Jellyfin

Free open-source media server — a self-hosted Plex alternative

Replaces

Plex

Netflix

59k C# GPL-2.0 today

Overview

Jellyfin is a fully free, open-source media server that lets you organize and stream your personal collection of movies, TV shows, music, books, photos, and live TV. It supports hardware-accelerated transcoding on most platforms and ships native clients for iOS, Android, Android TV, Roku, Kodi, and all major browsers. Deployment is straightforward via Docker or Docker Compose, and a thriving plugin ecosystem extends functionality. Unlike Plex, there are no paywalls, no telemetry, and no required accounts.

Setup and operations guides

Use these practical guides to plan the deployment, security, backups, and recovery work behind this project.

Jellyfin Docker Compose Setup: Media, Permissions, and Hardware AccelerationDeploy Jellyfin with Compose, correct config and media mounts, predictable permissions, optional GPU acceleration, and safe backups.Read the guide Secure Jellyfin Remote Access: VPN or Reverse Proxy?Choose between private VPN access and a public HTTPS reverse proxy for Jellyfin, then test the path safely from another network.Read the guide Plex Docker Compose Setup: Preserve Metadata and Hardware TranscodingDeploy Plex with durable metadata, deliberate networking, optional hardware transcoding, and a tested backup and rollback path.Read the guide

Where it falls short of Plex

No official cloud/managed hosting option; you must run and maintain your own server.
Hardware transcoding setup can be complex, requiring manual GPU passthrough configuration.
Plugin ecosystem is smaller and less polished than Plex's mature marketplace.
Lacks Plex's global CDN-backed streaming relay for remote access without port forwarding.

We list the gaps honestly so you can decide if the trade-off is worth owning your data.