Hello! I’m just a guy who saw plex is on sale.
My current setup uses jellyfin, I use FLAC music and 4k films. I use Finamp on my iPhone and the jellyfin desktop client.
Now my question is, why?
Both platforms are great but I’m a guy who likes all free. No farm, no foul to the lifetime pass users of plex though. But I’ll scroll and I’ll see: “100% worth it!” ; “I could never go back”. Now this doesn’t capture everyone’s opinions, but out of the features they display that make lifetime unique is Transcoding (something I think you should have a right to after owning the processor) and plexamp which, I cannot rate its experience, but from what I hear it’s solid. But I’ve also heard it’s got its bugs and downloads can be finicky.
So, as a jellyfin user, why might I care or want to switch to plex?
(I’m not ignoring the issues jellyfin has, I don’t really experience any though and bugs are minimal for my case)
(I’ve posted in this sub instead of plex because I want mixed, not skewed results and yes I’ve searched the history, but I don’t think any question truly validates why transcoding or similar should be a $100+ “feature”. That’s snake oil marketing.
If Jellyfin covers all your needs and you’re already familiar with it, there’s not much reason to change to Plex.
Plex pass will let you skip intros and credits. It’s a nice-to-have. It will let you download your media to your phone/laptop so you can view it without an internet connection. Also a nice-to-have, but not a huge selling point.
I like Plex for how easy it is to access my media from outside my network. The apps are great, and it’s easy to add family and friends so they get access too. With Plex pass you can give them filtered access - great with kids in the house.
My Plex server runs from my Synology 920+, and I’ve never had any luck getting transcoding to be a useful feature - lots of freezes and buffering. Better to have the arr’s grab media in a format that will direct play on the client and not bother with the headache.
I use PlexAmp and it’s a very good music player on par with anything else.
Nothing is so good/problem free that I wouldn’t replace it in a heartbeat the moment Plex does some questionable changes to the service. I got my Plex pass many years ago at a third of the cost that it is today, and I didn’t really know what I was getting, other than making the Plex app free for everyone logging in to my server.
I have an old intro-skipper plugin that works really well for Jellyfin and I hear the new version / fork can also skip credits but I haven’t checked it out yet.
Well, It Just Works™. Until recently I haven’t had any reason to change. It’s user friendly, easy to set up and looks great.
Though I’ll be switching to Jellyfin soon, when I have the time, because (for reasons irrelevant to this comment) my NAS where Plex is located doesn’t have access to the internet which somehow means Plex cannot show me my local files which I’m not particularly fond of.
What I’ll be missing when I make the switch is an app for Tizen TVs.
I don’t mind paying for the past and future development of a service I enjoy. Transcoding is an essential feature for me. While it’s a free feature of the processor, developing software support for it took effort. Other services provide that support for free, but Plex bundles it with other features they charge for. I think that’s fine. As I see it my money goes to support the full experience, from wide app support and good UI to Plexamp and other fun and useful side projects. In fact in a way I am subsidizing much of the experience for free users. Again, I don’t mind, as long as it means Plex’s development and maintenance continues.
I don’t get why people get so tribal about this. I think it’s great Jellyfin is a free and open alternative and if that works for you, fantastic!
I’ve never used jellyfin so I can’t compare. But plex has always worked well for me and I believe in paying for software that I enjoy using.
Jellyfin isn’t even close to the level of polish and ease of use as plex. It’s junk when compared side by side.
Why?
Because I picked up a lifetime pass over 10 years ago, long before Jellyfin/Emby was even heard of.
Back then, it worked perfectly fine, and now it works, perfectly fine.
It has a good app on my Rokus/Shields. It just works.
When, it stops working, or they pull something stupid, I have Jellyfin already ready to go.
Until then though, plex reigns king. (Also, I like its interface more then Jellyfin)
Plex is still on top for sharing your server with others and offers clients on so many more platforms. My TV for example is a Samsung and there is no Jellyfin app for it. I run both side by side because I prefer jellyfin for use on my devices but there’s a time where having plex there is useful
Now my question is, why?
jellyfin isn’t nearly as polished as plex. it’s like running windows 98. emby looks better than jellyfin!
I’ve never used Emby. I will agree though, I just need to use Plex more to not be ignorant of these differences.
My Jellfin server has crashed a few times for no ryhme or reason without having touched it for a couple of weeks (no patches, no watchtower for docker, just dead). Plex has been fine.
Plex has proper intro skipping.
I was able to set up parental controls on Plex very quickly without any headache.
The wife/kid factor. Plex was/is easier for them.
The amount of time I have invested into managing Plex over the past decade is still less than I have into managing Jellyfin in the past 3 years.
Lifetime plexpass was gifted to me.
- No app. Just web required
- No user management - that’s handled by someone else (Plex)
- Stupid simple (app for everything) so end users (family) don’t have to… figure it out. Thus fewer IT tickets for me.
- Just works.
I moved from plex to jellyfin. I was on plex at first because I was a noob at docker, and plex had a simple package install for my Synology.
Same reason people pay for windows instead of using Linux for gaming. You can accomplish the same task on both but one has more support and is more mature.
Plex has more quality of life features than jellyfin. And for most, that is worth the cost and closed source nature of Plex.
If you’re happy with jellyfin there is no need to switch. Especially to free Plex.
Is this a jellyfin shitposting sub now?
I really like “Discover” in combination with the play/watch list.
I like Plex due to legacy compatibility. I have an old Samsung TV from 2012 and Plex still works on that.
I don’t need to pay anything and I can see my movies everywhere in the world thanks to vpn hosting.
It does exactly what I need.
