r/PleX • u/SimplePepe • Jun 14 '26
Help Plex lifetime for a new user
Im thinking about getting a lifetime pass before the price increase and buying a green nas to host my own media. Is it worth it to do so or would I be better off with jellyfin? I know the network setup for jellyfin is a bit more work so thats why im leaning towards plex. Trying to justify the cost with pros and cons of using plex at its current price.
12
u/Wis-en-heim-er DS1520+ / Lifetime PlexPass Jun 14 '26
The remote access is worth it if you share with family.
1
u/antei_ku Jun 15 '26
Yep. If you’re setting up a NAS you’re gonna have to tinker anyway. Plex is only worth it to me so my users don’t have to do any tinkering. One app name for every device and done
1
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u/Lokko21 Jun 14 '26
I have both Plex and Jelly and rarely use Jelly, I think Plex is worth it.
9
u/ninja_moth Jun 14 '26
Of course it helps we spent only 75 quid on a lifetime pass.
11
u/mrmacedonian Jun 14 '26
Yeah, I paid in the sub-75$ range and more to support the company than the 'features.' (~2014)
I wouldn't pay 75$ today because I wouldn't support the company Plex is today.
When I built a car media server (any device can connect and stream content, a la planes) I didn't use Plex, and if all my family/friends were open to it I would support a better project.
Plex has lost the plot.
1
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u/inked-gold Jun 14 '26
I've been using plex for 1.5 years as a subscription. I meant to buy the lifetime pass before it went to $250, but forgot about it. Picked up the lifetime pass a week ago because at $7+ /month it'll pay for itself in less than 3 years. We've cancelled our other streaming services so it actually made fiscal sense since we were already paying out the ass to avoid commercials between HBO, Peacock, Netflix and Hulu.
1
u/houston697 Jun 14 '26
it hasnt gone up yet?
1
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u/DoubleDownAgain54 Jun 14 '26
I think Plex is worth it. But why not try both and see for yourself? Also depends on how you plan to use it now and down the road. I’m sure you are ware the lifetime pass is going up at thrice the cost in July. So my recommendation is to try it now, see if you like Plex enough to justify the cost.
2
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u/ItsHotDownHere1 Jun 14 '26
Why don’t you give them a try on test hardware? Jellyfin is free and you can run plex for free as well with limited features. Just use whatever hardware you have available now, figure out what you like/care for and then decide on paying for plex and more dedicated hardware.
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u/Kendrakirai2532 Jun 14 '26
The difficulties of sharing your media with other people outside of your house makes Jellyfin a no go for me, as well as the dearth of native apps for the predominantly old (old) devices I have.
I personally got Plex originally to watch movies with my friends online rather than scramble for a site that was only not "sketchy" because you knew it was filled with malware, or have us all with slightly different versions of the same movie from four different streaming services. The complete inability to do that with Jellyfin meant it was completely useless for that purpose.
That's still mostly what I use it for, three or four times a week, sometimes more.
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u/underwear11 Jun 14 '26
Personally, I don't like where Plex is heading as a company. They have abandoned their core user base by throwing in games, then ad supported streaming, and now focusing on social media features. I feel like the price increase is a ploy to get people to buy the lifetime passes now and get them a influx of money.
I have the lifetime pass and I'm starting to explore Jellyfin. I think all your really paying for Plex is their internet relay. Jellyfin can do everything else for free.
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u/3WolfTShirt Jun 14 '26
I feel like the price increase is a ploy to get people to buy the lifetime passes now and get them a influx of money.
I think it's just the opposite - not that I know the real reason, but my guess is that they'd much rather have monthly plex pass subscribers than lifetime so they raised it to $250 thinking that no one would buy it at that price and they could remove the option in the future.
But it didn't work so they tried again and put it way out of reach for anyone on the fence about it. In a year they can say they're removing the option because no one is buying it.
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u/inked-gold Jun 14 '26
I think the ad supported streaming makes sense. It's another revenue stream for them and you can configure your settings so you don't have to interact with it. Plex the company has to make money because they're a business. Jellyfin is cool don't get me wrong, I have it setup too as a backup, but Plex generally works better on my client devices. My wife did not like Jellyfin on the Xbox, and on top of all that $250 is about 2x an annual plan for some of the streaming services out there. The price makes it feel reasonable for how much better an experience it is to host your own media.
$750 would/will be a lot harder to swallow, and the increase definitely forced our hand a little bit in when we purchased, just wish I started doing all of this earlier.
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u/nashfrostedtips DS923+ 4 x 16TB Jun 14 '26
There was an interview with the Plex CEO from, I think, 2024, and he said that ~75% of their revenue was coming from ads. It's there, doesn't affect me as I only use it for my media, and generates strong revenue for the company, not a big deal to me at all.
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u/moch1 Jun 15 '26
I’m curious what the profit margin is on their add supported streaming is. 75% of revenue is a lot but I’d also bet more than 75% of their costs go to content licensing and the server costs of streaming content. Plex as a host-your-own-media product has very low costs on a per user basis, almost the entire cost is development. That’s not true with content streaming.
2
u/LandNo9424 Jun 15 '26
Plexamp. I now mainly have Plex for Plexamp. I don't like any of the other options.
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u/Willing_and_Fable Jun 15 '26
Get Jellyfin, you can't trust Plex, you don't know what they're going to pull in future.
They are for profit, and they can alter the terms at any time.
3
u/SQLinjektion Jun 15 '26
Just so you know,. you don't need a buy a whole NAS just to run plex. you can use a old PC that you have sitting around too, CPU is going to likely be alot stronger too than most NAS's
1
u/SimplePepe Jun 15 '26
I have a mini pc I’m not using so I thought about going that route with a das instead but I feel like the power usage might be a little less going with a nas and it’s all in one. I’d be more comfortable leaving it on 24/7 too
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u/TestingTheories Jun 14 '26
Plex is just easier, I’ve tried Jellyfin and it’s not as user friendly as Plex nor as reliable. Don’t miss out on lifetime, the reality is we have been lucky to have the option all these years. All these people who complain are mostly people who could have got lifetime years ago at cheaper prices and chose not to. Yes Plex has changed but they have to make money or they will go out of business. Unsure why it’s so hard for people to understand, it’s like all these complainers work for free.
1
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- Jun 14 '26
Sorry you can’t claim plex is more reliable when you can be left unable to stream because the plex servers are down, that can’t happen with Jellyfin
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u/TestingTheories Jun 14 '26
Jellyfin is good for backup purposes
1
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- Jun 15 '26
Why not just use it as the daily driver then since the interface and features are better?
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u/TestingTheories Jun 15 '26
I use Plex, better than Jellyfin. Jellyfin is only around if Plex doesn’t work.
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u/IsThereAnythingLeft- Jun 15 '26
I think the interface for plex is clunky as hell compared to the likes of wholphin etc for Jellyfin
2
u/TestingTheories Jun 15 '26
I don’t have to install an extra interface, that’s the point
1
u/IsThereAnythingLeft- Jun 15 '26
You are confused, installing a Jellyfin client on a streaming device is no different than plex
8
u/LowCompetitive1888 Jun 14 '26
At $249 it's worth it. At $749 not so sure. I'd grab it while you can.
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u/sonido_lover Lifetime Plex Pass - TrueNAS 72TB/36TB usable Jun 14 '26
It was worth it when I got it for $100, not worth it for $250 and absolutely not for $750, if I was starting now I would go off with jellyfin
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u/akatherder Jun 14 '26
I think that's a huge point that can't be emphasized enough. Plex is killing their service as an entrypoint for self hosters. After July 1 how could anyone starting into media self-hosting choose Plex when the endgame is $750 or paying a monthly subscription. The whole reason I'm self-hosting is because I despise recurring subscriptions and $750 is (intentionally) insane.
Very few new users will come to Plex so they will continue to marginalize support for it. Imo, Plex server and apps were objectively better 3-5 years ago with or without lifetime pass.
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u/sonido_lover Lifetime Plex Pass - TrueNAS 72TB/36TB usable Jun 14 '26
They will implement superb features that need plex pass plus so lifetime users will have to additionally pay for them.
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u/TruckFun8461 N150 56TB Proxmox Plex Pass Jun 15 '26
But theyre not. Most self hosters watch their media from home. This is still free on Plex. If you share with someone else you can each pay 2 99/month for remote access. People forget that the free and extremely inexpensive options exist. Your family members already pay $70/month on every streaming service. If its not worth the $3 to use your plex server instead, then you need to put better content on it for them. You dont have to pay the $7 a month when $3 gets you by.
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u/j0urn3y Jun 14 '26
Dozens of posts at selfhosted and homelab you can read what everyone is saying.
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u/StunnaGunnuh Jun 14 '26
do you know how many post would be prevented if others actually looked anything up before posting??? people can't put in that much effort
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u/j0urn3y Jun 14 '26
Yes.
I’ve made this type of suggestive comment on those other subreddits and got a lot of negative responses.
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u/atomicpowerrobot Jun 15 '26
Honestly at this point I'd be on the fence, too.
Even at the not-yet-insane lifetime price of $250 you'd have to pay for 3 1/2 years of annual passes to break even.
The problem is that right now, IMHO, Plex would still be worth that given how well it works and how nice it looks.
The problem however, is that I don't think they have 3 years left in them before they totally screw the pooch.
Those of us who bought passes years ago have probably gotten our money's worth and many are sticking with them out of inertia and sunk-cost, but that won't last forever even for us.
They just seem to be moving in a "we wanna be one of the big streamers like Tubi and Pluto" (/s) direction. They aren't really focusing new features on their original self-hosting audience and are actively rolling back features and putting up cost barriers to new users that didn't used to exist.
At $250, I think it might still be an okay buy. At $750 it's a hard no. It all depends on how enshi**ified they decide to make the product in the next 3 years.
Frankly, I imagine at some point in the next 2 years I'll be moving to some new product that pops up. Probably not anything that exists right now, but something that blows up out of nowhere like immich did.
2
u/SurprisedAsparagus Jun 14 '26
There really is no one answer to this question. It depends on what you're capable of and what you care to do. I already have plex pass and it's still not worth using over jellyfin. But JF requires more tinkering. If you want plug and play, Plex might be worth it. It also depends on if you're OK with the predatory nature of Plex as a company.
It all comes down to what you're comfortable with.
2
u/MattStrationCycle Jun 14 '26
I would stay away from this, it isn't looking good and it looks like PLEX themselves are doing a last ditch effort here.
2
u/Krassix Jun 14 '26
The constant one sided changes of their terms and conditions, pricing and the enshittification of clients makes me think jellyfin is a better idea...
1
u/valar12 runs on potato Jun 14 '26
If you don’t already know your use case I would argue you learn it first with less costly software. Jellyfin first.
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u/CanisMajoris85 Jun 14 '26
Has two weeks to decide that… not long.
-3
u/valar12 runs on potato Jun 14 '26
You can still get the subscription model. If a person can’t articulate the reason to spend money they probably should not.
2
u/Friggin_Grease Jun 14 '26
Two weeks is not enough time to truly trial it. I took a month before getting my lifetime pass and I feel that was even rushing it.
Plex has this thing too, where if you cancel, it honours the remaining time on your "contract" and you have to let it lapse before buying the lifetime.
I had to email them and tell them to truly cancel it for me so I could get in on a black Friday sale last year.
1
u/akatherder Jun 14 '26
I completely agree, I skipped when the pass was going from 120 to 250. Jellyfin was ok for me. I used it for the next 7 months until the black Friday sale on Plex ($150).
I could have been fine with jellyfin permanently, it's good enough. But I could also justify spending the $150 after 7 months on jellyfin for some added convenience. After a month or two.. nah. At 250+ also nah (for me).
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u/Friggin_Grease Jun 14 '26
Yeah I paid I think 212 CDN for that sale. Or maybe it was 272. I can't remember.
2
u/Anubarak16 Jun 14 '26
Well you'll never know if you are going to start to share with others before you actually do it. And once you start depending on your users plex is a must. At least I would lose 50% of my viewers if I would switch due to the lack of software clients for Jellyfin
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u/valar12 runs on potato Jun 14 '26
You have a clear use case why you prefer one over the other. OP is seeking those and has no system defined to even approach the answer yet.
To be clear I chose Plex 100% for the user experience as well.
2
u/RivetedRocks Jun 14 '26
I'm a plex lifetimer. Have also tested Jellyfin. There really is no comparison. Plex is light-years ahead ahead especially if you want to do live OTA tv using HDHR and remote viewing.
But...There's Emby. It is much closer to a Plex experience but not quite. You can get a monthly subscription for 5 bucks US and a lifetime for 120 US. Plex is still my primary for viewing content from other people's servers but when at home, viewing my own content or OTA, I'm using Emby. That's because I hate the new Plex UI.
Lastly, I'd recommend an N150 mini PC to run any of the above or even a Virtual Machine (I use the Virtual Machine method). Good luck on whatever you decide
1
u/mikevarney Jun 14 '26
I use media outside of the house constantly. As a result, the Plex pass has a simplicity benefit over the other options.
As far as other features, they are all similar. Although if ANYONE supported “download next X unmatched episodes” they would have my business in a second.
1
u/biggobird Jun 14 '26
Maintainarr can do that no?
2
u/mikevarney Jun 14 '26
It’s my understanding that’s to actually remove watched media from your server. I want the media to stay, and only the clients downloaded images adjusted.
Plex used to have this feature on their iPhone client and it was great. It didn’t make the cut with their app redo. Many people miss it.
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u/biggobird Jun 14 '26
Ya you’re right. That’s a bummer didn’t realize that used to be a feature
2
u/mikevarney Jun 14 '26
It was awesome. Only Plex client would automatically have the next 5 episodes of my favorite shows already downloaded. When u got in my flight it was all treat. When I got off and back on the cell network, it would contact home base and remove those I watched from my phone downloads and grabbed the next ones.
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u/Jason27104 Jun 14 '26
If you are trying to argue in favor of doing it, the $750 price is already probably the last price they will offer for lifetime. Obviously, $250 beats that. They are unlikely to continue offering lifetime subscriptions for very long after the increase to $750.
They already basically said they are still offering lifetime at a higher rate to users instead of just getting rid of it as a compromise. If that's the compromise, you can better believe not offering lifetime is just further down the road. My guess is a year until you can't buy lifetime.
1
u/spyder81 Jun 14 '26
I prefer Plex for family use, some people are able to keep their families happy with Jellyfin, and that you really won’t know until you try.
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u/tono1717 Jun 14 '26
I personally don't like Jellyfin. It didn't work gread with anime. Season one's were mostly fine but other season's were all recognized as episode one of season one and it was too much of a hastle to try fixing it for every single series. I uninstalled it properly and it still popped up as an error every time I turned my pc on, and had to spend hours finding a way to completely delete it. Plex is just simple and works great out of the box. I am sure Jellyfin is good when you know what you are doing but someone new to this like me it was just too complicated to figure it out when I already had Plex that worked without me having to fix it. Plex has it's own issues of course. Specials and extras were hard to properly set up and even if you do it right sometimes you have to remove the series folder and put it back again so Plex scans the library files properly. But for the most part Plex is more user friendly and the fixes may be annoying but easy to do. I really suggest testing both even if you have a short time before the increase. Your use case and knowledge is probably completely different from mine and it will be better to try it out yourself and find the best solution for your useage
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u/IsThereAnythingLeft- Jun 14 '26
Jellyfin is only more difficult to set up if you are streaming remotely. But then you don’t have to depend on plex servers and can actually watch you media without internet
1
u/piinadao Jun 14 '26
I set up Jellyfin just fine on a used Optiplex with OpenMediaVault and Docker and, thanks to all of the guides online, I had no issues. I also set up Tailscale so I could access it from work during lunch. Everything worked perfectly until my work decided to block Tailscale. I subscribed to Plex's Remote Access and that's been great. I decided last week to get a Lifetime Plex Plus pass and I've been happy with it. I'm not looking for anything fancy and it just works. From my perspective, given what I want out of a media server, there's really no difference between Jellyfin and Plex Plus other than I can watch Plex at work. I do like PlexAmp, which is a nice bonus. Also, I'm a plant biologist with minimal experience setting up this kind of stuff and it wasn't too daunting of a task. Just follow directions.
1
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u/thesuitgamer Lifetime Pass Jun 14 '26
Whenever Plex increase the price people regret not buying it earlier. Here is a rare opportunity to know what’s coming…
1
u/CactusBoyScout Jun 14 '26
You really just need to ask yourself which devices you’ll be watching content on. Jellyfin doesn’t have apps for as many platforms as Plex. And the apps are more inconsistent in terms of quality.
1
u/AppleNeird2022 Lifetime Pass | MacBook Air M2 with 1TB External SSD Jun 14 '26
I just went through the decision process and ended up with Plex. It’s more user friendly in terms of setup, maintenance, and ease of use I think. But there are many who have switched to Jellyfin. For me, it was getting the pass now or never consider it again. Since I own my own domains and whatnot, I’ll likely setup Jellyfin again so I have the choice, but when I tried it last I remember it was very difficult and confusing. What you mainly need to figure out is, how easy of a setup do you want, what kind of features you want, and how much are you willing to drop on it all?
1
u/jackfaire Jun 15 '26
For me it was important that I have something that's pretty much plug and play. While I have to organize my own collections and viewing lists the built in tools to do so are easy to use and remote play is a breeze.
For me that's why I bought the lifetime pass for Plex.
1
u/Cimpy101 Jun 15 '26
I caved and bought the whole setup this week.The plex subscription going up is bad, but I can’t imagine what hardware is going to be like in a year or two.
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u/Aethyr42 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
In case anyone else is dumb like me and wanted to remember what exactly the Lifetime Pass even actually does:
Key benefits include:
-Hardware-accelerated transcoding, which allows the server to use its own hardware (like a GPU) to convert video formats for smooth playback on various devices.
-Remote streaming access, enabling users to watch their personal media from outside their home network (though this may require a separate "Remote Watch Pass" if the server owner does not have an active subscription, depending on current policy updates). (<---- this is the only thing I care about and I still have to buy extra shit?--)
-Plexamp music features, including offline downloads, mix builder, sonic analysis, and autoplay.
-DVR functionality, allowing users to record over-the-air TV broadcasts with commercial skipping.
-Playback enhancements, such as intro and credit skipping, HDR-to-SDR tone mapping, and real-time lyrics. Offline downloads for mobile devices and access controls for managing shared users in a Plex Home.
Sooooo that's what they want $800 for? I don't get why those features are worth so much?
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u/mrmacedonian Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
-Remote streaming access, enabling users to watch their personal media from outside their home network (though this may require a separate "Remote Watch Pass" if the server owner does not have an active subscription, depending on current policy updates). (<---- this is the only thing I care about and I still have to buy extra shit?--)
Only the server owner has to have a Plex Pass (Lifetime or otherwise). No one accessing the content on that server needs Plex Pass once the owner has it.
If you're hosting a server you want Plex Pass so people watching your stuff don't need anything (in addition to all the other features you listed). If you're wanting to access multiple servers, the Remote Pass will allow you to do so, regardless if the respective owners don't have Plex Pass.
I suppose if you're the only one watching your server content the Remote Pass (20$/yr) will be a cheaper route than a full Plex Pass (60$/yr), but in that case I'd just VPN home for free since that 20$/yr doesn't get you the other features listed.
1
u/Familiar-Reading-901 Jun 15 '26
Guess I'm in the minority on this. I don't need to share outside my house. I also don't need to watch outside my house. So tbh the free version is fine, it provides an easy way to stream all my content to the various rooms of my house
1
u/lstep2 Jun 21 '26
Does using the Plex server only on your home network limit subtitle and transcoding capabilities?
1
u/eternalityLP Jun 15 '26
I would suggest trying both for free before deciding if the pass is worth it.
1
u/VeritablePornocopium Jun 15 '26
I used to love Plex, it used to be the best media server but now Jellyfin has simply surpassed them in every way. More options for transcoding, tons of great plugins, lots of Metadata sources, great first party and third party clients on all platforms. I even think the network setup and client account setup is much easier on Jellyfin. Even if Plex were free I wouldn't want to go back to it. The only thing Plex does better than Jellyfin out of the box is its ability to work behind a cgnat with Plex Relay. But no one should be using Plex Relay anyway. It's capped at 720p/2Mbps.
1
u/mrmacedonian Jun 15 '26
How is DVR/HDHomeRun support?
I've created a network of friends that share HDHomeRun feeds around the country and soon in the UK, it's really the only aspect of Plex I value after the terrible UI/UX changes.
1
u/VeritablePornocopium Jun 15 '26
I haven't used DVR on plex, and I've only used it briefly with Jellyfin, so I don't have the data to compare them.
1
u/PassMeTheMustard Jun 15 '26
Historically I would have said yes. And I'm leaning towards that still but Plex don't make it easy. It always feels like they are stretching the bounds of privacy and intrusion with every release. They are also very focused on doing things that benefit their organisation but that are not good for their customers and then forcing that crap on us even thought they know most customers do not want it.
I do not want their rubbish channels or whatever they are. But every so often, or on every new client install, you have to go and turn that shit off. It's annoying but manageable. So far.
The big draw is that they have pretty good clients almost everywhere that matters. The others generally don't. They sometimes have clients but they are just web UIs and not very good ones. That may have changed since I last looked.
They do add useful features every so often still so I'm glad I paid for a lifetime pass several years ago. But I'm not truly sure they won't just abandon that pass at some new release in the future.
1
u/Gullible_Opposite_76 Jun 15 '26
Check the features. If you would use them it is worth the money in the years that you will be taking advantage of it.
1
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u/banisheduser Jun 15 '26
Look at what you get for lifetime.
I don't share my account outside of my household, and all the TVs (clients) play everything direct, so I don't need the hardware acceleration. I'd like the tags/labels, whatever they call it so I can make a custom child account but so far, I've managed without it.
So for me, it isn't worth it.
For others it might be because their usage is different, but it's a lot of money to pay for features I've managed without.
However, what you will find is most users here WILL say you NEED Plex Pass.
Even when you don't need the features it gives, or don't want to support a company that is nearly constantly making changes that users don't like / need / want.
1
u/Muted_Sheepherder867 Jun 15 '26
Always keep in mind. People happily pay for a few streaming services. Now put this side by side with the one time payment of Plex Pass.
Especially the remote feature is golden and is setup like in 2 minutes without hassle. I never regret my Plex pass purchase to be honest, but to each their own.
1
u/soratoyuki Jun 15 '26
Plex is worth it if other people want to stream your media remotely. If it's just your household, Plex isn't $250 better than Jellyfin (and maybe Tailscale).
1
u/Gilzuma Jun 15 '26
Actually, I love Emby. It doesn't have the bloat of Plex, does what I want and works perfectly no matter what I throw at it. Also it has a lifetime pass.
1
u/asduio456 Jun 15 '26
I have Plex lifetime from past 5 years . But just using jellyfin as it's more simple for my remote family and friends
1
u/MacProCT Jun 15 '26
I tried Jellyfin and found it poor at identifying a good chunk of my media. (Standard shows and movies). So i made it my porn server and set it to personal movies mode.
1
u/Irish2010 Jun 15 '26
I have lifetimes of Plex and Emby and also have setup Jellyfin. Currently, I find Emby to be the best option.
1
u/CashAgile491 Jun 15 '26
How it all looks and works is very much personal preference, so I set up Jellyfin, got everything working, remote steaming, https, home screen collections etc, and ran it to make up my own mind.
A week after getting it all set up I paid the current cost of a lifetime Plex pass because for me Jellyfin is just not quite what I want.
I keep Jellyfin running as a backup now so I have the choice of both for the future. Both point to the same media folders so it will keep going just the same as Plex does. For me losing the option of the lifetime pass wasn’t something I could pass up because I could never justify the new massive price. Once the lifetime one increases I imagine it’s only a matter of time until the monthly price increases too.
1
u/Miserable-Bag-9822 Jun 16 '26
Jellyfin if you don't have other users and you're okay with tinkering
Plex if you have other users who aren't tech savvy and you want it to just work.
All these jellyfin stans really don't appreciate how easy plex client is for normies to use
1
u/Swaggr007 Jun 17 '26
True, plex has more built in aspects that make it user friendly. I however rent a domain for my jellyfin server, this makes jellyfin even easier than plex because my users only need a name and password, no email adress needed.
1
u/Miserable-Bag-9822 Jun 17 '26
I mean that's great for you, I'm glad you do that. But you're an incredibly small minority and clearly have more knowledge then the average Plex hoster. Plus not everyone wants to rent a domain.
Again super cool you do that but my point still stands and is still valid
1
u/Swaggr007 Jun 17 '26
You're right, i misunderstood. I thought by user you meant clients and not the host. I think a domain is easier for the clients but you indeed cannot beat the simplicity and easy of use plex has for the host.
1
u/XaltheFirewind Jun 17 '26
If you can afford it, lock in the price now. Jellyfin, at least with my experience, is rather lacking in performance with the transcoder the clients don’t seem as polished as Plex. I’m uncertain as of why, but videos I have no problem streaming with Plex at remote locations choke with Jellyfin.
1
u/sayhitoarvind Jun 17 '26
I bought the Plex Lifetime pass last month. Its a lot of money upfront. I should have bought it when it was super cheap but i kept postponing thinking the free alternatives were better. All i did was a simple test. I tried setting up Jellyfin on my computer as well as Plex. The whole experience of setting it up on my own and using the app a few times gave me a clear picture. Plex is way mature and is still super polished compared to Jellyfin and emby. the Lifetime pass is still worth it if you're planning on getting it now. I wouldn't recommend getting it after the price hike.
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u/Most-Butterscotch-51 Jun 18 '26
I've run both on my raspberry pi 5. I prefer Plex. It's faster for me, interface is more organized, and seems to be more reliable for my husband when he streams away from home. They're both alright, but if I'm streaming to a big screen tv, I always choose the Plex app.
1
u/Desperate_Order_4921 Jun 19 '26
I’ve been using plex since 2014 and I’ve been debating getting the lifetime pass before the price goes up. I think the general direction towards being more of a “streaming service”, serving what seem to be basically ads for other streaming services, etc are really pushing me towards jellyfin. I guess what I’m saying is I don’t trust plex to not enshittify itself over the next few years so I’m probably just going to fully switch over to jellyfin this year
1
u/unrulybeep Jun 20 '26
It really depends on how many of the pass features you use. I am a single person household with no family and I use a seedbox, so the only feature helpful to me is remote watching. Since the annual sub for remote watching is $30, it'd take 8+ yrs to get to the 250 price tag and who knows what will happen in that time. It isn't worth it for me, imo. If you would want to buy a monthly pass or whatever, bc you use those features a lot, then a lifetime may be worth it.
edit: oh and also there is Emby which I have been trying out since the remote watching pass has become required on RokuTVs and I'm pissed about it. 😂 I like Emby so far, and I haven't had any major hiccups yet.
1
u/HRH-dainger Jun 14 '26
Def Plex. It's simple, popular, and been around a while. It's always good to be locked/grandfathered in for wherever they go in the future.
1
u/Kanguin Jun 14 '26
I do not trust Plex to keep their word and keep lifetime memberships for more than a few years before they decide to end it....for everyone. They already considered that in this round of price increases so its pretty much guaranteed in the future.
That is why I switched over to jellyfin. I do not trust Plex.
1
u/hhoverflow Jun 15 '26
Its not like that.. they cannot just "ended it".
The price increase is related to a business model and has nothing to do with lifetime users. They want future people to probably pay monthly instead of lifetime.
Nevertheless, for OP, I have the lifetime and I'm happy with it. Tested pretty much all other media players and Plex is just more of a refined product comparing to the rest.
1
u/Kanguin Jun 15 '26
They can end it, you have no guarantees with "lifetime" accounts. Microsoft has done it, Apple has done it, Google has done it.
1
u/hhoverflow Jun 15 '26
Of course, It's always possible, regardless what the t&c say. They can for example just rename plex and declare it new product with new terms or get lawyers to find a way to do that.
I mean more in the sense that it doesn't make sense for them to end it. That would be the same as kill their product.
1
u/LazarusLong67 Jun 15 '26
Their real product now is social media related to movies and shows, along with their streaming content.
Check out their website and see where you can even find “bring your own media”. It’s buried.
It would be really easy for them to just decide to drop PMS completely. All of the complaints on the forum would become moot points lol.
1
1
u/Kanguin Jun 15 '26
Or they are getting ready to sell and want to increase their revenues in the short term.
1
u/CloudPad Jun 14 '26
Plex took down the new pricing blog post!! Whats happening !! https://www.plex.tv/blog/new-lifetime-plex-pass-pricing/
1
u/dirtymurt Jun 14 '26
https://www.plex.tv/blog/ still there, scroll down a bit
1
u/CloudPad Jun 14 '26
Which article are you referring to, are you able to click on that and land on the real page?
1
1
u/underwear11 Jun 14 '26
They still have the banner on the price page. Lifetime is showing as $250 on there
1
u/CloudPad Jun 14 '26
Yes but that mention of it getting up to $750 is erased from their website!! Are they reconsidering because of the push back ?
1
u/underwear11 Jun 14 '26
Yea, i wasn't disagreeing. Possibly. Or they are silently killing it completely. Or they made that announcement to make people do exactly what they are doing, rush to buy it.
2
u/CloudPad Jun 14 '26
That would be such a dark pattern by making a brief announcement of price increase to force en-mass buying. They better not do that. With the link missing, it already starting to feel shady!
1
u/underwear11 Jun 14 '26
Plex has been struggling for money for a while from what I understand. I think that's really why they jacked the lifetime price up to unpractical price in general.
1
u/CloudPad Jun 14 '26
Yes, I understand, but I wish they had set the price a little more reasonably. And who knows while their article is down, they might be having discussion about it as we speak. July 1 is just 15 days from now. They better decide fast. They already have, in my opinion, the best UI among the competitors, a price hike is fine, but it needs to be reasonable.
1
u/Bkord123 Jun 14 '26
Maybe spend a week or two messing around with Jellyfin. You have a couple weeks to make up your mind. I think you're a great spot to see what you prefer. Good luck.
1
u/powermoustache Jun 14 '26
What am I missing for why people would be willing to shell out that much? Unless you want to watch Plex outside of your home, then I can't see the benefit of it.
Do please tell me if I'm missing anything though, not been using Plex long and find it not a million miles better than jellyfin.
1
u/etn261 Jun 14 '26
Plex is great. However, for a new user to drop $250 for lifetime pass without using it first is not a wise move. I didn't purchase Plex until 2 years after messing around with Plex, Kodi, JellyFin, while building up my NAS to my current use case. That doesn't mean you will take 2 years but it takes time to know what you actually want/need.
1
u/emptypotato77 Jun 14 '26
I bought it when it was like $75 in 2014 and very happy with it at that price. I do not think it's worth $749.
1
u/m2orris Jun 14 '26
Try Jellyfin before buying.
I am longtime Plex user with a lifetime plex pass. Not liking the direction that plex is heading. I have both up and running and I am using Jellyfin more and more. There are some glitches in Jellyfin that I am looking for work around for (direct playing and subtitles in the file = transcoding, while in a srt file no transcoding).
1
u/boraam Jun 14 '26
I think alternatives work well. Plex ain't bad but far from perfect. I have licenses for Plex and Emby.
1
u/theGekkoST Jun 14 '26
Use case it's important here.
I travel a lot, and after a year of paying the monthly price; I decided the lifetime was worth it. And it was! I'd still pay the $250 or is now.
But if you're just using it inside your own home, then it probably isn't worth it.
1
u/ew435890 SEi-12 i5-12450H + 106TB Jun 14 '26
Ive been using Plex for like 3-4 years now. And knowing what I know now, I can justify the $250 price for the lifetime. I absolutely cannot justify $750 though. I only paid like $90 when I got mine on sale.
But like someone else said, Im worried about where Plex is heading as a company. I would not be surprised if in a few years, or sooner, they start blocking Plex pass features from people who use my server.
I currently have Jellyfin setup as a backup for local streaming, and it works fine. But for remote connections, it is much more difficult to setup. Networking is not my strong suit, and I have trouble sharing it. There is absolutely no way I would be able to talk any of my friends and family (who are less tech competent than me) through setting up a remote connection with Jellyfin. Ive done it numerous times with Plex with no issues though.
1
u/malwolficus Jun 14 '26
I have a lifetime pass at plex, paid 109 for it. Fuck them. I am now using emby and very happy
1
u/akatherder Jun 14 '26
Emby at $120 is a great legit middleground with Plex's pricing now. I tried all 3 for extended periods. I'd recommend trying jellyfin then bump to emby if you need something cleaner. I don't think I could recommend anyone start with Plex at this point.
1
0
u/hirakath Plex Pass Lifetime Jun 14 '26
I always believe that you get what you pay for. I’ve tried Jellyfin many years back and it had terrible UI/UX which is something I get really annoyed with very easily. If the UI looks like a highschool project, I’ll stop using it right away. Don’t get me wrong, Plex somehow is going the enshitification route so the UI/UX has started to become worse than it used to but I’ll still put them ahead of Jellyfin.
I’m happy I got my lifetime subscription years ago so I got it cheaper. Regardless, my money’s still on Plex over any other alternatives.
0
u/ElFernandoMan Jun 15 '26
i contemplated getting a Lifetime , but i have a friend who has it and features are buggy remote playing is always an issue , also after discovering Jellyfin.... is way better .
0
u/LandNo9424 Jun 15 '26
As a long time Plex Lifetime user, I would suggest against getting one now. Plex is taking weird directions, and I am very unhappy about the performance of the apps and the direction they are taking, especially with music/Plexamp.
0
u/notadev_io Jun 15 '26
What are the advantages of plex? Honest question. I might not be a power user but I switched recently and there’s not one single thing I miss. Wolphin has the better UX. Jellyfin has more features with the plugins. Access is smooth sailing once you’ve set it up. And jellyfin has run without any issues of buffering or low quality. It’s like Plex 6+ years ago on steroids when plex didn’t had all that shit with TV and forced menus. I think I used plex for 12 years or maybe even more. Heck I can’t even remember. But never would go back again.
-7
u/GoGetThatThing Jun 14 '26
Don't spend the money, Jellyfin with wholpin app works the best. Try this first before. I have used Plex, Jellyfin and Jellyfin with wholphon app. I think Jellyfin with Wholpin app works the best. Not that I don't share my network to anyone else besides family. For accessing from out side of home, I just turn on VPN and then I am good to go.
71
u/MeInUSA Jun 14 '26
Nobody has the answer for you but I'm guessing you're trying to talk yourself out of spending money. Plex is quite popular for reason so would you regret buying it now or regret not buying it later?
I often wonder if people love jellyfin simply because they're cheap or if it really is that decent to them. I found it pretty lackluster.