Plex vs Jellyfin - Which Should You Use on Your NAS?

Video Chapters
00:00 - The Start
01:03 - Disclaimer - This Video is for ALL/Most NAS Brands and Software
02:58 - Why Do People Choose Plex and/or Jellyfin on their NAS over Native 1st Party Apps?
04:02 - Plex vs Jellyfin - PRICE & COSTS
07:02 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Features & Services
14:28 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Customization & Add ons
18:38 - Plex vs Jellyfin - The GUI of the APP and Player
20:37 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Downloading Media Locally
22:06 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Hardware Transcoding, Encoding and Conversions
27:17 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Server and Client Side Support
31:59 - Plex vs Jellyfin - Conclusion & Verdict
36:09 - Who Should Use Plex on their NAS?
36:42 - Who Should Use Jellyfin on their NAS?

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[cameronfrye]

Thank you for the time you have put into these comparisons. I have had a lifetime Plex pass for over 10 years, but switched to Jellyfin two months ago. Maybe my observations will help someone, sorry if it gets a bit wordy..

First, Plex is spending their time working on adding streaming services. For the purposes of a self hosted media streaming application, those are clutter (my opinion). Each update pushed my personal folders back off the main page, behind these ad supported streaming services, requiring me to set them up again. Second, Plex is constantly "phoning home". Set up a Pi-Hole and just see how many connections Plex is constantly making even when the server is sitting there idle. Third, if you are in an area where you sometimes lose internet access, and someone tries to switch users.. you can't connect to the server from that device until internet access is restored. That last one was the spark that made me decide to switch. Lines got damaged last winter and it took almost a week to get our home internet back up. By the end of that time none of our devices could access the server. Seemed kind of pointless to have a self hosted media server you can't connect to without internet access. Jellyfin handles user authentication locally, so if you can see the server on the network you can authenticate.

From the server side, Plex is more refined. That is to be expected from a paid app, but it is surprising how good Jellyfin is. Transcoding is easier to set up in Plex, but if you have the space you can do the transcoding in advance for the devices you intend to use and that's no longer an issue (which is what I do). Plex is also more tolerant when setting up Metadata.. if you inadvertently name a folder "Season Two" instead of "Season 2" Plex didn't seem to notice, but Jellyfin absolutely got lost and I had to correct a lot of those kinds of errors. I didn't find either of the servers difficult to manage, but you definitely need to be more aware and intentional when setting up Jellyfin.

The user experience in Jellyfin seems much less cluttered and substantially more responsive. Whether on a Roku or a tablet the Jellyfin app opens nearly instantly, whereas the Plex app takes a few seconds. This isn't something that was troubling in Plex, it takes about the same amount of time to open the Plex app as any other streaming app.. but now I recognize that time delay is because of the offsite connection Plex makes. Jellyfin opens more quickly because everything happens on the local network. I have also noticed that Jellyfin seems to do a better job bookmarking where you are in a movie or series. In Plex I always had to remember where I was in a series because it would get stuck from time to time. Jellyfin will remember, user by user, where someone is and return to that spot.

I don't think either one is difficult to set up or manage. I honestly expected less from Jellyfin, being an open source project, but was very pleasantly surprised. There are a few services it doesn't offer or do as well, such as music management and streaming, but I didn't really take advantage of those in Plex so their loss wasn't a big deal to me. If all you want to do is stream your personal video collection on your own network Jellyfin is the way to go in my opinion.

[topgazza]

The effort and intelligence you put into these videos is superb. Thank you to yourself and the seagulls

[US_Joe]

Only you can do a review like this. You're such an expert in this field. Thanx mate👍👍👍

[TheRacheakt]

I Run Jellyfin on Truenas Scale, My use case was "the internet is down" streaming. Something that is kinda hard with Plex's must-phone-home even for local use made it less than ideal in my use case. I have no one outside my house that I will stream to, so why pay for that.

[Irgendwasneues]

Appreciate all your work mate. For a few days now I am watching your content to educate myself to make an educated decision which NAS to buy, what to look out for etc.

Thanks 👍

[pjohnson]

Thanks going to circle back and re-watch this in a month or two as I do a personal assessment if I want to migrate from Plex to

[cutsdbz]

Great video! In my opinion, to each their own. Each of these platforms are targeted to different user group. You have the group that love to ticker and put in the extra work and do customization and smile when things work. Then you have the group the just wants to install something, do a simple user friendly setup and things just work regardless of the fee. I am a Plex user for the past 6 years. I use my 8-bay Synology as the file server and I have a PC with a P2000 Quadro for transcoding. Most of the users a share library with are of the older age group that's not tech savvy. So sending and invite and just walking through the setup on the phone is simple. When I go on vacation, I can just connect to Plex on a smart tv and just start watching, I can log out when am done. I am not bashing Jellyfin or Emby, they are good, but it's not suitable for me.

[robertleem]

Many thanks for creating this video, I have been using Jellyfin now since December and absolutely love it. I did look at Plex but didn't want to pay

[CountZilch]

Great summary. I think one thing missing for me in the comparison blog though is the audio player. I'm trying to move from Plex to Jellyfin, but I'm stuck on there not being a viable equivalent of PlexAmp. This is important to me because I mainly listen to music in the car, so there needs to be a client that works with Android Auto. PlexAmp is pretty slick, and gives you your own private Spotify type experience. Also, are you able to do a guide of adding Live TV (TV tuner cards) support to a Synology NAS Jellyfin server sometime? And maybe how to tell if your NAS is capable of hardware transcoding. Thanks!

[Yandarval]

late to the party. The transcoding part is a load of UTTER rubbish. The commentary states he is comparing "Hardware" transcoding. Plex's dropdown, as shown, is CPU only transcoding. That is "software" transcoding. Jellyfin's dropdown is for real hardware transcoding.

[sharksjungle]

Best of the best videos, great comparison, FYI Asustor has installer for jellyfin .

[GrillerGT]

Yup, the fact that Plex has support for most hardware/software under the sun is what pushed me to get the pass... it just works for the stuff I have.

[NealeWard]

Great video as always. Like Cameron above, I lost my Internet connection in storms recently, and was seriously under impressed that I could not access my Plex library from the TVs etc. I ended up watching stuff on a laptop direct from the media files, HDMI cable, total lash up.
My question: is there anyway to allow non authenticated access to Plex so i access it when the Internet is down? My DS920+ is well hidden behind firwalls etc, nothing exposed to the internet. Or is the way out of our next outage to install Jellyfin as a backup path? Plex plays well on the TVs, and I have enough Roku's to go round for the TVs without a Jellyfin app

[RandallStevenson]

Jellyfin is completely free and the only time you need internet is when your TV requires it once to initially see the server.

[Trevorodunne]

One of the Best reviews of Jellyfin and Plex..

[indashade]

Main takeaway: seagulls were not invited to this party.

[vsuarezp]

I love it when you say "I HATE SEAGULLS!!"

After I found out about Infuse supporting Jellyfin source, I immediately delete Jellyfin app from my iPhone and Plex from my synology :)

[akenger]

Great content as always. I think there’s too much emphasis on “you need a plex pass to be comparable”. Lifetime plex pass for 100$ to me kind of makes any argument about a feature being behind that paywall irrelevant. At the end of the day, I think it’s would be a better review to just stick to overall capabilities. I am building by own NAS and have spent $ on hardware and potentially software (unraid or whatever). The cost of plex pass is pretty minimal in the grand scheme. Sure - it’s “one more thing” but it really shouldn’t be a determining factor. If plex doesn’t do something you need or doesn’t do it as well as jellyfin, that should be called out (or visa versa). Just my 2 cents.

[tonguelover]

100% Jellyfin for me, android app is great, browser experience is great, with my nas - IS the solution, from years.