After 14 years with Plex, I finally moved my video library to Jellyfin. Why rising costs, feature restrictions and digital ownership pushed me towards FOSS.
There is a third option, the program that Jellyfin was originally forked from back in 2018, Emby.
Sort of the middle child between the two. Nearly identically to Jellyfin for obvious reasons, several third party apps for Jellyfin work with it as well like Jellyseer, it has apps for nearly every device, and easy external connections via their servers like Plex does.
They do however have a premium subscription system like Plex to support things like those servers. It’s not as expensive as Plex, even before the recent rate hike, but it is there and some stuff is locked behind that premium license.
I can’t recommend emby because their business practices are pretty scummy. After accepting open source contributions for years, they went closed-source in 2018 and took all those contributions with them (they had a CLA). The very next update, they added hardware acceleration and locked it behind a paywall. They had a pretty big ‘security incident’ a few years ago, which probably would have been averted if they were still open source, as users in the community flagged it as an issue long before the devs took action.
So all the bad things of both, still a proprietary product that you can funnel your cotent through servers you don’t control while simultaneously not being plex.
I only personally have experience with jellyfin, but the docs of Emby look to support the same remote access as Plex (without the TURN server).
So essentially you can use a login instead of a server IP, but it does require port forwarding or upnp on your router - which you may already have enabled.
Plenty of frothing about how jellyfin is a non starter because all 47 of my grandparents can’t stream Snakes On A Plane from my server without needing to know how to spell internet.
Like I’m all for choices you know. But I want people to make informed choices. If I’d tried to pitch Jellyfin to my group of gamer friends for sharing media then it would have gone nowhere because it requires more technical knowledge than they possess or that I want to support. They were all able to set up free, relatively secure Plex instances with essentially no assistance.
At this point if I were to switch from Plex I would go with Emby just because a bunch of sweaty nerds don’t simp over it every time Plex comes up in the news.
There is a third option, the program that Jellyfin was originally forked from back in 2018, Emby.
Sort of the middle child between the two. Nearly identically to Jellyfin for obvious reasons, several third party apps for Jellyfin work with it as well like Jellyseer, it has apps for nearly every device, and easy external connections via their servers like Plex does.
They do however have a premium subscription system like Plex to support things like those servers. It’s not as expensive as Plex, even before the recent rate hike, but it is there and some stuff is locked behind that premium license.
I can’t recommend emby because their business practices are pretty scummy. After accepting open source contributions for years, they went closed-source in 2018 and took all those contributions with them (they had a CLA). The very next update, they added hardware acceleration and locked it behind a paywall. They had a pretty big ‘security incident’ a few years ago, which probably would have been averted if they were still open source, as users in the community flagged it as an issue long before the devs took action.
So all the bad things of both, still a proprietary product that you can funnel your cotent through servers you don’t control while simultaneously not being plex.
But also benefits of both, reduced cost with easier remote setup, while simultaneously not being plex
Wait, does emby do remote access similar to Plex? And without VPN like JF? That’s literally the only thing keeping me on Plex.
I only personally have experience with jellyfin, but the docs of Emby look to support the same remote access as Plex (without the TURN server).
So essentially you can use a login instead of a server IP, but it does require port forwarding or upnp on your router - which you may already have enabled.
Also you dont have to be lumped in with the frothing at the mouth Jellyfin users.
Beats frothing for a company, if I gotta froth
It’s only frothing if you insist that installing tailscale on your grandma’s DSL modem is the best way to share home movies
Plenty of frothing about how jellyfin is a non starter because all 47 of my grandparents can’t stream Snakes On A Plane from my server without needing to know how to spell internet.
Like I’m all for choices you know. But I want people to make informed choices. If I’d tried to pitch Jellyfin to my group of gamer friends for sharing media then it would have gone nowhere because it requires more technical knowledge than they possess or that I want to support. They were all able to set up free, relatively secure Plex instances with essentially no assistance.
Funny enough I’m in the “open it to the wan just practise basic web access hygiene” camp, I hope that makes me at least a little frothy
not a frothyboi sorry. unless you’re encouraging other people to just open it to the internet with no security in place… that’d be a bit frothy.
At this point if I were to switch from Plex I would go with Emby just because a bunch of sweaty nerds don’t simp over it every time Plex comes up in the news.
Look at me guys, I’m contrarian! Look! Look!
Ironically, this kind of response is exactly what I’m talking about.