I stopped choosing between Plex and Jellyfin and my media server is better for it

The self-hosted media community likes to treat Plex and Jellyfin as opposites of the same coin, which for the most part they are. Those who like Plex’s polished interface and feature set are expected to overlook its increasingly commercial bent. On the other hand, if Jellyfin’s open source philosophy and total control are what you value, you’ll have to accept a lot of rough edges in return. Like most people, I thought the ultimate goal was to choose one over the other.

Then I just stopped trying. On the contrary Completely replacing Plex with JellyfinNow I have them installed side by side, both pointing to the same media libraries. Now I just use whichever makes more sense. To be honest, I expected this to be a temporary experiment, but it has now become my permanent setup. It turns out that these two media servers complement each other better than they compete.

Plex is still the easiest way to share my library

However, Jellyfin doesn’t have to replace it to be useful

The biggest reason Plex continues to gain space on my server has very little to do with me – it’s everyone else. Whether it’s family members watching from afar, friends watching movies, or my partner picking something to watch from the couch, Plex remains the easiest recommendation. The apps are polished and easy to use for all ages, and there’s literally only one client to download across all platforms. Best of all, remote access is almost effortless, and no one needs a class or a screen share call to stream my media library.

Still, that doesn’t mean I want to do all my work the owner already viewed via Plex. In fact, I rarely do. When I’m at home on the local network, Jellyfin is often the first app I open. It starts instantly, connects completely without the need for external authentication, and is purpose-built for someone who already understands their server. It’s quite refreshing to see a media platform that just gets out of the way.

Instead of forcing one app to cater to two completely different audiences, I let each show its strengths. Plex has now become a media server that I recommend to everyone, while Jellyfin has quietly become a server that I enjoy using myself. It wasn’t until I stopped expecting any one of them to excel at everything that I found the “compromises” finally disappeared.

Jellyfin allows me to test my basic settings without risking them

One library, two completely different experiences

One thing I really like about Jellyfin is how unapologetically customizable it is. I can test new pluginsexperiment with metadata providers, modify CSS themes, or test community-built extensions without worrying about accidentally crashing my family’s trusted media server. Effectively speaking, there is Jellyfin be my sandbox.

It’s that freedom that changed the way I approached self-hosting. I don’t mind installing a new plugin or changing the interface at all. Instead, I just go ahead and try because there’s nothing to lose. If something goes south, all I have to do is delete it and move on. In the meantime, Plex will continue to do what it’s always done, which is reliably serve up content without anyone noticing that I’m doing something wrong behind the scenes.

Here, so to speak, I’ve completely separated experimentation from reliability, which has made me appreciate both platforms even more. I don’t need Plex to be infinitely customizable, and I don’t need Jellyfin to prioritize simplicity above all else. Both servers have room to adopt their different philosophies, and by running both, I enjoy the benefits of each without inheriting the trade-offs of either.

It turns out that redundancy is a very useful feature

Self-hosted software is pretty reliable… until one evening it crashes for some reason and you really need it. Even Plex may decide it can’t authenticate because the update presented an unexpected error. Regardless, there’s always a chance that the app you depend on won’t be available when movie night starts.

In situations like this, having both media servers already configured has paid off many times over. since both of these servers if you point to the same memory, the switch takes a few seconds. I don’t have to frantically sort things out while everyone else is waiting, and I’m not likely to cancel plans for the evening. I just have to pick up the remote, open another app and continue watching.

This redundancy requires zero additional effort even after the initial setup. Both servers scan the same folders, organize the same movies and independently maintain their own databases. Now this convenience may seem overkill or unnecessary, but when it saves the day, you’ll wonder why you ever relied on a single point of failure in the first place.

I stopped thinking of Plex and Jellyfin as competitors

Now they solve various problems

For the longest time I stuck with Plex and Jellyfin like competing products fighting for the same job. Every update, feature, announcement, or community discussion reinforces the idea that one must eventually replace the other. As I ran them together, it became more apparent that this comparison no longer reflected how I used both platforms.

Plex is fantastic with its convenience and Jellyfin just can’t beat that. Jellyfin, on the other hand, is all about ownership, and that’s not something Plex can boast about. The former provides easy access to media from anywhere, while the latter prefers to keep every aspect of the experience under your control. Of course, these overlapping goals invite comparison, but they are not the same. These are completely different philosophies built around the same collection of movies and TV shows.

Once I accepted that, I stopped choosing both because it honestly just doesn’t make sense anymore. My server doesn’t care what software is indexing the media sitting on my hard drives, and neither do I. What’s important is that I no longer feel like I’m compromising in any way because each platform fills a role that the other doesn’t completely replace.

OS

Windows, macOS, Linux

Individual price

Free, $6.99/month, $250/lifetime

Plex is the ultimate home media server software to replace your streaming subscription.

If I were starting over today, my decision would not be so clear

For a long time, I viewed Jellyfin as a promising alternative that wasn’t quite ready to be my primary media server. I don’t see it that way anymore. The open source server has now become a pretty impressive, polished platform that deserves a place next to Plex without being considered a backup. Jellyfin is, of course, a genuine first-choice app, depending on what you value most.

The only reason Plex continues to occupy the driver’s seat on my server is because I already have a lifetime Plex Pass and have been invested in its ecosystem for years. If I were to start my media server from scratch today, I wouldn’t rule out building everything around Jellyfin. That’s probably the highest compliment I can pay for an open source project that has quietly gone from a hobbyist recommendation to prime-time software.