Honest question, because I know multiple people who are not looking to jump ship since they already have the Plex Pass.
WhatI’ve noticed is that people who prioritize privacy and just want to watch their downloads on their tv usually use jellyfin and people who prioritize ux slickness and want to run an IPTV service for their friends and family usually use plex.
It’s not a matter of privacy vs UX. I actually think Plex has ruined their UX. But if you have friends and family, some are tech-illiterate, some have their own media servers, and you all want to share with each other quickly and easily, Plex is the only viable option. Same if it’s just you, but you travel a lot, and want to watch something from your home server without lugging around a device that has access to your VPN and a screen/hdmi-out.
Jellyfin is really only viable if it’s just you on your own network.
JellyFin resource usage is absolutely horrendous and my NAS is a potato. I basically cannot run it at all.
The UI didn’t support remotes on console and use tiles. Really amateur shit. No need to set up a reverse proxy. I have a lifetime, zero need to switch.
I have a lifetime pass from many years ago when it was cheap. So I’m not in a huge rush to convert and want to do it right. But I am on the path to converting. I decided to make a major change to my home server infrastructure and it’s still in an experimental stage. Moving from a really old standalone computer I’ve used for. HTPC purposes over the years, currently dedicated to Plex combined with a few raspberry pi’s of various generations for the little stuff, and a single, good NUC for my router, to adding two additional NUCs and eventually upgrading the Plex computer with a more modern processor and video card for ML stuff for Immich and a few other systems that I plan to start using. I’m not just moving from Plex, but also a lot of Google and Nest products.
My dilemma has been Docker Swarm vs Kubernetes. I was trying to set up Kubernetes in a way that is easily repeatable and self documenting, but ended up with lots of manual steps required to install things and lots of things that I had to write my own helm charts for as well as the scripts to install and set up Kubernetes itself on each of the servers. Lots of custom stuff. Docker Swarm would be way easier, but the issue is I’m worried about Docker getting so proprietary these days and swarm mode getting so little attention, and Podman quadlets aren’t self balancing across multiple small servers like swarm. So that’s why I haven’t switched to Jellyfin yet.
Jellyfin crashes when living next to Plex in Docker, something about grabbing the same transcoder or something - I forget I’m pretty removed now.
But if I can’t run in parallel, I can’t eventually make the switch, since I can’t get started. And it’s not a great time to pick up a second box just for testing.
I know telling you that “You should have done this” isn’t helpful today, but super recommend Proxmox in the future. I have had containers running Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby all on the same physical host by utilizing LXCs. Migration could be rough, but overall it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
Proxmox sounds like VMs, which is a hard no for me since that’s why I went to Docker in the first place, to get away from the overhead of VMs. Am I misunderstanding?
Not misunderstanding, just not the full picture. Proxmox can do VMs, but LXCs are different thing.
LXCs are a ‘container’ and have some requirements that might be frustrating sporadically, but they are much lighter. They’ll present like you’d expect from a VM (Their own operating system/shell/etc) but resources are mostly shared across LXCs on a host. Overhead isn’t gone, but drastically reduced. Personal experience obviously, but it’s never been something I’ve had to seriously consider on an LXC.
I got a lifetime pass for cheap ages ago and while the company isn’t doing so well, Plex itself isn’t getting any worse. Its just not getting better.
As long as that continues, then I’m fine with staying. I only really use it for Plexamp anyway.
oh I forgot about Plexamp. Its been my main music app since it also does Android auto.
It just works so well and nothing else comes close so far.
I run both, I got the lifetime license for under $100 and it is much easier to have my various family members install the Plex app and then login than to get them on my VPN to access Jellyfin.
Grandma ain’t installing Tailscale
I tried to switch, about a year ago. Playback stuttered and or completely failed more often than not, on content which worked fine as-is in Plex.
Jellyfin is great and I run both. However, sharing access with family is a PITA compared to Plex. I paid for Plex Pass lifetime at the $75 and have no reason to fully move. Keeping Jellyfin around in case Plex tries to rug pull lifetime passes, though.
I used Emby for a couple years right before they went closed source which spawned Jellyfin and it was fine in some area (though not as polished) and better in others, but securely sharing remotely was always a huge hurdle which is not something they’ve found a solution for.
I have a lifetime pass so I have no reason to switch as of yet. Migrating people over like my elderly parents is going to be a nightmare if it ever comes to that.
Like most people here I bought a lifetime pass years ago and Plex just works (it passes the Wife Acceptance Test).
However, I am planning on spinning up Jellyfin and giving it a go and seeing what it’s like. I’m a bit nervous reading and things like multiple versions of the same movie displaying separately but I also think I saw a plugin that fixes that.
I don’t pay for plex so I don’t really care, at this point in time.
I can’t make my family members use Wireguard, they are stubborn, what can I say?
Secondly it’s the guides I saw for some specifics things I wanted, almost everything was with Plex in mind.
Thirdly I just liked how quick it was to set up and intuitive to use compared to Jellyfin.
Fourthly the Users are really easy to manage and create from Plex without me having to manage everyone.
Finally many smart TVs come with a specific subset of apps and Plex usually makes the cut while Jellyfin does not, again, family members, I can’t control what TVs they buy.
I don’t even know how to setup wireguard because I don’t have the time to tinker and learn.
To add on to the top post: with Plex you only need 1 account and can exchange access to multiple servers. I can browse all the media my account has access to with ease.
Jellyfin needs an account per server. If the client multiplexed between them seamlessly, that would probably be fine enough. But it would be nice if they supported some method of federation.
And Jellyfin has a list of CVEs that they haven’t addressed in years, which makes not want to make it visible outside my network.
I want to ditch Plex, but this is the primary sticking point for me. No criticism to the Jellyfin devs btw, they’re doing the lord’s work, I have nothing but respect for them.
Another minor one is that the Plex app works with a controller on my bazzite HTPC, but the Jellyfin one was hit or miss. I could get it to work once, and then the next day the controller would do nothing and the UI would be acting weird. I will go back and try it periodically to see if it’s ready, but last time I checked it wasn’t.
Plex clients arent great, but they are better on many TVs compared to jellyfin. Also the wife is used to it, so I don’t really want to retrain
