Plex

Long-term owners

I paid $120 for Plex 8 years ago, and if it becomes utter crap tomorrow, it's been totally worth it.

Sep 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

• JellyfinA free, self-hosted media server that keeps improving without paywalls, with broad client apps, transcoding and easy setup; critics cite database glitches, remote-access hassle and rougher polish than Plex.385recommend
• EmbyMedia 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.20recommend
• AudiobookshelfFree, self-hosted server for audiobooks and podcasts, praised as solid and easy to run, with a native Android app. Critics mention inconsistent progress saving and a weak ebook page-turning UI.17recommend
• Plex Media ServerLets you stream your own music and video to any device, with automatic metadata and easy sharing with invited users. Critics cite security flaws and a history of bugs.15recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 577 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Nearly a decade after my investment, I can stand up as many Plex servers as I want with free relay services, metadata aggregation, trailers, and extras.

   Recommends · May 2026 · in “Plex's price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin”

2. The most technologically useless people I know can operate Plex and can access my collection with basically no support necessary.

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Plex vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild to drop a cryptominer”

3. Plex gives you Media Library indexing, web app, mobile and TV apps to play content from your NAS, from anywhere in the world

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”

4. Plex tends to revise their UI and inner workings in a way that favors everything but the core media sharing platform.

   Mixed · Apr 2026 · in “WiiFin – Jellyfin Client for Nintendo Wii”

5. I've got a lot of really good things to say about Plex and sure as hell have benefitted from the lifetime license.

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”

6. I want to watch movies/shows, I don't want to spend time tinkering with my setup. And Plex provides exactly that.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “2026 is the Year of Self-hosting”

7. $750 now vs $119 when you got it is definitely the point where you have to think about the alternatives out there

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”

8. I am inured to having to re-learn the navigation UI with every new release, so that part can't be too bad.

   Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal”

9. Plex mostly "just works". The latest Apple TV client changes have me hot and there are things I don't love

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Plex laid off the whole player team”

10. Want to watch an episode of that series while you're sitting at work waiting for a long test pass? Plex.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”

11. there really is no other option like Plex. It's so insanely turnkey and easy to install on every device.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory”

12. Honestly the fact the Plex apps are on every platform and keep getting updates is worth the money for me

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Plex's price hikes prove I was right to switch to Jellyfin”

13. Have the advantage of hosting content on Plex and other media servers that you can play them remotely.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Self-hosting is being enshittified”

14. Installed Plex (via app store) and 2 weeks later everything is indexed and streams to multiple devices

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal”

15. it's getting harder these days to actually recommend it while the pricing is really all over the place

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”

16. I paid $120 for Plex 8 years ago, and if it becomes utter crap tomorrow, it's been totally worth it.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Jellyfin 12.0”

17. I despise the frequent and ugly Plex UI changes they push out, but the app works on every device

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin”

18. Then two years later they come up with something that really alienates me (that FAST service)

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Castro Podcasts – Things I got wrong: Support”

19. no more having to manually copy shows/movies they want to watch over a LAN or using a USB HDD

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”

20. I bought the app and now it wants a subscription, so I both don't understand their pricing models and don't trust their lifetime pricing now.

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin”

21. It has felt like they were in a Bending Spoons-esque mode for many years where they just tried to suck all the money possible out of it

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Plex laid off the whole player team”

22. Their business leadership decided to make Plex more like a TV than a personal media server, and the UI / UX changes reflected this.

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”

23. Plex could reverse this trend in a week if they decided to prioritize work on any feature that their core market actually wanted.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “WiiFin – Jellyfin Client for Nintendo Wii”

24. We run a plex server and I hate it. Hiding "timer" functionality (turn off in x minutes) behind a paywall feels like a shit move

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin”

25. Plex used to be the app self hosting nerds loved because it stayed focused on organizing and streaming personal media libraries

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Plex keeps turning into social media and users are getting fed up”

26. they starting charging to access someone's library that had been shared with you if the sharing party did not have Plex pass

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Self-hosting is being enshittified”

27. having to pay 30/year to access someone else's server, who's already paying a regular Pass and the infra, sure seems abusive

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”

28. I finally moved on from Plex a year ago after some kind of upsell nag on a basic feature after already paying for a plan.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Plex's 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription”

29. At this point a Plex subscription is on par with a Netflix subscription in price, but you have to bring your own media.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Plex's 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription”

30. Plex was awesome, and then Plex wanted to be the shittiest version of whatever CBS is calling their streaming service.

    Criticizes · Apr 2026 · in “WiiFin – Jellyfin Client for Nintendo Wii”

31. I use Plex with the arr stack and sure it has more configuration needed upfront but once that’s done you no longer need to figure out which streaming service has what.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Netflix raises prices for every subscription tier by up to 12.5 percent”

32. Plex offered the best deep-linking functionality and would wrap all of your content with that... but it was still somewhat unreliable.

    Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids”

33. Plex very conveniently merged both into a single deduplicated library that we could pick from when watching something on the TV.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”

34. I did the migration and lost no titles, but it was the final nail in my personal arc that made me move wholesale to Plex + NAS

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “If You Can't Hold It, You Don't Own It”

35. But there is a Plex server. The "Netflix sucks and I don't have enough control over my shows" problem was solved years ago.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead”

36. Plex is just the most polished and feature rich that I haven't had a need to look at anything else for a long time.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “The Corporate Creep of Plex: Why it may be time to move to Jellyfin”

37. running in the US just fine, but that's for sure not for everyone and was a few headaches to get up and running

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use may imply consent [pdf]”

38. Plex has become a platform, and I imagine a certain number of their customers are revenue generating providers.

    Mixed · May 2026 · in “Plex's 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription”

39. Plex also defaults to transcoding which fixes a lot of gaps with clients that don't support certain codecs.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Jellyfin 12.0”

40. Plex is definitely the least bad tool that let me enjoy my music without subscribing to Spotify and others.

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Beets: The music geek’s media organizer”