Plex Alternatives

Jellyfin is the closest thing to Plex without the bill. It is a media server: you install it on a PC, a NAS or a mini PC, point it at your folders, and it builds a library with posters, seasons and watch progress. Then you watch from the web, Android, Apple devices, Roku, Fire TV or Kodi. The server and the official apps are free, and the project says there are no premium licenses or features at all, so nothing sits behind a pass.

That matters on the two points where Plex now charges. Remote streaming works on any client once your server is reachable, and hardware transcoding is free too. The documentation covers Intel Quick Sync (QSV), NVIDIA NVENC, AMD AMF, VA-API on Linux, Apple VideoToolbox and Rockchip chips. Jellyfin is licensed under the GNU GPL, has no tracking or phone-home, and runs on volunteers and donations.

The catch is the work Plex did for you. Jellyfin is software you run on your own machine, so remote access is your job: a VPN like Tailscale, or a reverse proxy with a domain. In a 2025 forum thread, a user who switched for two weeks went back to Plex over the Apple TV client: four or five clicks to switch user, and weak music apps on iOS. Android and web clients get fewer complaints.

Emby works the way Plex does: a server on your computer or NAS, apps on every screen, and a sign-in service (Emby Connect) that makes remote login simple. It runs on a computer or a NAS on your home network. The free tier covers browsing, library organization, metadata, users and parental controls, and full playback on Roku, Apple TV and LG or Samsung smart TVs.

Emby Premiere unlocks the rest: hardware accelerated transcoding, HDR tone mapping, live TV with DVR, downloads and sync, intro skipping and backup. It costs $4.99 a month, $54 a year or $119 once, for one household and up to 30 devices. That lifetime price is $630.99 less than a lifetime Plex Pass at $749.99, which is the main reason Plex owners look here first.

Read the feature matrix before you invite family. Without Premiere or a paid app unlock, the Emby apps for iOS and Android stop after one minute of playback, and so do the Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox and PlayStation apps. On Android TV and Fire TV, free playback covers up to 5 TV devices. One exception: hardware acceleration does not need Premiere on an Nvidia Shield or a WD NAS.

Infuse is not a server. It is a video player for Apple devices that reads your files from wherever they sit: a Mac or PC share over SMB or NFS, a NAS, a cloud drive such as Dropbox or Google Drive, or a media server such as Jellyfin, Emby or Plex. If your files already live in the cloud, our ranking of cloud file sharing services shows which ones fit, and our Google Drive alternatives cover the storage side. It fetches posters and metadata itself, so a folder of MKV files on a NAS turns into a proper library with no server running at all.

Its strength is playback. Infuse plays MKV, ISO, VIDEO_TS and BDMV files without transcoding, decodes 4K HDR in hardware on Apple chips, and with Pro adds Dolby Vision (profiles 5 and 8), Dolby Atmos passthrough, lossless audio, AirPlay and Google Cast. It direct-streams everything, which is why a Plex user who moves the same files to Jellyfin and plays them through Infuse often notices no change.

There are two limits. It needs iOS or iPadOS 18, tvOS 18.5, macOS 15 or visionOS 26 and newer, and runs only on Apple devices. And in 2026 Plex told Firecore, the maker of Infuse, that remote streaming from a Plex server through third-party apps now needs a Remote Watch Pass or a Plex Pass. Pro costs $1.99 a month, $16.99 a year or $99.99 once.

Kodi is the most misunderstood name on this list. It is a media player and entertainment center, built around a "10-foot" interface for a TV and a remote. You install it on the device plugged into the screen, and it plays files from that device or from network shares, with a library of movies, shows, music and photos. It does not stream your library to a phone across town the way Plex does.

That makes it the right answer when the TV is where you watch. Kodi is free and open source under the GPL and runs on Windows, Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi, macOS, iOS, tvOS and webOS. It records live TV through backends like Tvheadend, NextPVR or MythTV, and skins and add-ons change everything from the home screen to the remote layout. Jellyfin also lists Kodi among its client platforms, so Kodi can be the TV front end of a Jellyfin server.

Setup is where people stall: add-ons, sources and skins take an evening, and Kodi itself provides no content. Stay away from third-party add-on repositories that promise free movies. The Kodi project gives no support for bootleg content, and the official Kodi version contains no content at all.

Universal Media Server, or UMS, takes the other road. Instead of asking every screen to install an app, it speaks DLNA and UPnP, the network standards that most smart TVs, game consoles and AV receivers already understand. Your TV finds it in its media sources, you browse folders, and UMS sends the file as is when the device can play it, or transcodes it on the fly when it cannot.

It is free and released under the GNU GPL, with versions for Windows, Linux and macOS, plus Docker, Homebrew and AppImage packages. A web interface lets you play from any browser too, metadata comes from TMDB and MusicBrainz, and it can open disc drives and disc images. The project says it tracks no action you take in the program.

The trade-off is the experience on the TV. DLNA menus are the TV maker's, not a poster wall. UMS does have user accounts and groups, which you assign to each device, and a user switcher in its web interface, but reaching it from outside the house is your own job: a VPN or a reverse proxy. Builds also reach Patreon supporters first: the public download page lags a version behind, so check you have the latest public build before you report a bug.

Serviio is a DLNA media server like UMS, with a stronger focus on renderer profiles: it detects the TV, console or Blu-ray player asking for a file and applies the right settings, by device or by IP address. It streams audio, video and images in their native format or transcodes them in real time, reads subtitles, updates the library when files change, and runs on Windows, Linux, Mac and several NAS platforms.

The free edition covers local and online content, renderer profiles and on-the-fly transcoding. Serviio Pro adds the MediaBrowser web player and an API for access away from home, access control on shared content and video stacking, and costs $25 once. Every new install gets 15 days of Pro, then falls back to the free edition on its own. Both editions can stream online sources like RSS feeds and live streams through plug-ins. For MediaBrowser away from home, you set a password on the Console's Remote tab and forward ports 23424 (HTTP) and 23524 (HTTPS) on your router.

Read the license before you buy. The $25 covers the 2.x versions and their minor updates; when version 3.x ships, you need a new license file. The Pro license is also for personal use only. Like UMS, the menus on the TV are DLNA menus, so the polish of a Plex or Emby app is not there.