Summary
Are you trying to decide between Plex and Jellyfin for your media server? The two server platforms have a lot of similarities (and a lot of differences), so it can be hard to make the right choice.
The biggest thing to know between the two is that Plex charges for a lot of features that Jellyfin offers for free. But what Jellyfin offers for free often requires more time (or third-party apps) to set up properly. So, which one is right for you? Only you can be the judge of that. Here’s how Plex and Jellyfin compare.
Plex Isn’t Open Source, but Jellyfin Is
When it comes toself-hosted servers, open source is the standard, most of the time. Jellyfin conforms to this standard. You’ll findall of Jellyfin’s code on GitHubavailable for you to browse, modify, and even send pull requests back to the main repository. That’s the benefit of open source—if you’re a programmer, find a bug, and fix it, you may help others out by pushing that fix to the main repo.
Plex is closed source. You can’t see the code, and it’s not available for you to modify. WhilePlex does have a GitHub repo, you won’t find the actual source for Plex Media Server on there. Instead, it’s full of code for the Plex Docker image and other functionality.
Both Are Easy to Install
On the installation side of things, Plex and Jellyfin are equally easy to install. Both media servers offer installers for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Docker depending on what operating system you’re running, and following along is a piece of cake.
Jellyfin Offers Free Hardware Transcoding
Both Plex and Jellyfin offer hardware (graphics card-based) transcoding options, but onlyJellyfin offers this functionality for free.
A core part of media streaming servers is transcoding, which is when your server is essentially converting content from one format to another, on-the-fly. Both Plex and Jellyfin will do this process on the CPU itself, natively and free.
However, hardware transcoding, where the server is utilizing additional hardware such as a graphics cards or integrated graphics, is another matter. Jellyfin offers this functionality as part of its core, meaning it works out-of-the-box.
Plex, on the other hand, locks hardware transcoding behind itspaid Plex Pass tier, meaning it’s not free to use, but instead costs $7 per month, $70 per year, or $250 for life.
Plex Pass does come with a lot of other benefits though, so the subscription could be worth it for some.
Plex Offers Native Offline Playback with Plex Pass
Speaking of Plex Pass, having a subscription also enables native offline playback through the Plex apps (it’s actually required now), giving you access to your downloaded content wherever you are, making it a native experience to watch media whether you’re online or offline. Watching media on your local network is still free, but remote access now requires a paid subscription.
Does Jellyfin also offer offline playback? Yes, but it isn’t quite so seamless. Its official mobile apps do not offer offline playback or downloading. Somethird-party apps like Infuse 8give this functionality though, and can work with both Jellyfin and Plex.
Plex Pass
A Plex Pass subscription takes your media server to the next level, with remote streaming, hardware transcoding, offline downloads, and more.
From a desktop or laptop, you can download media through the Jellyfin web interface—but this is purely downloading the movie file itself, not downloading the content to watch through the Jellyfin app. Honestly, that’s not the worst thing though. You can use software like VLC media player to play back the downloaded files.
At the end of the day, though, Jellyfin just doesn’t handle offline playback as seamlessly as Plex does.
Plex and Jellyfin Both Support Live TV
While live TV is becoming less and less important as streaming continues to dominate, both Plex and Jellyfin support live TV, and they can both record it as you can with a DVR.
Jellyfin does this natively and for free, so long as you havea compatible TV tunerin your computer. Jellyfin doesn’t really have any limitations on TV tuners so long as the server software can read the information from it.
In contrast, Plex is a bit more limited. You need to have a Plex-verified TV tuner and a Plex Pass subscription. Yes, you’ll need the paid version of Plex toenjoy Live TV through Plex.
Plex’s Mobile Apps Have Limitations, but Are Easier to Use
Like many of the features here, Plex’s mobile apps require a Plex Pass now. This wasa controversial move with its redesign last March, but the change seems to be here to stay. To use Plex remotely, either you (as a remote user) or the server owner (you or someone else) has to have Plex Pass.
Once you have that sorted, though, Plex’s apps work extremely well and are super easy to use. A single login to your Plex account will show you all servers you have access to, and, since a Plex Pass is now required, you’ll be able to download media for offline viewing, too.
Plex also syncs your playback position between TV, computer, phone, and tablet. This means you can start a movie on your TV and continue where you left off on your phone, stop somewhere else and pick back up on your computer. It’s extremely nice. Also, Plex doesn’t require you to handle any form of dynamic DNS or reverse proxy like Jellyfin does.
For Jellyfin’s mobile app to work, you either need to enter your home’s IP address (which could dynamically change over time) or set up DDNS with a reverse proxy to connect. This is fine (and some might feel it’s even more secure), but it’s definitely more of a hassle than the way Plex works, especially if you’re not technically inclined.
Additionally, as mentioned above, Jellyfin doesn’t offer proper offline downloading or playback in its mobile apps. Overall, the mobile app experience is simply more complicated than Plex, though Jellyfin’s apps are completely free.
Jellyfin
Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that putsyouin control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.
Setting Up Remote Access Is a Pain with Jellyfin
I already touched on this, but I wanted to dive a bit more into setting up remote access for Plex and Jellyfin.
To reiterate, setting up Plex remote access can be completely hands-free. While it isn’t free (you need Plex Pass, remember?), you can be up and running in a matter of minutes, even without a lot of technical networking experience.
On the other hand, while Jellyfin allows remote access for no charge, what you gain in a feature being free, you pay for on the setup side.
Remote access to Jellyfin can be complicated. For starters, for a reliable experience you’ll want to considerbuying a domain, getting areverse proxy manager, and having a dynamicDNS set up on your network. That alone might be enough to scare you off, if you don’t already have all of that deployed on your network.
Basically, there’s just no native remote access protocol for Jellyfin. Since it’s all 100% self-hosted on your own server, there’s no remote component to it. If you want to access it outside your network, then it’s on you to set it up. Some people will simply open the ports on their router and access it via their home network’s public IP, and others will set up the full stack I already mentioned.
All that is to say, Plex remote access is fairly trivial and simple to set up, while Jellyfin requires more programming and networking know-how. If you know how to handle the networking side of things, Jellyfin’s is definitely more secure and stays on your network without touching anything else, while Plex traffic does route through Plex’s servers. The choice is yours.
Jellyfin Ditches Recommendations While Plex Relies on Them
Plex has become recommendation-heavy, especially with the introduction of Plex channels and other Plex-hosted content. Plex wants you to watch their content and give them ad money, after all. So, Plex does everything it can to keep you in its app as long as possible.
Jellyfin doesn’t really do recommendations quite the same. There are still recommendations, but it’s all done locally without processing on external servers. This makes recommendations less relevant (sometimes) and also less intrusive.
Personally, I prefer Jellyfin’s recommendations over Plex’s here. It’s less in-your-face and simply lets you browse for the content that you want to watch, not what your serverthinksyou want to watch.
Plex Simply Works on More Devices
If I had to pick out Jellyfin’s biggest limitation, it would have to be device compatibility. Jellyfin works on just about all modern web browsers, but the app support is quite limited.
Third-party apps are required to watch Jellyfin on Apple TV, for instance. If you want to watch Jellyfin on Xbox, the official app was unmaintained for more than five years andjust recently got updateda few months ago. Have a PlayStation? There’s no good way to watch Jellyfin outside the web browser.
On top of that, Jellyfin’s app support is very limited and hit-or-miss depending on what platform you’re on.
At the same time, Plex is supported on just about every platform natively, including PlayStation and Xbox consoles; Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, and Fire TV streaming devices; smart TVs, mobile devices, and computer OSes. A full list of Plex-supported devicescan be found on Plex’s website.
Plex’s subscription- and ad-based model means they can afford a dedicated team of developers to build apps for more platforms, while Jellyfin relies on the community to pick up the slack.
Overall, I prefer Plex to Jellyfin, and I think it’s a better choice for most users for its ease of installation, setup, and support for a broader range of devices and platforms. To get the most out of it, though, you’ll need to pay, which is where I think, if you have the know-how and tenacity, Jellyfin might be better for you. With that being said, for the power user like me, I actually suggest running both Plex and Jellyfin concurrently in many instances. It’s the best of both worlds!
Plex
With Plex, you can keep a single, unified Watchlist for any movie or TV show you hear about, on any service—even theater releases! You can finally stop hopping between watchlists on all your other streaming services, and add it all on Plex instead.
