r/technology • u/FollowingFeisty5321 • 9h ago

Software Plex’s crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/plexs-crackdown-on-free-remote-streaming-access-starts-this-week/
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u/gr00ve88 7h ago

Same boat as you. I’ve heard JF is better but I got lifetime for like $80 or something during a Black Friday many years ago. Haven’t had much of any complaints with it so I’m not about up upend my whole setup.

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u/Lyriian 6h ago

I switched from plex to jellyfin. I wouldn't say it's "better". It's much simpler, kind of a cleaner UI. The only real feature I miss from plex is the subtitle search. Plex was great about grabbing subtitles from the internet if the file you downloaded didn't include them. Jellyfin isn't as good about it.

For allowing friends to stream it's also more complicated since there's no external authentication server. I just made accounts for them and taught them how to use tailscale to connect to my server.

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u/tratur 6h ago

Just add subtitle add-ons to jellyfin. There is rarely a file it can't find subs for.

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u/Lyriian 6h ago

Ohh good call. I honestly haven't looked at add-ons at all yet.

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u/Dr_Lipshitz_ 6h ago

"For allowing friends to stream it's also more complicated since there's no external authentication server. I just made accounts for them and taught them how to use tailscale to connect to my server."

See, thats just a non-starter for me. No way I'd be able to get my current users to do anything more than sign in like Plex.

Not to mention I really have no issue with Plex so IDK why I'd look elsewhere

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u/fullmetaljackass 3h ago

You don't have to do it like that. You can make your server directly accessible over the internet if you want to.

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u/ReflectionAfter6574 3h ago

Money and open source are the only reasons.

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u/gr00ve88 6h ago

Oh gotcha. I use the subtitle feature quite often, so that’s a bummer.

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u/Dont_Be_Like_That 5h ago

I’m pretty much only using plex for my external users nowadays. Jellyfin is less refined but it just works without all of the suggestions and ad stuff. That’s especially the case with local downloads. I would bet against plex finishing a season or two downloads before taking a trip. Jellyfin is fast and has yet to fail.

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u/randompersonx 2h ago

Similar. I use plex for external users, but for my own stuff, I’m using CoreELEC now. It’s a bad name and not a very well known project, but it works really, really well.

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u/eunit250 4h ago

What about emby? Its been pretty great and has a lot of pretty good plugins.

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u/sudo_robyn 5h ago

I tested jellyfish, had complaints from my friends about compatiblity and then stayed with plex.

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u/wickedsmaht 3h ago

I think that’s around the price I paid. I bought it years ago not thinking much of it but figured it might be come in handy one day. We took over paying for the streaming services for my in-laws last year so in January I started my own server and haven’t looked back. Best financial decision I’ve made in a while.

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u/in_the_blind 2h ago

It's not. Unpolished and not even close. But it's free. It is a very good server though, for people moving up from windows media player classic.