TL;DR… Lowest common denominator stops people setting up tailscale or the like, along with sunken cost fallacy.

I already paid when it was cheap. I’ll stay and get my full dollars worth and then some. I paid for it, I’ll use it. When it is unusable I’ll bail. Anything else is stupid.

Problem is access outside your home for family and friends.

There are serious security gaps that make it a non starter to expose to the internet.

I’ve been using Jellyfin ever since they forked out of Envy, and honestly, it’s the biggest complaint that I have. It is incredibly difficult to make it available to friends and family who are on various devices, networks, so on and so forth.

Whereas Plex “just works.”

Jellyfin is miles better and Plex fucking spies on you

Have lifetime already. No reason to jump. Generally it just works.

No need to have another project while Plex still works fine.

I had a real problem with the media scanner - turns out it was just very slow. :(

I paid for it ages ago on a deal, and it currently suits my needs. It runs as a docker container and it just works. It’s easy enough for my elderly mom to use remotely and I’ve ripped my entire movie collection for her to watch. I also like the live tv that’s included with the pass.

I would switch in a heartbeat if it wasn’t doing what I need, but so far I have no complaints, it works well for my family’s needs.

I really like Jellyfin and it “just worked” for a few years.

Recently it’s stopped working. My dashboard can see movies but it fails to play. Have a feeling it’s a file access issue but I can’t be fucked to troubleshoot permissions so I’ll probably just start over.

This is all a fascinating thread because everyone says Plex “just works”

I started using jellyfin about 6 months ago. I don’t really know anything about plex use. However, jellyfin worked out of the box for me. Set up with a docker container and have never had any problems with it.

Its never failed to load media, or loaded duplicates or any of the other random things others have mentioned here.

For the most part it feels like people in the thread have just used Plex for a long time and had their first impression of jellyfin years ago and probably haven’t checked it out since.

Which, fair play to them, life gets busy and setting up and migrating a media library is something that takes at least a couple hours which could be spent doing anything else.

If people are new, I’m sure they won’t even bother with Plex and their ridiculously high fees. I cannot see Plex maintaining their userbase at this rate.

With them unable to maintain their userbase, I give it a year before they cancel lifetime passes and 2 years or so before it’s completely enshitified and unusable.

I stopped using Plex because it was buggy for me, stopped using Jellyfin because it didn’t have an app for my smart TV and using it in the TVs browser sucked, and now I use Emby because it’s pretty simple, works amazingly and is free. I still technically have Jellyfin running side-by-side with Emby, I just don’t use it. Jellyfin had a simple UI and basic UX, but Emby looks and feels so good.

Now, go ahead and tell me that Emby supports baby eating facists or something

I’m afraid of exposing HTTPS to the open internet.

Jellyfin is great and I run both. However, sharing access with family is a PITA compared to Plex. I paid for Plex Pass lifetime at the $75 and have no reason to fully move. Keeping Jellyfin around in case Plex tries to rug pull lifetime passes, though.

Like most people here I bought a lifetime pass years ago and Plex just works (it passes the Wife Acceptance Test).

However, I am planning on spinning up Jellyfin and giving it a go and seeing what it’s like. I’m a bit nervous reading and things like multiple versions of the same movie displaying separately but I also think I saw a plugin that fixes that.

I tried Jellyfin once about a year ago and it was… OK I guess? Certainly nowhere near as polished as the rabid fan base would have me believe, and there was something in my library that it flat out refused to play.

If I didn’t already have a lifetime Plex Pass, and it was just me hosting my own media for a user count of one, then sure, I’d use it. But none of those things are true. I need something that “just works” and Plex fits that bill.

Like most people here, I bought a lifetime pass when it was $75 and it’s paid for itself over and over again in the time since. I honestly think I’ve had more than $750 worth of value from my purchase. Sure they’ve made some odd decisions recently, but until they start actively taking away functionality or rescind existing lifetime subs then I will continue to use it.

Meanwhile, not to belittle you personally, but the fact that every thread that mentions Plex in any way, good or bad, is guaranteed to be dominated by people circle-jerking over their beloved Jellyfin has put me completely off the project, to the point that I’ve had to add the word to my blocklist. Obviously that’s not working too well or I wouldn’t have seen this post!

Lifetime pass, it still works well so why would I switch?