{"slug": "plex", "name": "Plex", "category": "selfhosted", "category_name": "Self-hosted and home server", "description": "Media server and client apps for streaming your personal video and music library.", "recommenders": 16, "commenters": 60, "warners": 17, "score": 4.121, "rising": 1.4, "first": "2025-11-21", "latest": "2026-10-22", "why": "Liked for letting non-technical family and friends reach a shared library on almost any device with little support, for polished, consistent apps, and for Plexamp as a music player.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 15, "neutral": 28, "compare": 3, "warn": 17}, "spark": [1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Easy sharing", "Polished apps"], "caveat": "Redesigned apps", "short_quote": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin", "icon": true, "domain": "plex.tv", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.plex.tv/", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Plex"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for letting non-technical family and friends reach a shared library on almost any device with little support,", "cites": [{"id": 802509312, "item_id": 50156832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50156832", "by": "wolrah", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "excerpt": "Did you miss the point about working on random devices? That's the key to why I use Plex at all. If I have to install and set up a VPN client on it I'd just use Jellyfin because at that point I've limited myself to only my devices. Also of course friends/family. The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802518720, "item_id": 50157420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157420", "by": "TheCondor", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a lifetime subscription,  I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices,  it does the job.", "excerpt": "Did they start doing automatic updates? I have a lifetime subscription, I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices, it does the job. I won't bitch about their streaming ambitions, but doing automatic updates and taking security seriously would go far for them.", "context": "lifetime subscriber", "use_case": "sharing media with family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 783936753, "item_id": 48996047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996047", "by": "IAmBroom", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "far more effort than saying, \"Find Plex in your media sources.\"", "excerpt": "I'd prefer to be exclusively on Jellyfin. It simply has more features that I use - specifically, collections are great non-hierarchical groupings. But periodically my system will refuse to see the Tailscale server, and I'll have to do some black magic tech operation like reinstalling to get it back. Additionally, guiding a friend remotely through installing both Jellyfin and Tailscale is far more effort than saying, ", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}, {"text": " for polished, consistent apps,", "cites": [{"id": 783838784, "item_id": 48989924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48989924", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin", "excerpt": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin (that\u2019s personal but even the name Jellyfin irks me, I hate jellyfish), which is something I value more than openness. Also I bought the Plex lifetime a few years ago during Covid and at that time Jellyfin was nowhere near Plex in terms of user friendliness, Plex already had a TV app, a mobile app with ability to download locally, a f", "context": "has Plex lifetime pass", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 802990816, "item_id": 50186926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186926", "by": "dewey", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently.", "excerpt": "Because I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently. I only recently switched to Jellyfin because Hetzner blocks Plex, but otherwise I wouldn't have had a big reason to switch.", "context": "lifetime pass holder", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 783807521, "item_id": 48987970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987970", "by": "muppetman", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others", "excerpt": "Because Plex worked amazingly ~5-6 years ago, while Jellyfin was still very early stage. It'd sort of work. So there's a lot of \"Well I'm already using Plex\" inertia. Plus Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others etc etc. Once they got all that of course, then the changes/fees/ads/bloat started. Jellyfin is great, it's all I've ever used. But it's still very", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}, {"text": " and for Plexamp as a music player.", "cites": [{"id": 793682224, "item_id": 49605139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605139", "by": "c0nsumer", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening.", "excerpt": "Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well. I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give", "context": "ripped 1800+ CDs", "use_case": "music server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 792311200, "item_id": 49519450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519450", "by": "yard2010", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp", "excerpt": "While moving from spotify to youtube music a few years ago I bought a vinyl player to listen to full albums and fell for it. Then when I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp I realized I'm not using the player anymore since I'm using Plexamp to listen to albums. Plexamp is not perfect and not open source unfortunately, but it's a really good non-enshitified product. I had to migrate away ", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted music library", "switched_from": "YouTube Music", "story": "Fastpotify"}, {"id": 802995921, "item_id": 50187245, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187245", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media", "excerpt": "I switched over to Emby a while back for video, but kept plex in a limited capacity for music since I really like Plexamp. The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media, even if file formats were inconsistent. That was a growing pain for Emby, so it was another reason I kept plex for music. Is there a good alternative to plex for music?", "context": "", "use_case": "music library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is the buggy redesigned client apps, especially on Apple TV,", "cites": [{"id": 802989456, "item_id": 50186841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186841", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app. I switched to Plezy as a client (still Plex server) but don't love it either. I really did like the old Plex UI on ATV. I don't know what I'll do going forward. Jellyfin is rough (I've tried!) and especially for external users (family).", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802985904, "item_id": 50186619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186619", "by": "PierceJoy", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Honestly plex deserves to fail at this point. They\u2019ve been doing stupid user hostile shit for years.", "excerpt": "The new Apple TV app is terrible. It\u2019s completely redesigned, and visually looks good I suppose, but it\u2019s so buggy and has terrible UX. So terrible, in fact, that after a decade of using plex I finally became a cliche and switched to jellyfin. The player isn\u2019t quite as polished as plex, but it isn\u2019t as buggy, and I\u2019ll probably just take an open source player and have Claude customize it to my liking. Honestly plex de", "context": "decade-long Plex user", "use_case": "media server and player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802643473, "item_id": 50165217, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165217", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Apple TV UI change drove me crazy.", "excerpt": "The Apple TV UI change drove me crazy. I switched to Plezy but it\u2019s still not quite what I want. The good news is, it\u2019s open source, so I can modify it if I want to, and it supports Plex and jellyfin, which would make switching to jellyfin in the future easier.", "context": "Apple TV user", "use_case": "media server and client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802528288, "item_id": 50158018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50158018", "by": "whycome", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it.", "excerpt": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it. AFAIK they switched to a shared codebase to make it easy for the devs to deploy to multiple devices. But, it came at the expense of UX for pretty much all devices. They don\u2019t use native video services on things like iPhone.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 793724385, "item_id": 49607774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607774", "by": "lode", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Plex's pretty terrible native players", "excerpt": "I recently switched from Plex's pretty terrible native players to Plezy (on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS). Plezy supports both Plex and Jellyfin as a backend - I'm not sure if there is 100% feature parity.", "context": "", "use_case": "native media players", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}]}, {"text": " alongside frustration with ads and other user-hostile changes that drove many to Jellyfin.", "cites": [{"id": 803031217, "item_id": 50189451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50189451", "by": "tstrimple", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content.", "excerpt": "More than likely Plex realizes where their money comes from. It's not streamlining personal video content playback. That's how they built their reputation, but they make their money on integration deals and filling your home screen with other people's content. I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content. I've since switched to Jellyfin.", "context": "former Plex Pass user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 783807698, "item_id": 48987981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987981", "by": "tkcranny", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago", "excerpt": "Infuse is terrific software, and supports jellyfin and smb. I use it for jellyfin and absolutely love my setup. I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago, and will never look back.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 742702689, "item_id": 46418918, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46418918", "by": "ku1ik", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "several years ago I had enough of their bullshit, switched to Jellyfin", "excerpt": "There\u2019s always risk of a rug pull or going the wrong direction with \u201copen-source\u201d software developed by a for-profit company (Plex, MinIO, Mattermost in this example). When choosing software that I run in my \u201chomelab\u201d I lean towards community developed projects first. They may not always have as high quality as the ones offered by commercial entities but they\u2019re just safer for the long term and have no artificial lim", "context": "homelab user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting is being enshittified"}, {"id": 769426865, "item_id": 48089179, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48089179", "by": "BowBun", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "given Plex's shitty track record", "excerpt": "I switched to Jellyfin and also don't regret it. I agree the quality is lower, BUT that sacrifice in this case was worth it given Plex's shitty track record. If any of y'all are interested in helping the Jellyfin project, that would be dope!", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex's price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Easy sharing", "summary": "Inviting family and friends is simple, and non-technical users can watch with almost no help.", "quotes": [{"id": 802509312, "item_id": 50156832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50156832", "by": "wolrah", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "excerpt": "Did you miss the point about working on random devices? That's the key to why I use Plex at all. If I have to install and set up a VPN client on it I'd just use Jellyfin because at that point I've limited myself to only my devices. Also of course friends/family. The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 783936753, "item_id": 48996047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996047", "by": "IAmBroom", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "far more effort than saying, \"Find Plex in your media sources.\"", "excerpt": "I'd prefer to be exclusively on Jellyfin. It simply has more features that I use - specifically, collections are great non-hierarchical groupings. But periodically my system will refuse to see the Tailscale server, and I'll have to do some black magic tech operation like reinstalling to get it back. Additionally, guiding a friend remotely through installing both Jellyfin and Tailscale is far more effort than saying, ", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783807521, "item_id": 48987970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987970", "by": "muppetman", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others", "excerpt": "Because Plex worked amazingly ~5-6 years ago, while Jellyfin was still very early stage. It'd sort of work. So there's a lot of \"Well I'm already using Plex\" inertia. Plus Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others etc etc. Once they got all that of course, then the changes/fees/ads/bloat started. Jellyfin is great, it's all I've ever used. But it's still very", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}, {"label": "Polished apps", "summary": "Clients look and work consistently across platforms and feel more polished than Jellyfin's.", "quotes": [{"id": 783838784, "item_id": 48989924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48989924", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin", "excerpt": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin (that\u2019s personal but even the name Jellyfin irks me, I hate jellyfish), which is something I value more than openness. Also I bought the Plex lifetime a few years ago during Covid and at that time Jellyfin was nowhere near Plex in terms of user friendliness, Plex already had a TV app, a mobile app with ability to download locally, a f", "context": "has Plex lifetime pass", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 802990816, "item_id": 50186926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186926", "by": "dewey", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently.", "excerpt": "Because I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently. I only recently switched to Jellyfin because Hetzner blocks Plex, but otherwise I wouldn't have had a big reason to switch.", "context": "lifetime pass holder", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 771107328, "item_id": 48194208, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194208", "by": "infecto", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Plex just works without any setup in my experience", "excerpt": "Smart move. Lifetime passes are not very sustainable for a business. Especially when they own and run a lot of the flow. This prices out most purchases and gets folks funneled into regular payments. I use Jellyfin now but still think it\u2019s an overall downgrade compared to the plex experience. Plex just works without any setup in my experience where I have always had hiccups with Jellyfin.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}]}, {"label": "Reliability", "summary": "Several users describe it as reliable and predictable, including at home and while travelling.", "quotes": [{"id": 776869601, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "media streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 783887936, "item_id": 48992996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48992996", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It works reliably with Plex too, I use it every time I travel or take the train", "excerpt": "It works reliably with Plex too, I use it every time I travel or take the train, not sure useless taunts are necessary here.", "context": "travels and commutes by train", "use_case": "offline media while traveling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783811744, "item_id": 48988234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48988234", "by": "exogenousdata", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the AppleTV app and it works well.", "excerpt": "Not sure of your issues or when you last tried. I recently installed Plex on my TruNAS. I use the AppleTV app and it works well. One caveat is that older AppleTVs can\u2019t do native decoding of some mkvs. But that\u2019s largely an AppleTV limitation. Though I could imagine the client being smart enough to list its abilities and the server only serving content supported by the client.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server on NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}, {"label": "Plexamp music", "summary": "Plex with Plexamp is praised as a strong self-hosted music setup that is hard to replace.", "quotes": [{"id": 793682224, "item_id": 49605139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605139", "by": "c0nsumer", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening.", "excerpt": "Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well. I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give", "context": "ripped 1800+ CDs", "use_case": "music server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 792311200, "item_id": 49519450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519450", "by": "yard2010", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp", "excerpt": "While moving from spotify to youtube music a few years ago I bought a vinyl player to listen to full albums and fell for it. Then when I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp I realized I'm not using the player anymore since I'm using Plexamp to listen to albums. Plexamp is not perfect and not open source unfortunately, but it's a really good non-enshitified product. I had to migrate away ", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted music library", "switched_from": "YouTube Music", "story": "Fastpotify"}, {"id": 802995921, "item_id": 50187245, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187245", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media", "excerpt": "I switched over to Emby a while back for video, but kept plex in a limited capacity for music since I really like Plexamp. The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media, even if file formats were inconsistent. That was a growing pain for Emby, so it was another reason I kept plex for music. Is there a good alternative to plex for music?", "context": "", "use_case": "music library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}]}, {"label": "Library handling", "summary": "Automatic media matching and default transcoding avoid problems users hit with alternatives.", "quotes": [{"id": 793681633, "item_id": 49605102, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605102", "by": "VladVladikoff", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I never had any of these problems with plex.", "excerpt": "I switched to jellyfin about 6 months ago and I can say it is definitely worse. I\u2019m constantly fighting to fix thumbnails, fix episodes to be in the same show, force rescans to get it to even recognize a show that already exists. I never had any of these problems with plex. Plex also defaults to transcoding which fixes a lot of gaps with clients that don\u2019t support certain codecs. I\u2019m often running into issues where i", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 802995921, "item_id": 50187245, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187245", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media", "excerpt": "I switched over to Emby a while back for video, but kept plex in a limited capacity for music since I really like Plexamp. The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media, even if file formats were inconsistent. That was a growing pain for Emby, so it was another reason I kept plex for music. Is there a good alternative to plex for music?", "context": "", "use_case": "music library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 783807569, "item_id": 48987973, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987973", "by": "wildzzz", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to use Plex and was a yearly subscriber mostly for the ability to download media to my phone for offline playback.", "excerpt": "Thats what I used to have 15 years ago when I was streaming over SMB to my Xbox running XBMC. It works but having something like Plex or Jellyfin is just so much nicer. It gives you the \"Netflix\" experience of browsing your media library. My Jellyfin is setup to offer an automatic \"skip intro/credits\" button. I used to use Plex and was a yearly subscriber mostly for the ability to download media to my phone for offli", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Redesigned apps", "summary": "The new shared-codebase apps, especially on Apple TV, are called buggy with poor UX.", "quotes": [{"id": 802989456, "item_id": 50186841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186841", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app. I switched to Plezy as a client (still Plex server) but don't love it either. I really did like the old Plex UI on ATV. I don't know what I'll do going forward. Jellyfin is rough (I've tried!) and especially for external users (family).", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802985904, "item_id": 50186619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186619", "by": "PierceJoy", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Honestly plex deserves to fail at this point. They\u2019ve been doing stupid user hostile shit for years.", "excerpt": "The new Apple TV app is terrible. It\u2019s completely redesigned, and visually looks good I suppose, but it\u2019s so buggy and has terrible UX. So terrible, in fact, that after a decade of using plex I finally became a cliche and switched to jellyfin. The player isn\u2019t quite as polished as plex, but it isn\u2019t as buggy, and I\u2019ll probably just take an open source player and have Claude customize it to my liking. Honestly plex de", "context": "decade-long Plex user", "use_case": "media server and player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802528288, "item_id": 50158018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50158018", "by": "whycome", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it.", "excerpt": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it. AFAIK they switched to a shared codebase to make it easy for the devs to deploy to multiple devices. But, it came at the expense of UX for pretty much all devices. They don\u2019t use native video services on things like iPhone.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}]}, {"label": "User-hostile changes", "summary": "Ads on local content, a push toward streaming, and other unwanted features alienate users.", "quotes": [{"id": 803031217, "item_id": 50189451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50189451", "by": "tstrimple", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content.", "excerpt": "More than likely Plex realizes where their money comes from. It's not streamlining personal video content playback. That's how they built their reputation, but they make their money on integration deals and filling your home screen with other people's content. I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content. I've since switched to Jellyfin.", "context": "former Plex Pass user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 783807698, "item_id": 48987981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987981", "by": "tkcranny", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago", "excerpt": "Infuse is terrific software, and supports jellyfin and smb. I use it for jellyfin and absolutely love my setup. I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago, and will never look back.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783797520, "item_id": 48987345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987345", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With media servers being something studios surely don\u2019t like, and Plex deprioritizing that aspect of the business, it seems like it\u2019s only a matter of time before they shut it down completely.", "excerpt": "Take a look at their homepage, you wouldn\u2019t even know they offer a media server looking at this. (The main URL forwards to the watch subdomain) https://watch.plex.tv/ It\u2019s now how a majority of users are using Plex as well. > In 2023, Scott Hancock, Plex\u2019s then-VP of marketing, said that Plex had more people using its online streaming service than using its media server features since 2022. https://arstechnica.com/ga", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}]}, {"label": "Playback issues", "summary": "Users report buffering, crashes, and missing hardware decoding in the Apple TV app.", "quotes": [{"id": 793739633, "item_id": 49608727, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49608727", "by": "illegalbyte2", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to constantly struggle with Plex buffering and crashing on my local network with the Apple TV app.", "excerpt": "Yep. Worth every cent. The Apple TV experience of Infuse is night and day with Plex. I used to constantly struggle with Plex buffering and crashing on my local network with the Apple TV app. Infuse just points to a file share on my NAS and streams beautifully, even at larger 4K files. I used Plex for years. I\u2019d never go back from Infuse now, and I\u2019m happy to pay that subscription to support its excellent development.", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming on Apple TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 771232225, "item_id": 48202014, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48202014", "by": "xvolter", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The official Plex app hasn't been updated to take advantage of all the hardware decoding support available on the Apple TV.", "excerpt": "The official Plex app hasn't been updated to take advantage of all the hardware decoding support available on the Apple TV. I moved to Infuse, a paid third-app, which I use to stream my Plex media content. Jellyfin official apps are sporadic though, so Infuse is popular for Jellyfin users because it is well maintained and allows you to direct stream content without transcoding as often as possible. -- I'm also the de", "context": "ex-Plex employee", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex's 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription"}, {"id": 776748192, "item_id": 48546762, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48546762", "by": "pier25", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "As for Plex I've had way too many issues to list.", "excerpt": "For years it had frame rate issues. Every second or so when watching eg Netflix you would see a micro stutter if the content wasn't at 24fps (eg PAL content at 25fps). I think this was improved recently but it's been years since I've used the Shield for anything but Plex. As for Plex I've had way too many issues to list. Networking issues, having to restart the Plex app after the device went to sleep, etc. When I swi", "context": "", "use_case": "media server client on Shield", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}]}, {"label": "Dropped features", "summary": "An app rewrite removed Watch Together, and subtitles reset between episodes.", "quotes": [{"id": 771106544, "item_id": 48194159, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194159", "by": "0xc133", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I\u2019m still salty that their last app platform rewrite dropped Watch Together as a supported feature.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m still salty that their last app platform rewrite dropped Watch Together as a supported feature. Server still supports it, browser clients still support it, as well as the older Plex apps if you were prescient enough to turn off automatic app updates and manually keep refusing to update the Plex app. This is a feature I use multiple times per week with friends who live states away. I can\u2019t believe they just droppe", "context": "", "use_case": "watching with friends", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}, {"id": 771105456, "item_id": 48194091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194091", "by": "akersten", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it resets the subtitle track to `None` when the next episode in a series starts", "excerpt": "My favorite feature of Plex is that it resets the subtitle track to `None` when the next episode in a series starts. I love manually switching on the same named subtitle track every 30 minutes! $749 is actually too cheap for such an amazing feature.", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}]}, {"label": "Lifetime price", "summary": "A lifetime pass price of around $750 is seen as far too high.", "quotes": [{"id": 771106272, "item_id": 48194142, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194142", "by": "stavros", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Plex has slowly been going down the drain.", "excerpt": "Plex has slowly been going down the drain. I could be convinced to buy a lifetime pass for $90 (even if it's just for paying to watch my own content), but $750 is strictly \"get outta here\" territory. With how it's been stagnating recently, even the current prices are a hard sell for me, especially given how \"lifetime\" with tech companies tends to mean \"~five years\". I switched to Jellyfin and haven't looked back.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}, {"id": 771105456, "item_id": 48194091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48194091", "by": "akersten", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it resets the subtitle track to `None` when the next episode in a series starts", "excerpt": "My favorite feature of Plex is that it resets the subtitle track to `None` when the next episode in a series starts. I love manually switching on the same named subtitle track every 30 minutes! $749 is actually too cheap for such an amazing feature.", "context": "", "use_case": "media playback", "switched_from": "", "story": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing"}]}, {"label": "Security, proprietary", "summary": "Users point to a past server breach and dislike that the software is proprietary.", "quotes": [{"id": 784398561, "item_id": 49024910, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024910", "by": "entropicdrifter", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Their central servers were hacked 10 months ago and passwords were leaked.", "excerpt": "I use a reverse proxy for Jellyfin remote access, people saying you need a VPN or Tailscale (which is also a VPN) are unnecessarily paranoid IMO. That said, I'm a software engineer with more than 10 years of experience and a lifelong tinkerer, and I've set up an OpenWRT One as my primary router, so my firewall is more up to date and useful than 99% of consumers and I'm comfortable restoring a PC if it gets hacked. Bu", "context": "", "use_case": "media streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 802518720, "item_id": 50157420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157420", "by": "TheCondor", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a lifetime subscription,  I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices,  it does the job.", "excerpt": "Did they start doing automatic updates? I have a lifetime subscription, I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices, it does the job. I won't bitch about their streaming ambitions, but doing automatic updates and taking security seriously would go far for them.", "context": "lifetime subscriber", "use_case": "sharing media with family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 736105696, "item_id": 46006606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46006606", "by": "par", "date": "2025-11-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Finally I moved over to Plex", "excerpt": "XBMC really takes me back. I used to love using this, and then when it switched to Kodi I got a bit confused but kept using it. Finally I moved over to Plex because I recall having some issues with Kodi i can't remember these days. But while I love Plex, i don't love the proprietary feeling of it, and would still prefer something truly open.", "context": "", "use_case": "media center", "switched_from": "Kodi", "story": "XBMC 4.0 for the Original Xbox"}]}], "who": [{"by": "jmuguy", "context": "hosts media library for parents", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187140", "date": "2026-10-21"}, {"by": "dewey", "context": "lifetime pass holder", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186926", "date": "2026-10-21"}, {"by": "aurmc", "context": "shares media server with a couple dozen friends and family", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50163389", "date": "2026-10-20"}, {"by": "TheCondor", "context": "lifetime subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157420", "date": "2026-10-19"}, {"by": "c0nsumer", "context": "ripped 1800+ CDs", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605139", "date": "2026-09-08"}, {"by": "doctoboggan", "context": "long time Plex user with a lifetime pass", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604945", "date": "2026-09-08"}, {"by": "RileyJames", "context": "parent", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272566", "date": "2026-08-12"}, {"by": "reprodev", "context": "lifetime license holder, long-time user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49047260", "date": "2026-07-25"}, {"by": "dabbz", "context": "lifetime pass holder since 2014, family setup", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48994024", "date": "2026-07-21"}, {"by": "thiht", "context": "travels and commutes by train", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48992996", "date": "2026-07-21"}, {"by": "softfalcon", "context": "pro-sumer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587225", "date": "2026-06-18"}, {"by": "godzillafarts", "context": "homelab user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48009636", "date": "2026-05-04"}], "tags": ["for sharing with family", "for non-technical viewers", "for music libraries", "self-hostable"], "use_cases": ["media server", "media streaming", "home media server", "music library source", "music library", "media server for family"], "compared": [{"slug": "jellyfin", "name": "Jellyfin", "co": 52, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 14}, {"slug": "infuse", "name": "Infuse", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "plezy", "name": "Plezy", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "kodi", "name": "Kodi", "co": 5, "switched_from": 2, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "emby", "name": "Emby", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "spotify", "name": "Spotify", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "plexamp", "name": "Plexamp", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tailscale", "name": "Tailscale", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48986091", "title": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team", "mentions": 11}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186318", "title": "Plex laid off the whole player team", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50152321", "title": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604861", "title": "Jellyfin 12.0", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030547", "title": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193055", "title": "New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing", "mentions": 4}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {"compare": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 3}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 3, "warn": 5, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 2, "recommend": 2}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 4, "warn": 3, "compare": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 3}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "warn": 2}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 4, "neutral": 7}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803031217, "item_id": 50189451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50189451", "by": "tstrimple", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content.", "excerpt": "More than likely Plex realizes where their money comes from. It's not streamlining personal video content playback. That's how they built their reputation, but they make their money on integration deals and filling your home screen with other people's content. I paid for Plex Pass and they still feel entitled to put advertisements in front of my local media content. I've since switched to Jellyfin.", "context": "former Plex Pass user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 803006305, "item_id": 50187894, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187894", "by": "linuxdaemon", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using it for about 2 weeks with Plex as the source", "excerpt": "+1 for MusicAssistant. I have been using it for about 2 weeks with Plex as the source, but MA as the player after \"we\" (my wife) decided Spotify is too expensive. Handing off between devices is my current pain point with it. It can group players so that you can do multi-room synced play, but I use that to hand off from my desktop to my phone. You can transfer the active playlist to another device. But in either case ", "context": "", "use_case": "music library source", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802995921, "item_id": 50187245, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187245", "by": "kraquepype", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media", "excerpt": "I switched over to Emby a while back for video, but kept plex in a limited capacity for music since I really like Plexamp. The thing I really like about plex was that 99% of the time, it would scan and match up my media, even if file formats were inconsistent. That was a growing pain for Emby, so it was another reason I kept plex for music. Is there a good alternative to plex for music?", "context": "", "use_case": "music library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802994240, "item_id": 50187140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50187140", "by": "jmuguy", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my parents use my Plex", "excerpt": "Question for Jellyfin users - how's the support for non-tech people that were using your library? Like my parents use my Plex, and getting them switched to something else is going to be a hell ride.", "context": "hosts media library for parents", "use_case": "media server for family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802990816, "item_id": 50186926, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186926", "by": "dewey", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently.", "excerpt": "Because I bought a lifetime pass a very long time ago, and their apps across all platforms look and work consistently. I only recently switched to Jellyfin because Hetzner blocks Plex, but otherwise I wouldn't have had a big reason to switch.", "context": "lifetime pass holder", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802989456, "item_id": 50186841, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186841", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app.", "excerpt": "Yeah, I can't believe how bad the UI/UX is for the new Apple TV Plex app. I switched to Plezy as a client (still Plex server) but don't love it either. I really did like the old Plex UI on ATV. I don't know what I'll do going forward. Jellyfin is rough (I've tried!) and especially for external users (family).", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802985904, "item_id": 50186619, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50186619", "by": "PierceJoy", "date": "2026-10-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Honestly plex deserves to fail at this point. They\u2019ve been doing stupid user hostile shit for years.", "excerpt": "The new Apple TV app is terrible. It\u2019s completely redesigned, and visually looks good I suppose, but it\u2019s so buggy and has terrible UX. So terrible, in fact, that after a decade of using plex I finally became a cliche and switched to jellyfin. The player isn\u2019t quite as polished as plex, but it isn\u2019t as buggy, and I\u2019ll probably just take an open source player and have Claude customize it to my liking. Honestly plex de", "context": "decade-long Plex user", "use_case": "media server and player", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex laid off the whole player team"}, {"id": 802676658, "item_id": 50167291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167291", "by": "prologic", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "LittleSnitch, Jetbrains IDe, Plex, Final Cut Pro, etc", "excerpt": "No, not really. There's plenty of software out there that you still pay for, or pay a license for. e.g: LittleSnitch, Jetbrains IDe, Plex, Final Cut Pro, etc", "context": "", "use_case": "paid software example", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is charging for software a thing of the past?"}, {"id": 802643473, "item_id": 50165217, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165217", "by": "joshstrange", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The Apple TV UI change drove me crazy.", "excerpt": "The Apple TV UI change drove me crazy. I switched to Plezy but it\u2019s still not quite what I want. The good news is, it\u2019s open source, so I can modify it if I want to, and it supports Plex and jellyfin, which would make switching to jellyfin in the future easier.", "context": "Apple TV user", "use_case": "media server and client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802614225, "item_id": 50163389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50163389", "by": "aurmc", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Or I did back when I used it.", "excerpt": "Me. Or I did back when I used it. Now I\u2019m on Jellyfin but the point is the same. I share my Plex/Jellyfin with a couple dozen friends and family members, all of varying levels of technical knowledge. \u201cInstall an app called Jellyfin on your smart TV\u201d is complicated enough for most people. \u201cAlso search for another app called Tailscale and now log in with my credentials, yes it\u2019s going to ask for control over your devic", "context": "shares media server with a couple dozen friends and family", "use_case": "media server shared with family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802529728, "item_id": 50158108, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50158108", "by": "gdulli", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The new UI version never made it to the Xbox client so that's what I switched to using about 6 months ago.", "excerpt": "The new UI version never made it to the Xbox client so that's what I switched to using about 6 months ago. As a bonus, I got to ditch my Roku altogether.", "context": "", "use_case": "media client on Xbox", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802528288, "item_id": 50158018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50158018", "by": "whycome", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "warn", "quote": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it.", "excerpt": "There seems to be widespread disdain for it. AFAIK they switched to a shared codebase to make it easy for the devs to deploy to multiple devices. But, it came at the expense of UX for pretty much all devices. They don\u2019t use native video services on things like iPhone.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802518720, "item_id": 50157420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50157420", "by": "TheCondor", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have a lifetime subscription,  I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices,  it does the job.", "excerpt": "Did they start doing automatic updates? I have a lifetime subscription, I use plex to share the media with the wife and kids on all of our devices, it does the job. I won't bitch about their streaming ambitions, but doing automatic updates and taking security seriously would go far for them.", "context": "lifetime subscriber", "use_case": "sharing media with family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 802509312, "item_id": 50156832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50156832", "by": "wolrah", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "excerpt": "Did you miss the point about working on random devices? That's the key to why I use Plex at all. If I have to install and set up a VPN client on it I'd just use Jellyfin because at that point I've limited myself to only my devices. Also of course friends/family. The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends and family", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer"}, {"id": 793932000, "item_id": 49620750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49620750", "by": "doctoboggan", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "They are served up by Plex", "excerpt": "I use it for audiobooks. They are served up by Plex and I use the Prologue iOS app which is a great audiobook listening experience.", "context": "", "use_case": "serving audiobooks", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 793739633, "item_id": 49608727, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49608727", "by": "illegalbyte2", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to constantly struggle with Plex buffering and crashing on my local network with the Apple TV app.", "excerpt": "Yep. Worth every cent. The Apple TV experience of Infuse is night and day with Plex. I used to constantly struggle with Plex buffering and crashing on my local network with the Apple TV app. Infuse just points to a file share on my NAS and streams beautifully, even at larger 4K files. I used Plex for years. I\u2019d never go back from Infuse now, and I\u2019m happy to pay that subscription to support its excellent development.", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming on Apple TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 793724385, "item_id": 49607774, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607774", "by": "lode", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Plex's pretty terrible native players", "excerpt": "I recently switched from Plex's pretty terrible native players to Plezy (on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS). Plezy supports both Plex and Jellyfin as a backend - I'm not sure if there is 100% feature parity.", "context": "", "use_case": "native media players", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 793682224, "item_id": 49605139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605139", "by": "c0nsumer", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening.", "excerpt": "Yes, this is the big one for me. Seemingly unlike a lot of folks, Plex is my main music server. Years ago I ripped all my CDs (1800+, IIRC) and Plex + Plexamp is really, really, really good for listening. I haven't yet found anything else that works as well. I use Plexamp on desktop/laptop computers and then the Android and iOS apps for on-the-go music. I tried Symfonium [1] because it seemed promising and would give", "context": "ripped 1800+ CDs", "use_case": "music server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 793681633, "item_id": 49605102, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49605102", "by": "VladVladikoff", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I never had any of these problems with plex.", "excerpt": "I switched to jellyfin about 6 months ago and I can say it is definitely worse. I\u2019m constantly fighting to fix thumbnails, fix episodes to be in the same show, force rescans to get it to even recognize a show that already exists. I never had any of these problems with plex. Plex also defaults to transcoding which fixes a lot of gaps with clients that don\u2019t support certain codecs. I\u2019m often running into issues where i", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 793679121, "item_id": 49604945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49604945", "by": "doctoboggan", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "As a long time plex user with a lifetime pass", "excerpt": "As a long time plex user with a lifetime pass, I always enjoy seeing the good progress with Jellyfin as it will increasingly give me a soft landing for when Plex finally does something to make me move. At the very least it will hopefully keep some of plex\u2019s most user hostile behavior in check. As an aside, I recently started having Claude help me with configuring my *arr stack and it has helped tremendously. I used t", "context": "long time Plex user with a lifetime pass", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin 12.0"}, {"id": 792311200, "item_id": 49519450, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49519450", "by": "yard2010", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp", "excerpt": "While moving from spotify to youtube music a few years ago I bought a vinyl player to listen to full albums and fell for it. Then when I moved to curate and self host my collection with Plex and Plexamp I realized I'm not using the player anymore since I'm using Plexamp to listen to albums. Plexamp is not perfect and not open source unfortunately, but it's a really good non-enshitified product. I had to migrate away ", "context": "", "use_case": "self-hosted music library", "switched_from": "YouTube Music", "story": "Fastpotify"}, {"id": 788361056, "item_id": 49272566, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272566", "by": "RileyJames", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "download YouTube videos my son is interested in to Plex, watch them on the tv (or iPad)", "excerpt": "I\u2019d be in the market for this, but didn\u2019t get enough info to sign up. My first questions were: - do I need a YouTube account? - do I need a premium YouTube account? - can I use it on my tv? - and more generally, how does it work? (Which should answer all above) Current solution is: download YouTube videos my son is interested in to Plex, watch them on the tv (or iPad) I also have YouTube premium, but barely use it.", "context": "parent", "use_case": "serving kid's videos on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: KidScreen, a finite YouTube shelf chosen by parents"}, {"id": 787036625, "item_id": 49189789, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49189789", "by": "queenkjuul", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "VPN to my home server so i can access Plex, Nextcloud etc via my domain name", "excerpt": "Oof. Not actually the end of the world for me but i do have two of their free instances that i rely on every day. Lucky for me i mostly just use the functionally unlimited bandwidth they give out for free (VPN to my home server so i can access Plex, Nextcloud etc via my domain name--basically zero CPU, but lots of big file transfers) My god though, OCI is an absolute shambles, far and away the most awful cloud relate", "context": "", "use_case": "home media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oracle Just Halved Its Always Free ARM Limits"}, {"id": 786977297, "item_id": 49186081, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49186081", "by": "somehnguy", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "accessing my home plex via tailscale", "excerpt": "I use mine as a reverse proxy for accessing my home plex via tailscale and a few other small purposes. Noticed they would turn it off at random too. Setup a script to SSH into it every 5 minutes and that stopped it - it's been up for a couple years now.", "context": "", "use_case": "home media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Oracle Just Halved Its Always Free ARM Limits"}, {"id": 784756160, "item_id": 49047260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49047260", "by": "reprodev", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I still think it's a great deal and I hope that came across", "excerpt": "Hi OP here, thanks for reading this and really I'm really glad for your take on this. I get the whole \"you need a time machine\" to get a good deal and I've definitely missed out on some great ones over the years. I guess this is more for people who already have the deal and for those coming into it fresh today as the information especially from LLMs is so all over the place when I've had folks tell them that ChatGPT ", "context": "lifetime license holder, long-time user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784569392, "item_id": 49035587, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49035587", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use my TV to watch YouTube, Twitch, my Plex instance", "excerpt": "What a weird comment. I use my TV to watch YouTube, Twitch, my Plex instance, and some local TV channels replays (M6, TF1, Arte\u2026). I connect it to the internet to use the internet, not sure what you\u2019re expecting?", "context": "", "use_case": "media streaming on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784523345, "item_id": 49032709, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49032709", "by": "reprodev", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "compare", "quote": "a much bigger alternative to Plex users on the fence", "excerpt": "I have to say if Jellyfin could nail the library sharing then they would definitely be a much bigger alternative to Plex users on the fence imho", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784517329, "item_id": 49032333, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49032333", "by": "reprodev", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex but was really stubborn about it.", "excerpt": "I think that's put it maybe a bit better than I did. I moved from running XBMC then a bit of Kodi to Plex but was really stubborn about it. Once I made the move over because my new Smart TV had the Plex app I was sold. Jellyfin hits that sweet spot of being what Plex was but I hope they manage to weather the storm of losing a lot of their core team from the beginning.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "Kodi", "story": "The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 784398561, "item_id": 49024910, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49024910", "by": "entropicdrifter", "date": "2026-07-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Their central servers were hacked 10 months ago and passwords were leaked.", "excerpt": "I use a reverse proxy for Jellyfin remote access, people saying you need a VPN or Tailscale (which is also a VPN) are unnecessarily paranoid IMO. That said, I'm a software engineer with more than 10 years of experience and a lifelong tinkerer, and I've set up an OpenWRT One as my primary router, so my firewall is more up to date and useful than 99% of consumers and I'm comfortable restoring a PC if it gets hacked. Bu", "context": "", "use_case": "media streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783936753, "item_id": 48996047, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48996047", "by": "IAmBroom", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "far more effort than saying, \"Find Plex in your media sources.\"", "excerpt": "I'd prefer to be exclusively on Jellyfin. It simply has more features that I use - specifically, collections are great non-hierarchical groupings. But periodically my system will refuse to see the Tailscale server, and I'll have to do some black magic tech operation like reinstalling to get it back. Additionally, guiding a friend remotely through installing both Jellyfin and Tailscale is far more effort than saying, ", "context": "", "use_case": "sharing media with friends", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783904384, "item_id": 48994024, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48994024", "by": "dabbz", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using Plex since 2014, paid for the lifetime pass back then.", "excerpt": "I have been using Plex since 2014, paid for the lifetime pass back then. It is by-far the most used piece of software I've ever relied on (excluding any general purpose software like OS/Browser). I have my family setup on Plex, my automations, my apps, my preferences, etc. I'm so comfortable in Plex that until they do something catastrophic to my experience, I can't find the motivation to train my mother to use anoth", "context": "lifetime pass holder since 2014, family setup", "use_case": "family media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783887936, "item_id": 48992996, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48992996", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It works reliably with Plex too, I use it every time I travel or take the train", "excerpt": "It works reliably with Plex too, I use it every time I travel or take the train, not sure useless taunts are necessary here.", "context": "travels and commutes by train", "use_case": "offline media while traveling", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783871825, "item_id": 48991989, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48991989", "by": "phsau", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "It's already significantly better than Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby.", "excerpt": "It's already significantly better than Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby. Give it a try. The development team is active on their Discord. A lot of users are testing it. It's currently running a PB+ media library (which neither Jellyfin nor Emby can run) with native clients across multiple platforms. It will unseat Jellyfin.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783838784, "item_id": 48989924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48989924", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin", "excerpt": "I use Plex because the whole experience looks and feels more polished than Jellyfin (that\u2019s personal but even the name Jellyfin irks me, I hate jellyfish), which is something I value more than openness. Also I bought the Plex lifetime a few years ago during Covid and at that time Jellyfin was nowhere near Plex in terms of user friendliness, Plex already had a TV app, a mobile app with ability to download locally, a f", "context": "has Plex lifetime pass", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783811744, "item_id": 48988234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48988234", "by": "exogenousdata", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use the AppleTV app and it works well.", "excerpt": "Not sure of your issues or when you last tried. I recently installed Plex on my TruNAS. I use the AppleTV app and it works well. One caveat is that older AppleTVs can\u2019t do native decoding of some mkvs. But that\u2019s largely an AppleTV limitation. Though I could imagine the client being smart enough to list its abilities and the server only serving content supported by the client.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server on NAS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783807698, "item_id": 48987981, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987981", "by": "tkcranny", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago", "excerpt": "Infuse is terrific software, and supports jellyfin and smb. I use it for jellyfin and absolutely love my setup. I ditched plex because of missing Dolby audio support and all the use hostile channels and \u201cfeatures\u201d years ago, and will never look back.", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783807569, "item_id": 48987973, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987973", "by": "wildzzz", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to use Plex and was a yearly subscriber mostly for the ability to download media to my phone for offline playback.", "excerpt": "Thats what I used to have 15 years ago when I was streaming over SMB to my Xbox running XBMC. It works but having something like Plex or Jellyfin is just so much nicer. It gives you the \"Netflix\" experience of browsing your media library. My Jellyfin is setup to offer an automatic \"skip intro/credits\" button. I used to use Plex and was a yearly subscriber mostly for the ability to download media to my phone for offli", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783807521, "item_id": 48987970, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987970", "by": "muppetman", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others", "excerpt": "Because Plex worked amazingly ~5-6 years ago, while Jellyfin was still very early stage. It'd sort of work. So there's a lot of \"Well I'm already using Plex\" inertia. Plus Plex has very lovely, polished clients, you can easily invite people, share your library with others etc etc. Once they got all that of course, then the changes/fees/ads/bloat started. Jellyfin is great, it's all I've ever used. But it's still very", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 783797520, "item_id": 48987345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48987345", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With media servers being something studios surely don\u2019t like, and Plex deprioritizing that aspect of the business, it seems like it\u2019s only a matter of time before they shut it down completely.", "excerpt": "Take a look at their homepage, you wouldn\u2019t even know they offer a media server looking at this. (The main URL forwards to the watch subdomain) https://watch.plex.tv/ It\u2019s now how a majority of users are using Plex as well. > In 2023, Scott Hancock, Plex\u2019s then-VP of marketing, said that Plex had more people using its online streaming service than using its media server features since 2022. https://arstechnica.com/ga", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team"}, {"id": 781246488, "item_id": 48827905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827905", "by": "routelastresort", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "watching anime on Plex", "excerpt": "In addition to memory saver that another person replied about, Docker Desktop also has an MCP server functionality and marketplace (almost all free) and huge AI focus. You can hardly compare it to the others at this point. I was doing the following at the same time on my MBP this week: * running a bunch of containers + MCP servers for Claude and Codex on Docker Desktop * heavily using Claude Code with Fable and packe", "context": "", "use_case": "media streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Davit, a Apple Containers UI"}, {"id": 769426865, "item_id": 48089179, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48089179", "by": "BowBun", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "given Plex's shitty track record", "excerpt": "I switched to Jellyfin and also don't regret it. I agree the quality is lower, BUT that sacrifice in this case was worth it given Plex's shitty track record. If any of y'all are interested in helping the Jellyfin project, that would be dope!", "context": "", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plex's price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin"}, {"id": 742702689, "item_id": 46418918, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46418918", "by": "ku1ik", "date": "2025-12-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "several years ago I had enough of their bullshit, switched to Jellyfin", "excerpt": "There\u2019s always risk of a rug pull or going the wrong direction with \u201copen-source\u201d software developed by a for-profit company (Plex, MinIO, Mattermost in this example). When choosing software that I run in my \u201chomelab\u201d I lean towards community developed projects first. They may not always have as high quality as the ones offered by commercial entities but they\u2019re just safer for the long term and have no artificial lim", "context": "homelab user", "use_case": "media server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting is being enshittified"}]}