Man I am so grateful for this project, I was afraid it would feel polished enough after having been with Plex for the last few years. But hot damn Jellyfin is so much better and keeps on giving!

I plan on switching regardless but let’s say I was on the fence… Aside from it not being owned by a for-profit company, why is Jellyfin better than Plex?

Jellyfin is 90% plex, and it’s impressive how it comes forward in leaps and bounds, but it’s not better than plex. People just appreciate it more.

If you only need that 90% that it does (and don’t need things like intro detection, conversions, mobile sync, ass/sas subtitles), then you’ll come away super happy with not having to pay plex and not being locked into plex.

It doesn’t really do much over that 90%, it’s just neat that the 90% isn’t plex

Now that’s the realistic answer I was looking for, thanks! Open source is really the only reason I want to switch. I bought the lifetime Plex pass like a decade ago so the cost doesn’t bother me. The lack of mobile sync is a bummer though

You can run both, since you have Plex paid for anyway. Then you get the best of both worlds, and can maybe get new users on the jellyfin. If they catch that last 10% difference, and it’s a platform you like since you’ll have low-stakes experience with it, maybe you’ll eventually want to move everyone over

I could ddg this, but how does the remote access work? Do I need to open ports out of my home to have users watch stuff?

I have remote access for Jellyfin using a domain I purchased just for self-hosting. Using Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) and a dynamic IP service. NPM handles directing the incoming traffic to the correct server. I point a subdomain back to my Jellyfin server. When traveling, I install the Jellyfin app on a smart TV where I am staying, or connect my laptop to the TV and just use the web interface and my subdomain. I also use the Jellyfin android app to connect remotely using a phone or tablet.

At home all my TVs use a Roku and the Jellyfin Roku app to connect locally.