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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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Years ago I decided to go with Emby over Plex only because at the time plex didnt support kodi integration and I enjoyed using that at the time for my front-end user experience. Within 6 months they started supporting it and I was upset since I did want to go with plex. Lately I feel like I made the perfect decision. It's gotta be close to 10 years now and I paid one $100 lifetime fee for Emby and still use it everyday along with some family and friends I gave access to. Also gotta remember I dont believe jellyfin was even an option at that time. I tried it not to long ago and although it was fine, I actually think I liked emby a little more.
As for the remote access, how do they block it? Do they not allow you to setup your own remote connection that does not involve plex? Thats how I do it, I do not use emby connect to make it easier to go through them I just setup my own domain, use ddns, and configure the ports I want exposed and thats it. If plex doesnt allow that then thats already crazy, if they do and even thats now blocked then thats even crazier.
Emby may be simpler, and i heard about plex having a music AI feature that I was actually jealous of, but overall it just works and not paying anything in forever will always be my preferred method over awful monthly subscriptions anyday.
Plex centralizes authentication at plex.tv
When a user wants to connect to a 'private' plex server, they must first sign into their plex.tv account, which then provides the auth token needed to login to the users server (even if both the client and server are on the same lan)
With this system, Plex can monitor and control every single connection to every plex server; limiting access to whatever they want. Even your own local content.
Dam thats what I thought. Emby has something similar but doesnt force you to use it so I don't.
Emby has what they call 'Emby Connect' which is entirely optional and is basically a glorified DNS service.
It doesn't proxy connections, it just passes on the hostname to the client. The server is still required to setup port forwarding or other routing like tailscale or a proxy on a vps.
Emby Connect will let you sign into your local server using your emby.media credentials, but unlike Plex it's completely optional and only works once explicitly linked to the local user of an Emby server.