this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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Text:

I consent to Plex to: (i) sell certain personal information (hashed emails, advertising identifiers) to third-parties for advertising and marketing purposes; and (ii) store and/or access certain personal information (advertising identifiers, IP address, content being watched) on my device(s) and share that information with Plex’s advertising partners. This data is used to deliver personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Your consent applies to all devices on which you have Plex installed. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Account Settings or using this page.

Soure: https://www.plex.tv/vendors/ (Might have to clear cache)

Can also read about the changes here: https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/

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[–] Selfhoster1728@infosec.pub 396 points 4 days ago (38 children)

I don't know why everyone in the selfhosting community still even mentions Plex or uses it.

It's closed source, not free; Jellyfin is a no brainer yet people still go to Plex??

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 281 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

The sunken cost of buying a plexpass on sale for 39 dollars 15 years ago.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 139 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I bought a Plex pass for 90 or something. I officially dropped Plex about 4 months ago now. For 90 bucks I got something like 8 years out of it. I'll call that a win, I don't feel like I wasted my money, I don't feel like I overpayed. Just moving on now.

[–] Condiment2085@lemm.ee 6 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Yeah great perspective. I think we all need to have this perspective more as many tech companies will randomly change their minds on their products.

Kind of like how I got free photo backup on my first two pixels. It was a nice feature, I'm sad it's gone, but it's fine.

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[–] akilou@sh.itjust.works 116 points 4 days ago (27 children)

Jellyfin is hardly a no-brainer. I set it up out of curiosity a few weeks ago and my first question was how do I give access to my friends and family. So I searched, and all of the results were talking about setting up a VPN or a reverse proxy or whatever. Man, I just want to tell my mom "install this app on your tv and log in", which is exactly what Plex does.

I get that Plex is enshittifying, but pretending Jellyfin is a drop-in replacement is delusional.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 37 points 4 days ago (10 children)

Jellyfin is a no-brainer. Publishing services on the Internet is complex.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 32 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 20 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Yeah, but then you're not self-hosting, you're paying or using their free services to manage that for you.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Seconded it’s not a no-brainer. I spent days trying to get it set up with Docker on two different computers and three different distros. It wouldn’t install, if it did install it had errors, if it would even open at all with anything other than a black screen. Hours trying to search how to fix it. I gave up and installed it as a standalone app on a common distro. Not as convenient, but FML it finally worked. Really felt like I wasted my time. Personally, this is the exact bullshit linux fanatics completely ignore when they insist on how great linux is vs whatever. I’ve got a shitload of patience, willpower and modest skill to try to get something like this working, but 99% of the population doesn’t. That’s why linux will stay on the back burner. And if it ever becomes just as easy as Windows…guess what? You’ll have many of the same problem as Windows.

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[–] VitabytesDev@feddit.nl 6 points 3 days ago

Since you need to self-host Jellyfin, then you are responsible for making the service public.

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I just want to tell my mom “install this app on your tv and log in”

I mean, if I didn't know better, I'd start to suspect that the large multimedia corporations building walled gardens of apps in closed Smart TV ecosystems don't really want you to be able to easily tell your mom how to watch shit for free. I mean they'll let you, if you really insist on having that app available, but someone will have to pay THEM money instead first (and probably let them spy on you). That's their racket.

The reason Plex can do it is because they do make money, doing shitty stuff like this to their users, so they can use that money to open these doors into SmartTV-land. The root of the problem is that your SmartTV itself (and your mom's) is a locked down proprietary piece of shit, designed exclusively for shoving all proprietary content these media companies develop down your throat, and there are few convenient workarounds that are available to us, because of course they make workarounds as inconvenient as possible.

Unless you're willing to ditch everything proprietary and insist on open technology for everything, which is hard on its own, you're going to end up with a janky mix of proprietary and open systems that always require some compromises, because the proprietary stuff forces us to compromise. It's literally a "this is why we can't have nice things" situation.

[–] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 14 points 4 days ago

Or... You know... Jellyfin could make it so I don't have to setup elaborate VPN schemes and have every user install that on every one of their devices. For example they could fix their security issues to make it safer to expose JF through a reverse proxy, bug they refuse to not break client compatibility

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[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 58 points 4 days ago (6 children)

For me it's PlexAmp and the few tech-illiterate friends I have who use my server for video streaming. 99% of the time, I just watch movies on my desktop with VLC player but I've yet to find a self-hosting music player half as good as PlexAmp

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, the sad reality is that Plex’s setup experience is much smoother. And when you’re trying to convert people, the single largest obstacle is often social inertia. So lowering the barriers to entry is extremely important. My mother-in-law would need to sideload the Jellyfin app onto her TV, but Plex is available right on its app store.

Luckily, you can run both side by side. Jellyfin for me and my more tech-literate friends, Plex for those who don’t know/don’t care to learn.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 days ago (8 children)

I have read many people say this, but I don't understand what they mean by it. When I set up Jellyfin, it was a very simple process.

[–] RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 34 points 4 days ago

Simplicity is relative to each person's abilities and the tool in question.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (29 children)

Apparently all your friends and family are comfortable with hostnames and ip addresses. Not everyone's are. Also, not everyone wants to buy a static ip or setup a dynamic dns service or similar. Plex is definitely simpler. I have used both.

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[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Plexamp is pretty great. It's my streaming music player of choice.

After gpm shit the bed.. I vowed to never have another streaming music service.

Plexamp it is.

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[–] Getting6409@lemm.ee 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Maybe you've tried it already, but navidrome is a great purpose built music streamer. I was using subsonic back in the day, then airsonic, then airsonic advanced. When I first got on navidrome it was a tough pill to swallow since I never maintained my tags, but I gave a little time here and there to comb through it and in the end it feels like a worthwhile investment. It paid off a little bit more when I adopted lyrion music server and squeeze players for local playback around the home since this organizes by the same tags (mostly), so the whole library is kind of plug and play with things that honor the same tags.

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[–] dmtalon@infosec.pub 39 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

"still even mentions plex"

I've been using plex for a LONG time, and bought a lifetime plexpass 12 years ago. I'm pretty sure I haven't started a thread on Lemmy regarding Plex, but I'm sure I'm not alone as a LONG TIME user. Plex just works for me and cost me $75 in 2013. Right now I've got no pressing reason to switch.

If they remove my plexpass features, or start showing me ads / making my user experience worse, then I'll probably look to change, and won't participate in these awful 'plex' posts.

P.S. we should encourage as much new content on Lemmy as possible if you ask me.

[–] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Same with me, 12 years, about $70, and it still works just as well as ever. I turn off any new features I don't want, my friends and family can still stream from me for free since I have plex pass already, and it's easy to share without having to pass around my IP address.

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[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 32 points 4 days ago (35 children)

Until jellyfin adds better user log in plex will still thrive. I do the self hosting I don't want a call every few days about they can't log in. The one click Gmail login with plex is amazing.

[–] enemenemu@lemm.ee 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I don't share videos with people using google to log into any site.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 47 points 4 days ago (11 children)

The whole anti Google holier than thou is annoying at these levels.

Ok fine, don't use Google. But telling your friends and loved ones to switch email providers over your crusade is worse than vegans telling you about their diet.

I'm all for kicking Google to the curb. I'm not for shoving my beliefs down other people's throats.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 4 days ago (29 children)

It's not "shoving my beliefs down other people's throats" telling them that these are the options for signing in the service I'm hosting

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[–] Marighost@lemm.ee 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Agreed. I have a dozen or so people using my Plex. There is no conceivable way I'm going to get my less tech literate friends and family to use jellyfin, much less am I going to find a way to set it up for remote access with my limited knowledge. Plex is just too convenient right now.

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

i dont get this.. im technically still usin emby, but user management is beyond simple and requirs no upkeep. no one has asked me to reset their passwords and ive got a few dozen people usin my instance.

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[–] Decq@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Sounds more of an user problem than a jellyfin problem? If they can't remember their login I'll just not add them to jellyfin.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 43 points 4 days ago

And this is why people use Plex.

I mean, all joking aside, I wish FOSS alternatives paid enough attention to UX and didn't unironically run on this sort of mentality, because I do want good open source alternatives I can use without getting annoyed or having the other people I'm trying to give access telling me that they're actually just gonna use the other thing if you don't mind.

[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 22 points 4 days ago (10 children)

The overall vast majority of everyone is completely tech illiterate. We can blame them for their lack of tech skills all we want but that won’t change anything. Jellyfin needs a better UX before it’s feasible to use over Plex when sharing libraries with other users.

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[–] EisFrei@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)
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[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (8 children)
[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago (17 children)

I don't mean to diminish your comment, but I just went through the setup process for both Plex and jellyfin (moving to new hardware) and there was no significant difference between the setups.

Maybe this wasn't the case a few years ago, but jellyfin is just a setup, point to libraries, and enable hardware accel.

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

I'll switch to jellyfin as soon as it works nearly as well.

But for the moment it's missing a lot of features compared to Plex.

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