Emby
Ranked 3 of 5 media servers by recommenders
Media server people recommend for a solid, stable server and polished apps that work well. Common caveat: SQLite locking blocks running multiple instances on one config.
Media server people recommend for a solid, stable server and polished apps that work well. Common caveat: SQLite locking blocks running multiple instances on one config.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 15
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Stable server and clients
“from the start the stability has been vastly superior and now the UI is much better too”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing” “Their server is solid, the web client is solid, and their android clients are solid.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin” “it's been solid for several years now”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing” Polished apps that work well
“Emby just works, it's players are great, and issues actually get fixed.”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin” “Transcoding is a dream and the Emby apps are flawless”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Plex laid off the whole player team” “It seems a bit more polished, and works very well.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” - Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”
Used for years with little hassle
“it's been working just fine with less hassle”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it” “I use Emby now, and have been for years.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead” “I've been using it for years.”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts” Plays on many devices
“I have an Emby media server on the network, and I use the emby app on the chromecast to play content.”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features” “Stream it with Plex/Emby to any device anywhere, yours or friends'”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “If You Can't Hold It, You Don't Own It”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
SQLite locking blocks multiple instances
“I was annoyed that I couldn't use it across multiple in Docker Swarm due to locking of SQLite.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it” “SQLite locking not allowing me to run multiple instances pointing to the same config instance”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it” “I was annoyed that I couldn't use it across multiple in Docker Swarm due to locking of SQLite”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it” - Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Modern SQLite: Features You Didn't Know It Had”
Slow startup and stuttering playback
“Emby performing poorly when shuffling a playlist of different shows”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Why Apple's move to video could endanger podcasting's greatest power” “Slow transcoding startup times (or janky offline pre-probing)”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “neTV: A new option for self hosted IPTV transcoding” “Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby just stutter.”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Plex's price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin” Database and architecture criticized
“Most of the issues with the database are old sins from Emby.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “SQLite concurrency and why you should care about it” “throwing off the janky architecture of Emby”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”
Other media servers people recommend
The four most recommended other media servers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jellyfin | 385 | 133 | 74% | 13 | 1 yr28 owners | Approved |
| Plex | 219 | 218 | 50% | 13 | 10 yrs42 owners | — |
| EmbyThis page | 20 | 15 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Audiobookshelf | 17 | 1 | 94% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Plex Media Server | 15 | 13 | 54% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 42 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I'm unhappy with the offerings out there, including Emby, Plex, and Jellyfin.”
“Breaking the usability of the Android TV app and requiring us to switch to the mobile app on the TV was pretty bad.”
“Transcoding is a dream and the Emby apps are flawless”
“That was a growing pain for Emby”
“Kodi front end - emby back end. Best of both.”
“the finance of Emby to start driving choices being made in the project rather than user and technical needs and merits”
“watched markers that are already out of sync for me across Emby/Jellyfin/Plex”
“It hasn't had the problem of choking on a any videos, at least.”
“Their server is solid, the web client is solid, and their android clients are solid.”
“Emby just works, it's players are great, and issues actually get fixed.”
“It has more polish and refinement than Jellyfin”
“It's already significantly better than Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby.”
“throwing off the janky architecture of Emby”
“lifetime Emby Premiere was still reasonable when I bought it”
“barely classifies as FLOSS anymore”
“Stream it with Plex/Emby to any device anywhere, yours or friends'”
“It's fantastic. I went from Plex --> Emby --> Jellyfin and honestly if I could have afforded it I would have purchased the 100 USD lifetime license.”
“I've been using it for years.”
“I'd recommend a QNAP NAS and then install either Jellyfin or Emby.”
“both Jellyfin and Emby would be perfect replacements for you”
“I dont bother with either now.”
“from the start the stability has been vastly superior and now the UI is much better too”
“it's been solid for several years now”
“Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby just stutter.”
“it did a rugpull and changed to a proprietary license”
“I use Emby now, and have been for years.”
“because they kept a global lock on the database for exactly one process”
“I have an Emby media server on the network, and I use the emby app on the chromecast to play content.”
“Emby performing poorly when shuffling a playlist of different shows”
“Maybe Jellyfin or Emby have slight advantages in some areas”
“The base app is great and even has handy little features Plex doesn't”
“It seems a bit more polished, and works very well.”
“Slow transcoding startup times (or janky offline pre-probing)”
“it doesn't support hardware transcoding on Apple Silicon yet”
“jellyfin/plex/emby to manage your content and import it into kodi with plugins”
“Most of the issues with the database are old sins from Emby.”
“I was annoyed that I couldn't use it across multiple in Docker Swarm due to locking of SQLite”
“SQLite locking not allowing me to run multiple instances pointing to the same config instance”
“I was annoyed that I couldn't use it across multiple in Docker Swarm due to locking of SQLite.”
“it's been working just fine with less hassle”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.