BEST Synology Media Servers? Plex vs. Emby vs. Jellyfin

Running a media server on your Synology NAS is one of the most popular tools to use. There are three main media servers that you can run on your NAS - Plex, Emby, and Jellyfin. This comparison looks at all three to determine the best option you can use!

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DISCLAIMER: The information in this video has been self-taught through years of technical tinkering. While we do our best to provide accurate, useful information, we make no guarantee that our viewers will achieve the same level of success. WunderTech does not assume liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to damage caused directly or indirectly from its content or associated media. Use at your own risk.

WunderTech is a trade name of WunderTech, LLC.

0:00 Intro
0:32 How Media Servers Work & Similarities
1:43 Media Server Differences
3:49 Plex vs. Emby vs. Jellyfin
6:46 Best Option?
7:47 My Personal (Opinionated) Pick
8:54 Final Thoughts
9:17 Hardware Transcoding
9:29 Conclusion

[Aether-Entropy]

Dude you have, hands down, the best synology channel on yt. You read my mind days in advance and then put out a video right when I need it. Thank you!

[TrentOhNo]

I understand the gripe about the plex bloat. However, you can pretty easily hide it all. You can customize your home page so that all you see is your media. You can also pin and unpin sections on the sidebar. Only thing I have on my sidebar that isn't my media is the Discover tab because sometimes I like to see what is new or trending from certain streaming services.

[bitpickersplace]

I switched from Plex to Emby several years ago.

Emby was just easier to use. All I wanted was to play my videos and Plex seemed to get to a point that one would need a college degree.

My videos reside on my Synology NAS and Emby runs from a QNAP NAS which has an Intel I5 processor that has transcoding abilities.

Both are on a 10gb network connection.

[FatherJoeMcCorny]

Again an excellent video! Went from Plex to Jellyfin and it has been a great experience. Both great options, but at that time Plex required authentication through their cloud servers and I prefer no cloud dependencies.

[brainwasher]

It's funny, for me Plex has the best interface. The main reason is the ability to browse your libraries and settings while playing media. While with jellyfin you have to close and reopen the stream every time you want to check something.
And i really like the feature that tell me how many streams are active at the moment without having to go on the dashboard page.

[LewisLetsPlay]

for jellyfin on debian or ubuntu don't need a docker container, they provide a setup script you run to install the requisite services

[strawhousepig]

Can't speak for Emby or Jellyfin, but if you sign up for Plex you're signing up to have your data, including your e-mail address, sold to unknown third parties. Regularly. It's been pretty rare for me that companies do that.

[QuikTechSolutions]

Another great one Frank! Been a Plex user for years, but have considered Jellyfin at times. Regarding the bloat in the Plex UI, at least we have the option to customize the UI and show only what the user wants to see.

[JD-qowk]

I used plex for 10 years and have the lifetime plex pass. I switched to Jellyfin this year as I really don't like the direction plex is going. The weekly friend activity emails they started sending out without asking was the final straw for me. I'm liking jellyfin so far.

[pyrielrising]

Started with Plex....but the interface became bloated( as you pointed out) so switched to Emby. My use case is different because I have a purpose built media server not a Nas running Docker.

[guyh]

Thank you very much for all your continuous efforts.
They're really appreciated.

[Sharon]

Plex was great on my NAS up until my synology NAS stopped supporting it with updates. I have had it crash and have to reload the app over again, compile the data - and it is turning into a pain in the butt. I am looking to Emby now

[TechMeOut]

Excellent video Frank. Excellent explanations all around, great job! I'm a plex person myself, i can't even imagine switching to anything else.

[djlucasd]

Yeah I tried Jellyfin for a few days, then moved to Emby. Night and day difference, even with having to pay. It's worth it.

[flujan]

I have been using Plex mostly, then a few years ago tried Emby just to have a second choice for my Shield devices. I recently tried Jellyfin, only because it was available for the Vision Pro device. By far, Jellyfin was the easiest to setup. Maybe it was also because of my previous experience with the other two.

[MikeFaucher]

Great video. You should consider adding how to configure hardware transcoding.

[neogx]

Used plex on my synology for years on my 1515+ but it was rough to watch any movies without it buffering. Finally saw your promox videos and moved it to a small form pc with promox and loved it. Im sure the newer synologys r better at showing movies.

[Steve_Just_Steve]

Jellyfin- Good UI & Free hardware transcoding. Thx for the vids!

[CubeEarthTheory]

Plex is the best. It is far easier to set up. The server is more logical to add libraries. The clients are easier to connect to the server. Adding a client doesn't take nearly as long. All the media is there nearly instantly. It doesn't have to download all the artwork every time. Jellyfin will not play video formats that Plex will. Jellyfin isn't easy to maintain different accounts, edit what libraries they can access, see what they are viewing, etc.

I don't understand how anyone can think Plex is hard to navigate. Kodi is the worst. Super difficult just to add media, and you have to click down about 5 levels deep every time you want to watch a movie. Plex? Just click MOVIES, and you are there. Infuse is just a video player. It's not a media center.

[oakfig]

Agree 💯. Jellyfin gives me what I want and ONLY what I want.