cross-posted from: poptalk.scrubbles.tech/post/2333639
I was just forwarded this someone in my household who watches our server. That’s it folks. I’ve been a hold out for a long time, but this is honestly it.
They want me to pay to stream content that I bought from my hardware transcoded also on my hardware.
I’ll say it. As of today, I say Plex is dead. Luckily I’ve been setting up Jellyfin, I guess it’s time to make it production ready.
30p87@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I never got the idea of selfhosting but paying (except for enterprise-grade support or donations) anyway.
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
LilB0kChoy@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I run into you again! This time I get to wholeheartedly agree with you! You are spot on and nailed it.
I use Plex for exactly the reasons you said because when I set it up I didn’t know anything about self hosting a media server and I wanted to share with family in other locations. I keep it because it’s so easy for my older, less tech savvy family members to access so I don’t have to be their support person for it.
I’d consider Jellyfin if the end user access was more plug and play.
The biggest thing about this is I don’t get why OP is so annoyed. If you have a Plex Pass you’re not impacted, you can still share and your users can still access your library for free, they can’t share with you without a Plex Pass but who cares.
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I LOVE Jellyfin but can only imagine the amount of work I’d have to do if I tried to get my parents and in-laws successfully using it. We all just split the cost of lifetime Plex pass the last time it was on sale.
kratoz29@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I am just gonna read your comment until here, Plex does shit if you are CGNATED, and as it is 2025 I suppose most users are, I still needed to expose through IPv6 with a reverse proxy, using a VPS or a VPN to access my Plex Server, so yeah, Plex hasn’t helped me at all since many years ago with the noob friendly approach they have.
semperverus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Any time you rely on another company to handle your data, you are beholden to their whims, end of story. Don’t like what they’re doing? Too bad. Give up the convenience and host it yourself, or continue to be a slave to their corporate interests.
myersguy@lemmy.simpl.website 3 weeks ago
Downvote without explanation. Nice!
dutchkimble@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Completely agree, and I think it’s fair for them to make it a paid feature. It’s kind of like using wireguard yourself to create a whole network vs Tailscale.
L3G1T1SM3@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Outside of portforwarding plex ports on your router though? But yeah plex does provide a service and it is asinine the pushback this is getting.
9point6@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
For a good while, Plex was the only game in town that did the job well, and they put the transcoding feature behind the paywall.
Given it wasn’t that expensive for a lifetime pass a number of years ago (I remember it was cheaper than a game anyway) and they still seemed relatively user-centric at the time, many people like me felt like they were supporting developers building something that was useful to us.
I still run my Plex server since it’s not really costing me not to, but I’ve been running Jellyfin too for a little while and it more or less can do the same job these days
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
Yup, for the time it was worth it. I got about 7 years out of my “lifetime” plex pass, and I got it on sale. All in all, I won’t say the money was wasted.
It’s 100% a waste if anyone pays for that BS monthly streaming fee though.
Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
I put my chips (£100) on Emby, a Jellyfin fork. I don’t know much about specifics, but I believe Emby was borne out of classic workplace toxicity, in that Jellyfin was becoming too corporate so a couple devs forked off to keep it clean.
I haven’t regretted my purchase. I can’t sell anyone on much either, because Emby does all the same as other services, except they’ve kept adding features while Plex kept doing the Google thing and taking them away. CPU transcoding is free I believe, as is remote streaming up to 10 devices for each user… Idk I paid pretty early on, but lifetime license is where it’s at. Subscriptions just open your asshole for greedy CEOs to fuck you
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m pretty happy with Emby, which also lets me easily do remote streaming.
Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
In the case of plex, it’s not 100% selfhosted. There’s a dependence on plexs public infrastructure for user management/authentication. They also help bypass NAT by proxying connections through their servers so you don’t have to setup port forwarding and can even easily escape double NAT situations.
I can understand paying for that convenience, but cost keeps rising while previously free features continue to get locked behind paywalls.
Tbh, having users required to authenticate with plex.tv was enough for me to look elsewhere. The biggest reason to self host for me is to remove dependency on public services.
deegeese@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
The central user management is not a feature, it’s a hook to force people to pay for self-hosted software.
TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
100% my experience as well. The external authentication requirement is what made my choose Jellyfin a couple years ago.
chaospatterns@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
With Plex, you’re getting the easy ability to grant access to users. You get a single pane that can search across multiple Plex instances, and NAT traversal/port forwarding. Jellyfin makes you figure that out yourself.
NotKyloRen@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It’s not exactly difficult if you use Tailscale or really any VPN. So I really don’t see the value for the cost; if you’re even considering self hosting a Plex server/instance, there’s a list of basic knowledge you should have or learn (like what you mentioned).
TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
I will say, I really want someone* to make a Jellyfin aggregator so you can use multiple servers at once.
*Not me.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You can selfhost for free however you want but software developers have the right to ask for money to use their software. I selfhost about 60tb of media and have paid for Plex monthly for about 10 years now. They are still so far above the competition for ease-of-use that I wouldn’t even consider switching at this point, even to save $7/month.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
They have the right to ask, but I don’t have to pay. I’ve been playing with Jellyfin for about a month now, and I have to say, it’s just as easy as Plex is. The only thing I had to do myself was make my own users. In fact, I tried Jellyfin a few years ago and was unimpressed - now all I see is Plex making stuff to make advertisers happy while Jellyfin is adding stuff to make it’s users happy, to the point where I think Jellyfin has surpassed Plex.
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Eh, I find Emby pretty close to on-par at this point.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Immich has a weird “buy a licence” model which literally does nothing.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Immich, I believe, is linked to Futo. And Futo has a license model that’s basically “if you like this app, and want to support the development, consider buying a license.”
Sounds like it might be similar with Immich.
Better than “donate to this project”, since a license seems more like the user is getting something out of it, even if it’s basically a glorified donation 😂
30p87@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I never even saw that, while running my own instance lol
asbestos@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Instantly bought the server license. Support your favorite FOSS, people.
b3an@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
When they monitor what you watch and how you share it with, it’s enshittified. Fuck Plex. I used to be a lifetime drum thumper. Stopped a few years ago.
Plex doesn’t care about you, your comfort, ease. It wants your money and it wants to monitor and control what you do with your own data.
Fuck. That.
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Take HomeAssistant for example: you’re free to use it self-hosted, but as soon as you want to expose it securely through the Internet, there’s need from infrastructure that has costs, both materials and labor. In HomeAssistant’s case, it’s NabuCasa that does it, costs money, and helps fund the work of Home Assistant developers.
Having things free (libre) and open source is a blessing, but we have become entitled to have work of very specialized people for free. That’s not always feasible.
Another example, Zabbix, is totally open source and free, they only charge for support and training if you ask for them. It has worked for them for many years, but if they start to struggle with funding, I’d understand if they charged for it.
techwithjake@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Home Assistant doesn’t require to pay for anything at any point in time for any reason. If you want to expose your instance to the web, they have all the documents on how to do it yourself. There’s absolutely nothing “hidden” behind a paywall. The only reason to say is if you want Nabu Casa to handle exposing your instance to the internet and various cloud services like Google Assistant/Alexa. The reason to pay Nabu Casa is if you don’t have the technical know how (or lazy like me) and to help fund Home Assistant (which I want).
That’s all to say that Plex and Home Assistant are not similar in their pay scheme. It’d be more akin if Jellyfin started charging users to allow a one click way to stream outside the home with no obligation to.