Jellyfin vs Plex
Jellyfin and Plex are both media server software. Jellyfin is open source under GPL-2.0, with 59k GitHub stars. Plex is a commercial product from Plex, Inc.
Which to pick
- Pick Jellyfin when
- You want Plex or Emby features without accounts, subscriptions or a vendor cloud.
- Pick Plex when
- You have a home media library and want polished apps on every device with little setup.
Side by side
A free media server that organises and streams your movies, TV, music and photos to web, mobile and TV clients, with transcoding and live TV.
A media server that organises your own films, TV, music and photos and streams them to apps on TVs, phones and browsers, plus free ad-supported streaming.
Client apps on some TV platforms are less polished than Plex's, and hardware transcoding needs setup.
Remote streaming and some features now need a paid pass, and sign-in goes through Plex's cloud even for local use.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Self-hosted server, mobile app, desktop app and cloud service
C#, .NET and FFmpeg
Not published
Open source, GPL-2.0 (strong copyleft)
Closed source, sold by Plex, Inc.
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
59k GitHub stars
3.5k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v12.4.
Not known
Other comparisons
More media servers
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.