this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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231
Plex’s price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 6 hours ago by KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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[–] KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org 13 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

My opinion: Plex has made it clear that they want your money. They don't want you to host your own media and be happy with that. They want you to pay a subscription.

The whole Plex Pass Lifetime subscription is kind of a trap. You might be getting away with paying once currently, but let's be honest: That means that they have taken your money once. And a some time in the future, a MBA dude will notice that they have a lot of non-paying heavy users (meaning: users who have paid several years ago, which is not relevant for the revenue goals of the current quarter) - and they will try to get you to pay again and again. You might be okay with that, but if you don't want to get hassled, you need to switch to something else.

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 hour ago (4 children)

I don't understand this argument.

I paid once many years ago. I've never been asked to pay again. Why would I switch before they make a change?

In the meantime, jellyfin is getting better and better. Plex will probably be dead to me at some point, and when that happens, I'll hop over.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 8 points 52 minutes ago

Plus you can easily run them side by side. I setup jellyfin a while back when Plex used to charge users for streaming on mobile but now they don't if the server owner has a Plex pass.

For me Plex is still a lot simpler to manage if you have a lot of users, and if users have their own servers they share with you

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 minutes ago

They became dead to me much sooner then you. Once they knew what I was watching I left.

[–] ForgottenUsername@lemmy.world 3 points 32 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

Same brought mine almost 8 years ago, and have never had to pay them a cent more.

Overall not a bad investment.

And plex just looks nicer and offers a better experience.

If it changes I'll consider migrating but for the moment Plex had done right by thier lifetime pass members

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago

Yeah, this is it. When they ask me for more money, or when they demand I host on their servers, I will adios. Until then, I paid $75 one time and the service does exactly what I want it to do, and it's ezpz for a basic individual myself.

I think the most likely scenario is the company goes under because they didn't have enough money, and then folks will come here and complain about that. Maybe I'll be one of them, but I'll try to remember I paid $75 more than 10 years ago, and so I think I've more than gotten my money's worth.

[–] maxprime@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 minutes ago

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

I’ll be sticking to Plex until it is reasonably safe to expose JF.

[–] Retail4068@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Oh god,I have to pay $3 to use someone else's code to stream my stolen media 🤣

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 6 points 55 minutes ago (1 children)

Not just code but infrastructure as well.

Plex makes it possible to stream remotely even if you're behind double NAT, firewalls and whatnot blocking a simple port forwarding approach. they do that through proxy servers that need to handle a lot of bandwidth, even with the limited streams...

[–] timwa@lemmy.snowgoons.ro 1 points 11 minutes ago

I wouldn't have an objection to paying them for that.

I did object them to them trying to charge me to stream from my server to my TV in the same house without touching any of Plex's infrastructure at all, because their license-check is too dumb to understand some of us use things like "subnets". (I objected even more that their "support" teams are evidently staffed by obnoxious jerks trained only to say "give us money".)

Fortunately I found the switch to Jellyfin incredibly easy, and so far it's actually been more reliable than Plex ever was.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 1 points 53 minutes ago (3 children)

If only my TV had a Jellyfin app, I could switch, but alas it doesn't. Got to use Plex if I want to watch stuff from any home streaming thingy. That said, it's free to do that, at least.

I just don't have the money or time to buy an external box and fiddle with it to get it running these days either, otherwise I'd build a modern version of the XBMC server I used to have in days gone by :-(

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 0 points 6 minutes ago* (last edited 5 minutes ago)

This is one of the most beneficial reasons to even run Plex; it's ubiquitous. I can access it from nearly everywhere with a simple TV alone, and also provide access to family without having to run tech support for them or requiring any additional investments on their part.

[–] magnue@lemmy.world 2 points 41 minutes ago

Chromecast of something similar is an option?

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 1 points 25 minutes ago (1 children)

Fiddle with birthday are plug and play. What TV?

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 3 points 9 minutes ago

Fiddle with birthday?

[–] androidul@lemmy.world 37 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

I started selfhosting just because throwing cash on subscriptions at big corpos is not feasible since subs are increasing on a year-on-year basis. To my mind, if I’m going to self-host to yet again pay sub prices defeats the sole purpose of selfhosting.

That money you can pocket and invest in your own hardware for spare parts, upgrades & the like

[–] DeckPacker@piefed.social 27 points 2 hours ago

You could also consider donating it to the projects you are hosting. Because developing that software still takes a lot of labour and these devs really need it

[–] Mika@piefed.ca 1 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

Don't use either, what's the usecase of these apps?

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 11 points 1 hour ago

Streaming your Linux ISO’s to any device, from anywhere.

[–] neatobuilds@lemmy.today 3 points 51 minutes ago

Sharing your home media with extended family and friends and they share theirs with you in a Netflix like TV application

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 hour ago

Easy streaming of media that you own to (mostly) any device. That's for jellyfin anyways.

[–] TroublesomeTalker@feddit.uk 80 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's not really about cost for me. Accounts in control of someone else and increased fees to use my own hardware can take a long walk off a short pier.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 25 points 4 hours ago

If only people applied these principles to all software....

[–] aberama44@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

One thing is the price, a whole another thing is the cluttered UI with too many features. I just want play a movie/tv series. Switched to Jellyfin and not looking back.

Just hope Jelly doesnt suffer the same fate. 🙂

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 24 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

I heard Jellyfin is doubling prices next year

[–] neo2478@sh.itjust.works 5 points 33 minutes ago

Its ok. Send me a DM and I can give you a 75% off discount code

[–] aberama44@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 hours ago

😀

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago

I saw the writing on the wall when they kept pushing me for needing an account on their servers. Glad i left.

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