this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2026
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467
Why I moved my Plex library to Jellyfin after 14 years (the.unknown-universe.co.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by TheIPW@lemmy.ml to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 37 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Agree. I went directly with Jellyfin because I joined late the party, but never regret it.

So can't comment on Plex, because I never used it. But I see the news and see the enshittified path it's going on with Plex

I understand that they need revenue, specially if they actually provide the bandwidth to let you access your media from outside home. I also understand why people is mad, but I guess convenience come with a price, of you don't want to pay for it, there are alternatives I don't see anything bad in switching to jellyfin.

[–] Eldritch@piefed.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They don't provide much in terms of bandwidth for you to access your own media. Just a few bytes through their web services. Their bandwidth usage comes from their desire to be their own streaming service. They provide access to a whole bunch of other media you may have no interest in.

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[–] damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (17 children)

I agree that the rest of plex is undergoing enshittification. But the core features are kinda the same? I use it outside my home a LOT, so I don’t know how jellyfin would work for that. I know Cloudflare tunnel has a bad relationship with streaming video. Does Tailscale too? How do you access jelly outside your home?

[–] lokalhorst@feddit.org 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I use Tailscale and it is absolutely fine. The problem is with other non tech savy people - the setup process is not straightforward so you need to help them a bit. They can't just "connect". But after that, Tailscale is great.

[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 13 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Controversial opinion and I say that as someone who started with Jellyfin and keeps that local Wifi only, so I admit a certain bias: going with Tailscale and Jellyfin over using Plex isn't much better. Instead of enabling remote access via one company that wants to make money, you go via another company that wants to make money. How long is the free tier of Tailscale going to work out? How much do you trust them with your traffic? But I know it is a popular setup, so I am aware saying that here will not earn me any points.

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why let perfect be the enemy of good?

"tailscale might enshittify in the future" is honestly a poor argument against "plex is enshittified right now"

[–] AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Why let perfect be the enemy of good?

You must be new here (Lemmy).

[–] lokalhorst@feddit.org 12 points 1 day ago

Nah man, this is self hosted, your points are valid and should be discussed. It is true that tailscale may enshittify, however it is only one out of many solutions. Like the other comment said there is head scale, and in the end you still have the possibility to go the way of a reverse proxy server and pipe Jellyfin through the open internet, which will be hard for many in the sense of configuration and hardening. But the underlying software which is Jellyfin is FOSS, that is the most important aspect.

[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

If you don't trust Tailscale there's like 3 different FOSS self-hosted alternatives. Setting one up is actually not that much more complex than setting a reverse proxy and you control the tunnelling network end to end.

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[–] magnue@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I tailscale in to my jellyfin. No probs.

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[–] TheIPW@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I have a dedicated VPS with reverse proxy connected to my network via Wireguard. It acts as the front door to my network so I don't have to port forward or rely on Cloudflare etc. I used to use Tailscale as the go between but switched to WG recently. Both work fine for streaming content whilst self-hosting all other services including my website.

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[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I am hoping that jellyfin gets better over the next few years. I keep trying it and it keeps feeling broken to me. Lots of people have the same experience it seems but then there's also always a few people that act like I'm crazy. Nah, it's still not there, unless things have changed a lot in the past year.

[–] localghost@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What about it feels broken? I've been running Plex and Jellyfin together for a long time and always find myself using Jellyfin. I'm curious what problems people run into to see if I have the same problem or maybe I'm just overlooking something.

[–] FundMECFS@piefed.zip 4 points 1 day ago

Same. Have run both for a while. Find the jellyfin customisation preferable to plex.

[–] MinFapper@startrek.website 10 points 1 day ago (8 children)

If you mean limitations in the client, I discovered that there's a Jellyfin for Kodi plugin.

Kodi has had decades of development. It's super customizable, has every feature you can think of, direct plays every video format, and is fast.

Having it act as a Jellyfin client has been amazing and given me the best of both worlds.

[–] addie@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I had Kodi installed for a few weeks as my television media front-end, but it has:

  • the worst UX that you could possibly imagine, with menu after menu arranged seemingly at random, and buttons doing different things at every level
  • functionality delivered via plugins, at least half of which do not work
  • directory scans failing seemingly at random, with the errors hidden away in log files that you have to shell in to retrieve
  • terrible documentation, inevitably consisting of forum pages about how it used to work a decade ago

It may well have a huge amount of functionality, but configuring and using it is the exact opposite of slick. Have uninstalled in favour of KDE with VLC installed, and manipulated via the KDE Connect mobile app, which is somehow a much better big-screen experience.

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[–] Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’ve already had a Plex pass for ages, so I’ve just been running both concurrently.

Plex is a lot more accessible for my friends and family that are less tech inclined.

[–] xylol@leminal.space 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah thats the main problem for me, Ive run both Jellyfin and Plex in the past when plex used to charge users to watch on mobile. but Jellyfin Id always have to help create their account, show them how to add my domain and stuff, only for them to need help again a month down the line when they want to use it.

Now that plex got rid of that whole mobile charge stuff if the server owner has a plex pass it made it much simpler.

it is still annoying when adding a new user showing them how to disable all the ad supported stuff but usually its a one time thing, after that if they forget their password or whatever its between them and plex. plus plex is much simpler as far as I know when your users also start to run servers, they just invite you back and you have access to everything on one account

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago

To think that right about a year ago I was jumping into the deep hole of selfhosting and was thinking to get Plex perpetual license. Happy I didn't.

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