modern security practices since some are not or partially autheticated. Thats basically inherited by Emby.

That is the current main issue and needs to be dealt with.

I assume that after the last EFcore (database handling) this gets addressed since now the API can be designed around the standerized databade calls.

Also overseer is also not saying "pls host on the public internet". If you do so, you are on your own. Why jellyfin gets treaded different? I do not know.

EDIT: I guess at least some ppl, use this as a comfortable excuse to stay on Plex. "But it is insecure... so i can not set it up"

Ok, well you just made it sound like the main issue was the lack of audit /guarantee and not an actual security issue. I don't think breaking clients is an excuse not to at least get started putting forward a date, even if it's a year in the future, where clients need to be updated by. Sure Overseeer isn't begging people to put it on the internet, but there aren't any known vulnerabilities to my knowledge, same with vaultwarden. Imo it's a big win to getting more people comfortable using jellyfin if they can put their foot down and say clients need to update, or stay on the old version. Every time there's Plex drama, it seems like the list of reasons people don't want to spend time to migrate isn't getting whittled down much. I've donated hundreds of dollars over the years at this point to jellyfin proper as well as several clients hoping things could move faster. Like imagine if the Overseeer devs designed a frontend. There's nothing that jellyfin can't technically do that I find missing, but it feels like a death by a thousand cuts.

Just because you do know any or that there are no know to the public does not mean it is secure. Do we know if the plex communication with your server is secure? No one cares, because no one is looking into it.

The main issue, is that ita not that simple to get new versions on the closed eco systems on many smart TV, especially when you are just a single dev and no company who can throw money on the problem.

As I said, the issue is not that big, and mainly an excuse for most ppl. The API break will come, hopefully sooner than later, but it needs to be carefully designed, to prevent issues in the future.

But again, the current issue is not that much of a problem. I do not see the benefit of anyone to probe my server if i have certain media files on there. And i do not use the default paths.

Sure not knowing of an issue doesn't mean it's secure, but that doesn't also mean that projects with known issues aren't a problem... Like if you want jellyfin to be popular you should want this to be fixed - I don't get this attitude from people who main jellyfin who seem opposed to pushing for it to be better. It not being a big issue is your own personal opinion - it's obvious that known security issues sitting around for a long time bothers a lot of people so the sooner it gets addressed, the fewer reasons people have to stick with Plex. That's a good thing right?

I am saying all this because it's more blown up than it is. I have said in basically every single post that it needs to be fixed right? So pls do not suggest that I do not want it to get better.

But, this link to the collection of vulnerabilities gets posted on every argument without any explanation and or classification. Which is also not ok.

For starters, it being brought up wouldn't be an issue if there was some timeline to fix it and the response wasn't just "it's too hard and would break clients", and secondly, I think it's not congruent with wanting to improve jellyfin if your reflex is immediately to say that nothing is truly secure. Could you imagine if next cloud had a similar issue and put it off for more than 5(?) years?? Is that really not enough time to get the clients and apps in order? They should just put the issue to rest so we can move on with making jellyfin better. I don't think anyone wants it to remain an issue for another 5 years, and I think calling that blown out of proportion is kinda ridiculous.

Like if 5 years ago they said you have 5 years to update your app, we could have had this issue checked off and nobody would be able to complain about it or use it as an excuse not to switch, so the next best time to set a deadline would be now. They should just as soon as possible say you have a couple years to update your apps, at least schedule a date years in the future to rip off the bandaid instead of kicking it further down the road.

I think it's not congruent with wanting to improve jellyfin if your reflex is immediately to say that nothing is truly secure.

At no point in life I said that.

Jellyfin has proven with the latest RCEs that they can handle relevant critical security vulnabilities.

As always, jellyfin does not have that much relevant contributers, and a lot of work has been done in recent time. It is very easy to lean back and say what they should or should not have been doing.

Breaking Clients would make the project not usable for many ppl or at least decrease the usability.

As i have already said, getting uodatea on those closed eco systems can be a nightmare.

I don't think downplaying them is the way to go though, Some of these issues have been in existence since 2019.

Like I mentioned though, it does seem like its starting to be worked on, a few of them are in progress the one I really don't like is #13991 which is a combination of:

#13982 which allows for an alternative user to be able to interact with the client readonly as if they are another user as long as they have the user id and any valid auth token (which includes that current users auth token). original issue: #5210 2/10/2021; status: partially mitigated 5/11/24 with v10.9 which locked modifying data behind elevation but getting the data still is able to be done in select endpoints still
and #13990 Which gives any user with standard login access(like say the common family tv's account) the ability to access the getUser endpoint and retrieve said previous user id. In progress since 12/2/25 reported via the megathread creation 3/8/2021

For example I just made a user with no access period to any collection, just a login access and took the auth token for the user. I was able to grab every user on the servers ID including hidden and administrative users as well as users who don't use jellyfin's auth system, then couple that to see what the users login method was, when their last access was, what folders they were allowed to use[note these are represented as id's the client can't actually parse them so you need to traverse the api for it], how many max sessions they could have, etc. without actually having access or logging in as that user or even being an administrator. If you snag an admins userid it even gives you internal server data such as logging paths that the server uses on the dashboard, the transcode path, the metadata path, what networking settings the server is using such as trusted ip nets the port jellyfin is using by default your certificate file and password if configured[although password may be ommited/the field left blank i didn't test internal certs]. From there you can even recurse through the folder UUID's provided via "enabledfolders" and the other folder restrictions on the users endpoint and get the name of the folders which could leak personal information about the library or the user because the 403 request it returns leaks the name of the library as part of the error message. "username is not allowed to access Library name"

Thankfully it's finally being worked on but, I do think it's worth stating the timeframe on them and that those issues do still exist.

Just like I think it's worth stating that media endpoints are still fully unauthenticated as well, so as long as you can guess the full file path, you can md5 it and get unauthenticated media paths, but that's in progress as well, its just super slow because that breaks third party clients.

I don't think downplaying them is the way to go though, Some of these issues have been in existence since 2019.

I am not downplaying them. And yes they should get fixed. But this attack needs access to an account on your server.

so as long as you can guess the full file path,

Yes, also should be fixed, probably by some sort of salt and authentication, but can be easily prevented by adding a random character in the base/root path to the media. Especially with docker or similar, thats an 1 min fix.

And even if not? What then? Why would someone want to attack that?

Those are not good, no. But no deal breakers and actually more blown up then downplayed imho.

I paid for it ages ago on a deal, and it currently suits my needs. It runs as a docker container and it just works. It’s easy enough for my elderly mom to use remotely and I’ve ripped my entire movie collection for her to watch. I also like the live tv that’s included with the pass.

I would switch in a heartbeat if it wasn’t doing what I need, but so far I have no complaints, it works well for my family’s needs.

I use Plex to save money on plumbers because I cannot solder. Plex gives me the ability to exact repairs myself.

I see so many here with the argument of 'I already have a life time pass, so this increase doesn't affect me". And in all honesty, that's a mostly logical take on this if you already have it.

However, the signs are clear. This is a first step. I don't believe (and I'm very aware I could be wrong) for a second that the executives are actually expecting people to grab a pass for 750 dollars, but they expect a minimum amount of people to go ahead and do it anyway. Once they see this conversation is dying down, and that no money is coming in on that end, they will switch to another method of getting money (the investors need their money, right?).

From there, the sky's the limit. Charge extra if your instance has more than 3 users, or charge the users that are not you. Cap your quality at 720p unless you fork over 2 dollars per month. Pay for this new AI feature that is not included in your pass. Pay to disable this AI feature that was forced into your pass.

For pass holders there is no problem with this increase, it's what invariably happens when companies start moving towards the money grab path.

We'll just watch from the sidelines and will be here to help you migrate once (not if) these things happen.

Jellyfin doesn't really do anything better than Plex. If someone already does have a Plex pass, then the best you can say about Jellyfin is that you're glad things are missing (Like Discover/Plex Channels/etc). Also, the level of support for Jellyfin just isn't there. Plex doesn't always have great support, but answers to technical problems in Jellyfin are frequently just "Don't do that". As others have mentioned too, the experience of sharing your library with isn't really even comparable. Your chances of sharing your Jellyfin library with your grandma are near zero unless you just do it for her.

The process of setting up Jellyfin as a backup solution actually led me to experimenting with Emby. Unless something crazy happens to my current Plex implementation I'm still not going to proactively switch, but Emby legitimately does (rarely) have some features where it has a leg up on both of them.

Plex has clients for every single device there is. I arrive to some 2018 smart tv in a holiday cottage and the absolutely dreadful, measly App Store, now long abandoned, has a plex client.

Also I have a very old life time pass so current pricing means nothing to me.

Like most people here I bought a lifetime pass years ago and Plex just works (it passes the Wife Acceptance Test).

However, I am planning on spinning up Jellyfin and giving it a go and seeing what it's like. I'm a bit nervous reading and things like multiple versions of the same movie displaying separately but I also think I saw a plugin that fixes that.

I got a lifetime pass for cheap ages ago and while the company isn't doing so well, Plex itself isn't getting any worse. Its just not getting better.

As long as that continues, then I'm fine with staying. I only really use it for Plexamp anyway.

oh I forgot about Plexamp. Its been my main music app since it also does Android auto.

It just works so well and nothing else comes close so far.

I already paid when it was cheap. I'll stay and get my full dollars worth and then some. I paid for it, I'll use it. When it is unusable I'll bail. Anything else is stupid.

I bought a Plex lifetime pass in 2014 when it was $75. I’ll keep using it until they make it stop working.

The Apple TV client is basically unusable. Otherwise I would have switched already.

Infuse? Or is there a different one?

I'd be getting rid of apple whatever at that point

Why?

Because they’re an insufferable twat.

I’m afraid of exposing HTTPS to the open internet.

I say the following as a current Jellyfin user who stopped using Plex for privacy reasons: Plex making it easy to share your library outside of your LAN is an absolutely gigantic point in its favour. I don't understand why so many Jellyfin people seem unable or unwilling to understand or acknowledge this.

Life time subscriber since a very long time. So no need, but I would have switched if there was a decent Xbox or LG TV app.

Plex works for me, Jellyfin doesn’t because of missing apps 🤷‍♂️

You ain’t missing much; the TV apps are very lacking

Plex clients arent great, but they are better on many TVs compared to jellyfin. Also the wife is used to it, so I don't really want to retrain

99% of my usage is on an Apple TV and the Jellyfin Apple TV client is just really bad. Last time I tried it didn't even display "watched" markers and the UI looked terrible. None of the third party clients seemed decent either. The Plex client is much better (although I could do without the "suggested" sections).

Lifetime pass purchased years ago and Plex manages sign-ins and connections for my less computer-savvy friends.

The lack of library sharing is what's keeping me on Plex.

The ability to watch media across servers, and even transparently pull it for local transcode when necessary is just an amazing feature.

This multi-server front project, Jellyswarrm is really interesting, which allows the Jellyfin clients to access more than one Jellyfin server simultaneously. I think it may do what you want when combined with server sync.

Would definitely test extensively before putting in production, hehe.

It doesn't really solve my use-case, since we do a combination of direct stream when possible, as well as local sync/cache but only for transcoding purposes. As well as local users only, with the federated sharing taking care of permissions, so that we don't transfer user information between eachother.

Jellyswarrm is certainly a lot closer than other solutions people have suggested though.

There's still a bunch of outstanding API security issues last I checked, so it's not secure enough for me to open to the web.

Teaching friends and family to use it with a VPN is a whole another can. Also, you'll have to make sure the VPN is secure and users don't have access to the rest of your network...

and then you'll have to deal with client apps/access for mobile, android boxes, TVs, and Chromecasts...

I got lucky with the Plex Pass too so I can only ride this out to the end until Jellyfin catches up. (also, I'm not good to contribute code)

Any particular API security issues? Never considered exposing Jellyfin, but can certainly understand how it simplifies access.

This was the security report from awhile back:

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/issues/5415

Lot's of things have been fixed but theres still much to do. The issue was broken down to smaller issues for tracking and I check back every once in a while.

Even if there were no security issues, exposing jellyfin is also another can... choice of:

open up ports
cloudflare (and potential ban for video content on the free tier, even if caching is disabled)
vps with enough bandwidth

Don’t you have to open a port for Plex remote access?

I think the difference is Plex offers a web address you can use for logging into Plex and for sharing it with others. So, you get a friendly admin interface with oauth for logging in from other popular services as the Plex user getting setup.

You do not but you'll be severely bandwidth limited. It'll go through their servers if a port can't be opened.

Oh I forgot about that option

That sounds like you do have to open one then? Otherwise you are "severely bandwidth limited" and who wants that?

https://sh.itjust.works/comment/25489149

4 people host libraries that my tech illiterate boomer parents access.

One login, many servers, singular interface.

That is very specifically the situation I'm in. Jellyfish, emby, you wanna whip up a persona... that's a pretty damn clear-cut one for ya

No because you can’t easily and securely share your library and remote play.

I have a lifetime pass so there’s no need to switch to a worse product.

I have both. Plex is better with music at this time, which is a huge use for me. Jellyfin has a quicker UI and i swear looks better streaming to my TV, but could just be bias.

Jellyfin needs to fix their bugs around having the same artist listed multiple times in your library.

Agreed. It reads it verbatim and doesn't "loose match" anything, which can be good or bad.

It does help me find stylized name differences in my library though, but foobar also does this and i can edit the tags directly with foobar.

Plex was good for music for me until it started acting weirdly a few months ago. It started scanning my library nonstop and running my hard drives on full speed for days before I eventually caught it.

I was told it was the agent from Plex but changing that out didn’t fix the issue so I moved my stuff off there and have been working with Navidrome instead.

Have you tried PlexAmp? And, are you doing music entirely through the base Jellyfin app? Interesting to know you prefer the music experience on Jellyfin.

I prefer music/audio on Plex & PlexAmp, with one caveat. They nerfed music on Plex (regular app) and there's certain platforms (Nvidia Shield) that don't support PlexAmp, so it kinda sucks in that one specific case. But PlexAmp works great for my phone and desktop/laptop (although i use foobar for my desktop to play local files).

PlexAmp also has some nice UI/QOL features like their "artist radio" stuff and "shuffle recently added music" type things.

Jellyfin music is much more barebones / build it yourself. I haven't dove much into it because the jellyfin naming conventions to auto tag media don't vibe 100% with my library so it's a mess in some spots and i haven't manually fixed it all yet. My music library is large and this would take a while. Plus PlexAmp works great so I don't feel a need to do anything with it yet and i don't mind running both systems on my server.

I prefer jellyfin for video, not audio. But only local network for me at this time. I can VPN into my home network for jellyfin but why bother if Plex streams remotely fine and I'm usually watching on a phone or tablet anyway so quality doesn't matter. But i swear jellyfin video is higher quality than plex video but it's probably not and I'm just biased lol

@ushmel Navidrome's wonderful for music ime

I stopped using Plex because it was buggy for me, stopped using Jellyfin because it didn't have an app for my smart TV and using it in the TVs browser sucked, and now I use Emby because it's pretty simple, works amazingly and is free. I still technically have Jellyfin running side-by-side with Emby, I just don't use it. Jellyfin had a simple UI and basic UX, but Emby looks and feels so good.

Now, go ahead and tell me that Emby supports baby eating facists or something

I don't have time.

Jellyfin was one of the easiest things to set up though.

I see plenty of comments suggesting it's not the set it and forget it that Plex is.

I have set up both. Honestly Jellyfin was MUCH more easy to setup because Plex requires a very specific way to setup the network otherwise it craps its pants and refuses to work on LAN.

But after figuring out those pain points, both are set and forget. The main differences are privacy concerns vs wide access outside of LAN and on more devices.

Great; post your guide/instructions showing how easy it was.

Copy the compose.yaml from https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-jellyfin/#user-group-identifiersand adjust, e.g.:

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin:latest
    container_name: jellyfin
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/Madrid
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./media:/media
    ports:
      - 8096:8096
      - 8920:8920
      - 7359:7359/udp
    restart: unless-stopped

Run docker compose up -d
Navigate to http://<IP>:8096
Follow the wizard to create a user and libraries.
Profit

Steps for Plex:

Copy the compose.yaml from https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-plex/?h=plex#umask-for-running-applicationsand adjust, e.g:

---
services:
  plex:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
    container_name: plex
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
      - VERSION=docker
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./media:/media
    ports:
      - 32400:32400
    restart: unless-stopped

Run docker compose up -d
Navigate to http://<IP>:32400
Create an account with Plex, give them your email and create a password with the specific requirements they impose. Agree with their use policy and confirm the pop-ups about ads and such.
You can now watch Plex media. Clicking your media will only have a link to https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/
Look everywhere to figure out where to add your local media and give up.
Look in Google and no one has this issue.
Spend a few hours trying and give up.

BTW, the issue there that took me months to figure out is that while Plex documentation says that you only need to expose that port, it only works in network host mode, so unless you give it full control of your network it just refuses to work.

I see more open ports for Jellyfin than I do for plex…..

So? Jellyfin only needs 8096, the other two are https and lan discovery, you can also add 1900 for DNLA. On the other hand Plex has 8 additional configurable ports for other stuff, but that's besides the point because it requires network_mode: host otherwise it pretends it can't be seen.

The fact that Plex does not even have settings for hardware encoding, besides on/off, tells me that's bullshit

I don't know why you're getting downvoted. I set up Jellyfin like a month ago and it took about two minutes.

Great; now stream remotely. And setup an app on an AppleTV.

Streaming remotely via tailscale is fairly easy. Cloudflare tunnel apparently works too, although it is against their ToS.

Can't speak for Apple TV though. Setting up clients on Android based systems is as easy as entering the server address and then logging in.

The jellyfin service was super easy to set up. I just set up the container in Unraid and was done with that. Took me a minute or two.

But what about a Jellyfin? Have you setup Jellyfin‽ it’ll solve all your streaming problems, that Jellyfin! Forget about any other alternatives, Jellyfin! JELLYFIN!!!

Maybe but the process is really annoying. I have to backup my 4tb library, make the switch, if it doesnt work I have to revert.

I don't have a spare 6tb drive either so i would need to buy one.

Besides, i already have a plex lifetime membership so most of the new changes do not affect me.

I could just risk it and do the upgrade raw, but I would be pretty upset if I lost my data due to the switch.

What? Just point Plex or Jellyfin at the same media library

I already tried to setup jellyfin for a couple days before I bought the $120 Plex pass. I could not get it to work at all and it was frustrating reading all the vulnerabilities with the internet.

Plex took me 5 minutes to setup and all my friends can access my media no problem.

For ease of use, Plex wins Everytime.

setup

set up. "Setup" is a noun that lost its hyphen.

everytime

every time. Otherwise it's not a word at all.

Do you understand how language evolves? It's ok to be "wrong" as long as you've communicated successfully.

I have both. Plex for family and Jellyfin for me. I still don't have hardware transcoding working (probably a permission thing. It's always permissions) and haven't had much time to tinker this year. Plex just... worked.

I can use Jellyfin without transcoding, but only one or two users at a time is all my CPU can handle.

Same, directplay at 1080

Are you running it on baremetal or in a VM?

Both are docker containers. It can detect the card, but ffmpeg crashes with an error and that's as far as I got.

I haven't given up, life just got busy for a bit as often happens.

Okay, I haven't tried using docker, so I can't help directly, but I set up my Plex server with help from Jellyfin documentation. You could probably find something in there about setting up hardware acceleration on docker, if you haven't already. They should work with Plex, as well.

Oh, HW works on Plex just fine.

Oh wait, I guess I completely misread what you said lol

Jellyfin people who constantly ask “have you tried Jellyfin?” have never used Plex and don’t know what they are missing out on.

I have Emby lifetime. I have Plex lifetime. I try Jellyfin every year.

Plex wins always. Emby is second. Would not recommend Jellyfin.

I can't make my family members use Wireguard, they are stubborn, what can I say?

Secondly it's the guides I saw for some specifics things I wanted, almost everything was with Plex in mind.

Thirdly I just liked how quick it was to set up and intuitive to use compared to Jellyfin.

Fourthly the Users are really easy to manage and create from Plex without me having to manage everyone.

Finally many smart TVs come with a specific subset of apps and Plex usually makes the cut while Jellyfin does not, again, family members, I can't control what TVs they buy.

I don't even know how to setup wireguard because I don't have the time to tinker and learn.

I started with jellyfin, and eventually let my partner convince me to pay for a lifetime pass for Plex. Plex just has better functionality. Not only can I access my library from anywhere, the subtitles work without fiddling with different srt files, the error messages are much more descriptive, and I find the documentation for adding OTA antenna and DVR functionality much more comprehensible with Plex.

I like jellyfin for what it is, but Plex makes it all work with far less headache and much better support. So Plex wins, in my mind for now.

And with all that being said, I got my Plex lifetime pass a few years ago, so the value I have will not be the same as yours if you are just now starting to consider Plex, so I can understand why you might have a different opinion

Jellyfin is awesome for local use, Plex is better at sharing libraries with friends and family and jellyfin is total ass for music

I run jellyfin

The UI didn't support remotes on console and use tiles. Really amateur shit. No need to set up a reverse proxy. I have a lifetime, zero need to switch.

I used Emby for a couple years right before they went closed source which spawned Jellyfin and it was fine in some area (though not as polished) and better in others, but securely sharing remotely was always a huge hurdle which is not something they've found a solution for.

I have a lifetime pass so I have no reason to switch as of yet. Migrating people over like my elderly parents is going to be a nightmare if it ever comes to that.

I got a lifetime pass a long time ago and have no reason to switch. I'll consider it when it's worth considering.

Admittedly this was 4 years ago, but the lack of documentation was frustrating. I don't know if remote streaming or transcoding was even a thing back then, but I could find little to nothing about much of anything. Now I just don't have the time. I switched to Stremio + plugins for TV and movies, and I'm content to keep using Plexamp for my vinyl rips until it stops working.

Jellyfin has definitely gotten leaps and bounds better in the last 4 years.

As a Jellyfin user that has lurked in past "Plex did bad thing X" threads and someone suggested jellyfin.

The usual reasons are

Remote login (through their relay)
Which also plays into remote streaming
Plex Amp (their music player) is supposedly the absolute best of anything
Very easy to sign up (both the admin and family and friends

At least that's what I remember at the top of my hat.

No free Apple TV app is kind of a deal-breaker. Even Emby has one. Also the Roku app still crashes fairly regularly for me just randomly either browsing or during playback.

I'd love to use it fulltime but I don't want to have to buy new devices just to use it. Plex already works and I picked up a lifetime pass when it wasn't insanely priced.

Swiftfin app for Apple TV is free. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/swiftfin/id1604098728
There is also the more recent Moonfin: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moonfin/id6761283970

So, two free options for tvOS / Apple TV.

I've had little luck with Swiftfin. Last time I tried it, it wouldn't connect to my server by IP: port.

That happened to me related to needing http://https:// before the ip, then it worked. Also added avahi mdns, to use hostname.local instead of ip

Both are not nearly as polished/finished as the Plex app on AppleTV

First time I’ve heard of Moonfin, but it looks really promising. iOS version works great, need to check tvOS version later this weekend! Thanks!

When i have a plex lifetime pass from 2016, dam 10 years. Plex works fine, my biggest complaint is the other steaming service they are trying to sell (luckily you can disable it), offline viewing on mobile needs a lot of love.

Everything else works good enough. Why should i spend time on converting?

My next thing I want to replace is my good Nvidia Shield, sadly with Android TV that 1/3 of my main page is an ad , and i can’t easily turn if off. And have not found a good alternative launcher.

It is like Microsoft windows, enshittification.

I started with Plex because it was an installable app on my NAS. It worked great with a Roku stick that was given to me. Same for a TV that had the Plex client. It works well for the others in the house. I got a Plex pass on sale a few years ago.

I'd like to switch to Jellyfin, but would need to find the client for 2 TVs and deal with the complaints if it doesn't work exactly like Plex.

Jellyfin doesn't have a client/app for my Samsung Frame TV

I don’t have a lifetime pass; I pay the monthly subscription. I would prefer to use Jellyfin, but Plex works better and the Jellyfin app on Apple TV is abysmal. That’s pretty much it. If Jellyfin worked better, I’d switch, but I’m not suffering through it for some principle against paying for software.

I thought about replying to some comments but decided to make a top level comment instead. There are some valid points a few people have brought up that aren't the easiest things to fix. Some are, actually pretty easy to fix. Some are issues where Jellyfin forces you to do things a certain way, like file naming convention, which I think is extremely smart to do anyway.

But the one reply I keep seeing is "until Plex stops working, I see no reason to switch". With that, I mean, I guess we all agree you are going to get fucked by Plex at some point. They've been slowly cranking up the heat in the pot. I love my media library and I just couldn't stand waiting for the rolling boil. I've been using Adobe products since 1999. I recognize an abusive relationship when I see it. If you're happy where you're at, I mean, by all means. I'm not going to yuck your yum. Many of the issues are exactly the kinds of things the Jellyfin community is happy to help fix with you. I do wish you all the best, but I've never gotten locked into a great deal that didn't hurt when I needed to get out of it before.

I use Emby instead of Plex or Jellyfin; mostly because it has an Xbox client, and I've already got a lifetime licence. One of my most active users only watches via Xbox.

Really don't like Plexs centralised user system or the overall direction they've been headed for years, so I moved away from that long ago (8+ years ago at least). Jellyfin wasn't up to par at the time (though they've made leaps and bounds of progress in that time), and Emby has always supported more types of devices\clients. Their device limit (the client count limit with premeir) has never come into play for me, but I know there are larger user bases out there where that is a problem.

Embys development is extremely slow though, taking YEARS to implement simple features or even address major concerns. Plus their support sucks without the community stepping in and providing it on behalf of the staff. Luke (the main dev) is better at copy+pasting candid responses than he is at actually interacting with human beings.

I have both and run them side by side through Docker in UNRaid, but Jellyfin hardly ever gets used unless there is a problem with Plex and I don't feel like fixing it immediately. I've had the Plex lifetime pass for forever.

I have young kids and really like Plex's system for moderating content for their accounts. I've never explored this on Jellyfin though. As a person with crappy laptop speakers, subtitles are important to me. Plex does subtitles better than Jellyfin in my experience.

I'm in the throes of attempting a migration from Plex (lifetime pass, here) to Jellyfin, and my main issue is echoed elsewhere: It's a headache to set up secure external access. My users would either need a new account through some auth gate I'd have to set up & manage, or I'd have to wire everyone up through wireguard or something they'd have to remember a password for and blah blah blah.

Plex is the only thing my home server is sharing. I don't have anything directly exposed to the external internet. In any case I can think of, doing this "right" means extra steps (on top of new steps) for my current users, plus new security concerns & added user management for myself.

I got a Synology NAS and despite being a technical idiot I was able to set up my family with Jellyfin on Roku phoning home to my NAS.

Wouldn't this result in all your traffic being unencrypted?

Probably, I dunno. Technical idiot, remember? From a real life perspective, what are the consequences of unencrypted video files being shared to a Roku?

If it's only on your local home network, it's not a problem at all. When you say 'phone home', it makes me think maybe you're accessing it remotely over the internet, in which case it would be very easy for your ISP or anyone who is curious to see what files are being shared.

Real life consequences range from your ISP saying stoppit to reporting agencies flagging you as a distributor of illegal content and reporting you to the FBI.

Of course, this is me assuming the files you're hosting are copyrighted movies and things of that nature, and that you sweat the FBI at all. I dunno what country you live in.

Instead of using tail scale I set up Synology DDNS and a security certificate from Let's Encrypt. (I went back and looked at the tutorial I followed and that was one of the steps.) I'm pretty sure when I log in remotely it's via https. Does that also encrypt against the type of shoulder overlooking you're talking about?

You gotta understand, I'm not even at the beginning of the Dunning-Kruger cognitive bias spread. I do use a VPN when I'm browsing, but that's on a different machine from the Synology and not really relevant to what you were saying

Oh in that case I'm sure you're fine. Yeah your Let's Encrypt setup is handling your https certs so as long as you're seeing https you should be good.

Oh okay, awesome! Thank you for the info, and for sharing your knowledge <3

I have both technically running. The metadata matching on jellyfin is complete ass, so I have to manually match up like a third of my library, or reconfigure the files (absolutely not happening) which I just dgaf enough to do when vanishingly few people would be able to use it, so its only partially set up. It also can’t be accessed by anyone because I'm not dumb enough, nor smart enough, to open it up to the internet (I don’t know how to do it safely and I'm thus entirely not interested in trying).

Plex, by contrast, is already configured (and if I have to scrap the library and start over, as I've done several times, its pretty easy to reconfigure), the metadata linking is correct and automatic most of the time, everyone already has access to it, and it just works for them, and thus for me. I'm not giving it up just because a bunch of hyper-nerds on the internet say it’s bad for, frankly, nonsense reasons that don't apply or matter to me or honestly most people who use it. I’ll wait until it -actually- is bad for my use, or until jellyfin serves the use I have for it, which it absolutely does not do presently, and may never. (And no, a vpn or whatever setup is not a solution, it’s just one more thing to maintain and fuck with constantly to keep it working for people who don’t even know what a vpn is. Hard pass.)

I wouldn't pay for plex now, nor in the last several years, and I strongly discourage my users from doing so, but spent money is spent, so might as well keep using what I paid for until it doesn't work for me anymore. I mean really, why not? I genuinely haven't seen any valid reasons to get rid of it, and lots of reasons to keep it.

The metadata matching on jellyfin is complete ass, so I have to manually match up like a third of my library

Does Plex somehow do a better job of figuring out special features metadata? Because other than that, you follow the naming schemes, and Jellyfin has had a 100% hit rate for me.

I’m not really sure what you mean by special feature in this context, but plex pulls the meta largely without needing to rename files (some exceptions, but they are very obvious, like if there’s words/numbers before the title for some reason, like when I ripped my 13 hours of classic monster movies and they were numbered), and it usually doesn't care about extra stuff like encoding info and whatnot. Hardly need to manually match anything when it gets added, and never need to manually match shows. Handfull of stuff if I rebuild the server from scratch, but those files mostly don’t have metadata to begin with (some youtube rips, some documentaries that probably came out of a series, that sort of thing). It just seems to be a lot more forgiving, I guess.

I’m just not super interested at the moment in going through my entire library, which would take half of forever, to rename everything to make it work properly. Especially when I already did/do that for plex’s requirements, and it works fine. I assumed when I set jellyfin up it would pull the same, but it doesn’t, in my experience.

I meant in the use case of ripping my entire Blu Ray library for a new Jellyfin install, the only thing that's been difficult for me to match has been the special features. So I guess the friction you're running into is that you've already got these files named for Plex, and the migration is the hard part?

Sort of, I guess? It probably would be very different if I’d been naming them in a way that works for jelly from the start, but it’s just a massive undertaking at this point to… retrofit, for lack of a better term coming to mind.

I was under the impression they used the same agent for metadata, but they must not, or there must be some changes in how Plex handles stuff.

Gotcha. I hear you can run a utility outside of Plex to do the conversion, but I do have the luxury in this case of starting from scratch, myself.

Good to know, I’ll have to look into that. I’d like my jelly set up for the very few highly technical people I know who can manage their own connections (I got my limited technical skills somewhere!!), as well as my own home use, so thats helpful. Also to have a backup option for the person I care enough about to manage a VPN for (literally one person, but I also want them to have access to my calibre database as well as share folders for GOG games, and they are with it enough to learn what I teach them for maintaining the connection)

Im not sure exactly when I became a data hoarder, but I certainly am now, and more tools are good. Thanks for that info :)

Just let Sonarr/Radarr do the renaming automatically.

I use both, I have had my plex running since the lifetime pass could be had for 40 bucks on sale.

I still use plex because it Just Works™️ for my family members. But, the day when they suddenly unprompted blasted all family (and me) with emails about what everyone else watched this week, I decided I would never use it again myself. I also told my family that the next time that stupid ass plex database gets corrupted, I'm not restoring it and they'll have to join me on jellyfin.

I started using Jellyfin for myself, and I absolutely love it. And settings up my own preferences for transcoding, and things like that giving me full control is fantastic. But jellyfin has issues for multi users imo, sure I can manually make accounts for people and all that. But just the idea of having to input a url for the server in an app is already way past the convenience threshold for a lot.

Also most of the exposed jellyfin endpoints are entirely unprotected, and there's no native MFA.

Sucks to add users to, users can't reset their own password, and apparently security is so bad that exposing it to the internet is basically just giving hackers the front door key.

TL;DR... Lowest common denominator stops people setting up tailscale or the like, along with sunken cost fallacy.

Can it import my Plex settings, categorized titles, and watched lists for all my users? And whatever other things I’m not thinking of…

It’s on my radar, but I have a lot of data, custom images, etc. it would need to be 1:1

Watchstate can for sure by synced with JellyPlex-Watched. PlexyFin will sync over artwork & collections as well.

Good to know. Thanks. I’m definitely looking for alternatives these days. Even though I’m self hosting Plex, I don’t trust it can work without their cloud and they will probably cut it off or limit it at some point.

It's possible, but a project.
This is a good set of instructions on how to do it.

Nice guide!

I use both still, Jellyfins UI can be a bit janky sometimes and it does not sync viewing progress of the same episode or movie across UHD and HD content, which Plex does.

Overall I think Jellyfin is better though.

I definitely have noticed that it is important to install metadata plugins like imdb, as well as fanart, in order to feel closer to Plex. Users like seeing Rotten Tomato and IMBD scores, in addition to cast info and such.

Why? They should just be there to start.

I had a real problem with the media scanner - turns out it was just very slow. :(

if you install it and do not add plugins or mods or download them manually or with another tool, there is no way to pull subtitles.

You also need to sideload the app because it's not available in app stores.

That's the blockers for me... though the plugin for subtitles that now exists I have yet to try, and it may make it doable.

Which app stores (plural?) does not have jellyfin apps?

PS5, Fire TV Cube, Samsung TVs are what i'd use it on. Those app stores.

I know android/ios has it nowadays, but manufacturers generally don't want to offer apps that do not drive referrals or some kind of revenue sharing with competing services.

These should help.

I can find github links to 3rd party clients dude to sideload. I know all about it.

What I don't want to do is support my extended friends and family who can figure out how to log into a plex tv app. I do enough tech support for money to not want to do it for free.

The amazon appstore one has limited support and it really depends on the device... and often many aspects do not work as expected, like you can't just play dolby vision files without forcing it to transcode on some hardware. I understand some of this is hardware limitations of various fire tv hardware, but again, don't want to figure that shit out.

Plus I would need to walk people through entering the network information, there's no web portal that will let people in just by logging into a single plain as day website last I checked. Sure, I could pay for a no-ip sub or something or actually start paying for a domain but all of this stuff is even more work, when my existing setup just works and has none of these problems and has yet to intrude on usability for what I already have. When it gets worse i'll obviously switch.

I have Bazarr as part of my ARR stack that pulls in subtitles for me so they show up no matter what I'm using to access the library, works like a champ!

I've wanted to setup much of the arr stack for a while, but even though I have a proxmox cluster and have a degree in computer networking (and do it for a living, firewall swap next saturday...) I really don't want to go home and keep doing more of it.

Eventually i'll do it, when the pros outweigh the cons. It's awesome that all of this stuff exists, but it's a tough pill to swap from a totally hands off setup to something I need to keep an eye out for all the potential CVEs and updates.

Sideload in which appstore? Jellyfin requires adding functionality through plugins, instead of pre-bundling. Definitely something where more documentation and guidance would go a long way in helping us feel more confident in both using, and switching, to it.

They should just be included.

Jellyfin has a builtin subtitle search and download tool I'm pretty sure. I know I've done it right from jellyfin, and I don't think I've installed any plugin for that...

oh, you didn't have to create an opensubtitles account and set it up on your server with the plugin? Someone told me about this like a day ago. Kinda weird this would even exist if there is robust subtitle support natively now. https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/plugins/open-subtitles/

A year ago I was unable to source subtitles unless I provided them.

My wife is an immigrant and some of her family doesn't speak any English really, so subtitle support is of utmost importance for our household. Not just English subtitles either.

For kicks yesterday I installed jellyfin on a proxmox host with this script: https://community-scripts.org/categories?category=media-and-streaming&preview=jellyfin

There's definitely no subtitle sourcing by default. You can select from whatever subtitles are embedded or might be in the folder of the thing, but that's it.

It's rough how many things are missing though. There's no way to adjust subtitle offset. I can't find the file name or path of a media file in the app on my fire cube. Multiple versions of files show up as duplicates (I have 480p, 1080p, and 4k copies of some media. I would expect it to give me a selection when I go to open said media between the versions, but instead it shows the same media multiple times.)

Don't get me wrong, for the price it can't be beat. I wouldn't advise anybody to go with plex today given their trend and sudden price increase for lifetime (limited time offer? lifetime must be ending soon! Hellgate London anyone?)

I use JF for movies/shows. I feel where JF falls short is music, and sadly for now, without a paid solution which I don’t feel like playing since I bought lifetime pass a decade ago plexamp just does it better. Will it always be like this? God, hope not. The writing is on the wall and the quicker we are off Plex the better.

Tried Jellyfin. It puked when it saw my library.

I bought plex lifetime years ago when it was like 125.

I still hate the new plex app ui on roku. It's clunky and sucks. The alternative is to break my library in sections and hope something else will maybe work.

I have tried it but having Plex handle the out-of-home routing for me securely is a great feature Jellyfin doesn’t have but doesn’t for obvious reasons and I justify that as why I pay Plex. I have thoughts and better knowledge now about how to properly implement it, but I’m not sure I want to rebuild my current setup that just works with very minimal upkeep.

That and I am on someone else’s Plex server who updates it much more than I do. Mine just supplements theirs with stuff they don’t have and one-offs I’ve wanted and found. I’d still be using Plex even if I did rebuild with Jellyfin today.

But if these price increases keep coming, I may make the switch. It’s tempting to shell out the money for the lifetime membership, but I don’t have faith in companies, including Plex, to keep up their end of the deal on these things.

As said in literally every thread here that ever mentions anything about Plex or jellyfin, biggest is remote library sharing.

No, I will not walk my in-laws through setting up a vpn gateway so their TV will connect to me

No, despite my extensive homelab setup, I am not going to set up a reverse proxy and go through the SSL/TLS cert bullshit and expose especially considering the security limitations the devs say likely will not be fixed

There's others, but those are the main ones for a bunch of us

I don't know if it's improved, but I was only put off by the memory footprint on windows. Plex was running more efficiently and does look more polished. This was also impart as I now use Channels for my live TV purposes as nothing else really comes close.

It's still installed and ready to go if I need to make the switch but I don't really have a big enough reason to do it. Too many other things to tinker with.

Reading this thread, it seems like two different groups of people are having two different conversations.

For me, self-hosting is just that, running my own stuff at home for myself (and my immediate family). My motivation is privacy and freedom. I want to use services that are free of commercial incentives against my interests whenever possible. That usually means self-hosting my services.

I've been a system and network engineer for most of my career and I like configuring and managing stuff. I like knowing how everything on my home network runs, where and what data is shared, etc.

As soon as people start talking about "my users need ..." I'm out. That sounds too much like what I do at work. I want to relax when I'm at home. Jellyfin is perfect for me to do that with my content without needing any of my data to go to any companies.

For everyone who wants to be an IPTV operator, Plex is the best choice right now. Jellyfin isn't really focused on that use case.

I have a lifetime pass and multiple TVs used by multiple people obver 10k km away from me that are not tech literate.

I run jellyfin now after the whole plex pass incident (in not going to pay to host my own pirated content, and that's just that)

But honestly plex has a better ui and featureset.

That said jellyfin has been perfectly serviceable for me. The app is good. I can select stuff. Play it. My wife can work it just fine.

I have both. My main gripe with Jellyfin is the the Google TV app. It doesn't seem to have an easily accessible skip 30 or jump to next chapter option. If that was improved, I might be ready to ditch Plex.

I'm aware of the intro skipper plugin. Also set my default skip under Profile / Skip forward length / 30 seconds

Also, it seems Chapter Segments Provider was recently introduced as a plugin, which you'll need to install to "Create media segments based on chapters."

See this docs section and plugin repo Hmm... not much info.

Plex doesn't charge to just stream locally so I haven't bothered switching or looking into switching yet.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
Git	Popular version control system, primarily for code
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the Web
HTTPS	HTTP over SSL
IP	Internet Protocol
ISP	Internet Service Provider
LXC	Linux Containers
NAS	Network-Attached Storage
NAT	Network Address Translation
NUC	Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
Plex	Brand of media server package
SSH	Secure Shell for remote terminal access
SSL	Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption
TLS	Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL
VPN	Virtual Private Network
VPS	Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

[Thread #307 for this comm, first seen 22nd May 2026, 16:20] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

To add on to the top post: with Plex you only need 1 account and can exchange access to multiple servers. I can browse all the media my account has access to with ease.

Jellyfin needs an account per server. If the client multiplexed between them seamlessly, that would probably be fine enough. But it would be nice if they supported some method of federation.

And Jellyfin has a list of CVEs that they haven't addressed in years, which makes not want to make it visible outside my network.

I want to ditch Plex, but this is the primary sticking point for me. No criticism to the Jellyfin devs btw, they're doing the lord's work, I have nothing but respect for them.

Another minor one is that the Plex app works with a controller on my bazzite HTPC, but the Jellyfin one was hit or miss. I could get it to work once, and then the next day the controller would do nothing and the UI would be acting weird. I will go back and try it periodically to see if it's ready, but last time I checked it wasn't.

Ive been using Plex for a few years. No pass. Desktop all the media is on, tv with a Chromecast. Android and iOS phones, both with Plex apps where I cast to the tv from.

The old app worked fine.

The new Plex app has issues with this. Some titles just won't cast, you press play and it goes back to menu. I have to go to the desktop and cast from the Plex server page to the same tv and it works.

It's frustrating.

yeah the new plex app sucks, live tv only sometimes works on it and won't cast. I side loaded the most recent version of the old app (10.26) and set it to not auto update.

I just want Findroid to support transcoding. I hate that the official app is very obviously just a webview - I mean if I couldn't tell then I wouldn't care, but it doesn't feel very native and behaves slightly glitchy when navigating around. Sometimes instead of scrolling, the webview does the little "stretch bounce" overscroll thing. I wish they could get an experienced android dev to make a polished native-feeling app.

I honestly feel like 99% of my aesthetic issues with jellyfin would be solved by having the Overseer devs do a redesign. Overseer looks amazing and I tried to make a jellyfin theme to copy it and Plex, but found that not enough elemts had classes for me to select with CSS so I gave up. Jellyfin vue looks pretty good but suffers the same problem as third party apps - being under heavy development with lots of missing features (last I checked I couldn't get subtitle selection to work)

Here's a bonus one: why does the Plex search results look so much better??

I've still got my Plex up, I only use it for Plexamp though, and my brother watches stuff on it (lifetime pass since forever). I quit watching stuff on it because in order to log in you have to hit Plex's servers (even when logging in directly to the self hosted server); that doesn't work for me because we block them at work. If they would let me use my own IdP, I'd probably stay. At least with Jellyfin I can authenticate how I want.

Last time I tried, there was no prebuilt client for Jellyfin on my Samsung TV. I had to put the TV in dev mode, cross compile and install their experimental code, and it honestly wasn’t that good a client.

I don’t use the paid features of Plex so I’m just holding my nose and keeping it until the alternatives become viable.

I tried to switch, about a year ago. Playback stuttered and or completely failed more often than not, on content which worked fine as-is in Plex.

I just have no reason to migrate to Jellyfin (or indeed anything else). I already have a lifetime PlexPass. Plex does everything I need, and it does it very well. As a music server in particular, it's superb and the Plexamp client is a joy.

Te kodi integration has nothing on plex4kodi. If they worked the same I'd switch in a heart beat. Jellyfin and Plex both have terrible interfaces and can't play media nearly as well as Kodi hence the requirement.

I really like Jellyfin and it “just worked” for a few years.

Recently it’s stopped working. My dashboard can see movies but it fails to play. Have a feeling it’s a file access issue but I can’t be fucked to troubleshoot permissions so I’ll probably just start over.

Jellyfin crashes when living next to Plex in Docker, something about grabbing the same transcoder or something - I forget I’m pretty removed now.

But if I can’t run in parallel, I can’t eventually make the switch, since I can’t get started. And it’s not a great time to pick up a second box just for testing.

I know telling you that "You should have done this" isn't helpful today, but super recommend Proxmox in the future. I have had containers running Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby all on the same physical host by utilizing LXCs. Migration could be rough, but overall it's not as complicated as it sounds.

Proxmox sounds like VMs, which is a hard no for me since that’s why I went to Docker in the first place, to get away from the overhead of VMs. Am I misunderstanding?

Not misunderstanding, just not the full picture. Proxmox can do VMs, but LXCs are different thing.

LXCs are a 'container' and have some requirements that might be frustrating sporadically, but they are much lighter. They'll present like you'd expect from a VM (Their own operating system/shell/etc) but resources are mostly shared across LXCs on a host. Overhead isn't gone, but drastically reduced. Personal experience obviously, but it's never been something I've had to seriously consider on an LXC.

@BarbecueCowboy @lIlIlIlIlIlIl VMs are not great to use on non-server hardware anyways - there are a few things on my network which would be more convenient as a VM, but I use docker.

I have a lifetime pass from many years ago when it was cheap. So I'm not in a huge rush to convert and want to do it right. But I am on the path to converting. I decided to make a major change to my home server infrastructure and it's still in an experimental stage. Moving from a really old standalone computer I've used for. HTPC purposes over the years, currently dedicated to Plex combined with a few raspberry pi's of various generations for the little stuff, and a single, good NUC for my router, to adding two additional NUCs and eventually upgrading the Plex computer with a more modern processor and video card for ML stuff for Immich and a few other systems that I plan to start using. I'm not just moving from Plex, but also a lot of Google and Nest products.

My dilemma has been Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes. I was trying to set up Kubernetes in a way that is easily repeatable and self documenting, but ended up with lots of manual steps required to install things and lots of things that I had to write my own helm charts for as well as the scripts to install and set up Kubernetes itself on each of the servers. Lots of custom stuff. Docker Swarm would be way easier, but the issue is I'm worried about Docker getting so proprietary these days and swarm mode getting so little attention, and Podman quadlets aren't self balancing across multiple small servers like swarm. So that's why I haven't switched to Jellyfin yet.

I wanted the same thing with Kubernetes and ended up using FluxCD. Highly recommend it. It basically syncs a git repo to the cluster, so you just push to github or whatever, and it auto applies the changes you pushed. Also, llm models tend to be good at teaching this topic and even writing yaml files for it, so the initial learning curve was not bad actually.

Now I'm exploring doing this even better with this template: https://github.com/onedr0p/cluster-template

Well now I can sell my account for 500

no I have not tried it.

the jellyfin community is toxic af from my personal interactions. they're always far more concerned with trying to one-up Plex users or just attempting to be always "right".

not every member is this way, but the loudest among the community certainly makes me think the opposite.

I don't plan on using jellyfin until it's my last option.

Just passing by from all, not much of a self-hoster myself, but I do have Plex running in my home. I just never really do much with it these days...it runs, I log into it and access my media. I'm not sharing with other people. I'm not using the other streaming services it tried to show me, etc. It works for now and I'm not invested enough to put in the work to switch to something else.

I will say/ask this though, I have a ton of music (video is secondary for me). I use plexamp on my phone all the time as my primary source of music. Does jellyfin do well with music + mobile pretty well out of the box?

I don't have PlexPass btw

I only use my library with jellyfin and only locally. I left plex a few years ago. What I really want to set up next is a UI that uses a simple remote control and ditch the Roku interface so I can be seamlessly offline.

Like https://kodi.tv/?

I use KODI + FLIRC + a universal remote. It's great for me.

You can setup whatever remote control you like, but honestly you might want lots of buttons for all the options in Kodi.

JellyFin resource usage is absolutely horrendous and my NAS is a potato. I basically cannot run it at all.

Kodi yo... Although my YouTube addon stopped working recently. aggg...

I tried Jellyfin and had some issues with it. I tried out Emby and everything was smooth sailing. Paid for premium and been using it ever since.

It’s a bit better supported on TVs than Jellyfin.

Never actually used or paid for plex

After 22 hours and 291 comments, I can see that 80% is sunk cost, 15% never bothered to look at their Jellyfin client's settings, and the rest use a device that doesn't have a client for Jellyfin yet.

I've actually switched, so I'm not really who you are asking, but the last hurdle was I really don't like how it filters the movie list when you pick a letter instead of jumping to that place in the list. Anyone know how to make it work like Plex?

That's a per client behavior. Wholphin for Android, for example, does it the Plex way.

Last time I tried it, it wanted my media in a specific file structure, so I ended up having multiple instances of the same show. I could reorder everything but I got a plexpass when it was dirt cheap so I'm not that inclined to reorder everything.

If I was just starting out, I'd probably use Jellyfin but haven't mostly due to inertia.

I don't pay for plex so I don't really care, at this point in time.

I got Jellyfin working on my network and found that it didn't have a nice UI, it didn't match shows to their IMDb titles consistently, it showed duplicates, and I wasn't able to access things remotely as easily as Plex.

Jellyfin is miles better and Plex fucking spies on you