Plex
Streaming service and media server
Plex is commercial media server software made by Plex, Inc. It was first released in 2009, and it is based in U.S.. Its English Wikipedia article has about 3.5k readers a month on phones.
- Made by
- Plex, Inc.
- Since
- 2009
- Wikipedia readers on phones
- 3.5k a month
- Source code
- Closed
Judgement
- What it is
- Complete system
- What it does
- 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.
- Adopt it when
- You have a home media library and want polished apps on every device with little setup.
- Watch out
- Remote streaming and some features now need a paid pass, and sign-in goes through Plex's cloud even for local use.
- Ready for
- Production-ready
- Runs as
- Self-hosted server, mobile app, desktop app and cloud service
- What the license allows
- Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
Judged on 2026-11-03 from the maker's description and Wikipedia. The license and age lines are worked out directly.
Compare Plex
Open-source alternatives to Plex
-
1
Jellyfin jellyfin
The Free Software Media System - Server Backend & API
Complete system Production-ready You want Plex or Emby features without accounts, subscriptions or a vendor cloud.
★ 59k GPL-2.0 C# Active, pushed 2 days ago -
2
Navidrome navidrome
🎧 Your Personal Streaming Service
Complete system Production-ready You own a music library and want Spotify-style access to it from any device.
★ 24k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
3
Audiobookshelf advplyr
Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server
Complete system Production-ready You own audiobook files or follow podcasts and want them streamed to your phone with synced progress.
★ 15k GPL-3.0 JavaScript Active, pushed yesterday -
4
Streama streamaserver
Self hosted streaming media server. https://docs.streama-project.com/
Complete system Usable You want a simple home video library and prefer it over Jellyfin's breadth.
★ 9.8k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed 7 days ago -
5
TubeArchivist tubearchivist
Your self hosted YouTube media server
Complete system Usable You want to keep a searchable offline copy of YouTube channels you follow.
★ 8.6k GPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed 9 days ago -
6
CloudFlare-ImgBed MarSeventh
🏖️ A serverless, open-source file hosting solution built on Cloudflare. Supports image hosting, secure file storage, and personal cloud drive capabilities.
Complete system Usable You want your own image and file hosting for a blog or project on Cloudflare's free tier.
★ 6.9k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed today -
7
Node-Media-Server illuspas
A Node.js implementation of RTMP/HTTP-FLV Media Server
Building block Usable You need a simple self-hosted RTMP ingest and playback server in a Node.js stack.
★ 6.2k Apache-2.0 JavaScript Active, pushed 3 days ago -
8
Seanime 5rahim
Open-source media server with a web interface and desktop app for anime and manga.
Complete system Usable You watch anime from your own library and want AniList tracking built in.
★ 4.3k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed 19 days ago -
9
Nginx-http-flv-module winshining
A media streaming server based on nginx-rtmp-module. In addtion to the features nginx-rtmp-module provides, HTTP-FLV, GOP cache, VHosts (one IP for multi domain names) and JSON style statistics are supported now.
Building block Production-ready You run live streaming on nginx and need low-latency HTTP-FLV for web players.
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10
TubeSync meeb
Syncs YouTube channels and playlists to a locally hosted media server
Complete system Usable You want selected YouTube channels to appear automatically in your home media server.
★ 2.8k AGPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today
Other commercial media servers
-
1
Emby Emby LLC
Emby is a personal media server that organizes and streams your own videos, music, photos, and live TV to your devices.
Complete system Production-ready You want a self-hosted media server with less dependence on a vendor cloud than Plex, and live TV recording.
522 readers a month Commercial
Under it
Every program, Plex included, runs on a microchip.
Facts come from Wikipedia and refresh weekly. Readers are counted on Wikipedia's mobile site only, because automated traffic that Wikimedia does not flag inflates desktop counts.