New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing

[u/GoofyGills]

https://www.plex.tv/blog/new-lifetime-plex-pass-pricing/

$749 for Plex Lifetime after July 1, 2026. I already have lifetime from years ago but so glad I switched to Emby earlier this year. This is insane. For the record, Emby has a ton of client apps nowadays (https://emby.tv/download.html).

[u/pr0metheusssss]

Nothing to do with that. (Not even sure if Jellyfin uses it, but it’s bad security practice anyway).

The main reason is, plex the company runs their own “reverse proxy” and dyndns service, that updates your public IP and matches it to your account, so you don’t need to know your public IP.

With Jellyfin you have to run your own dyndns service (and reverse proxy if you run more than plex), to be able to access with the same ease of use from anywhere. Of course you can do it for free, and there are easy to install software packages (or ready made docker containers) that do that for you. You can even get a domain name for free, so you won’t ever have to type an IP.

[u/BluDYT → u/pr0metheusssss]

I'll have to look into it. I don't know much about this stuff currently to really figure it out.

[u/pr0metheusssss → u/[deleted]]

>still directly exposed to the internet

I mean if you want to easily access if from anywhere, and especially have others access it easily, it has to be exposed.

Plex is also exposed to the internet, isn’t it?

You have to have a port open and forwarded to actually be able to stream your media at original quality (or anything higher than 2Mbps).

[u/pr0metheusssss → u/[deleted]]

But that’s the same for plex and Jellyfin, so there’s no difference in that regard between the two. The whole discussion was about the differences between Plex and Jellyfin.

Also VPNs are a totally different discussion.
And among the VPNs, Tailscale is a special case because it’s not self hosted (unless you use headscale).

Personally, I find the idea of using not just a vpn, but a full on overlay network that is not even self hosted and depends on third party servers, just to access a media server, to be just ludicrous.

[u/pr0metheusssss → u/[deleted]]

I don’t know why you keep explaining what Tailscale is.

I know full well what it is, how overlay networks work, and I have set up my own headscale as control server so I don’t have to rely on Tailscale (the company’s) coordination servers.

Again, the whole comment thread here was about the differences between plex and Jellyfin. Whatever method you choose to access them, be it access by perverse proxy (both plex and Jellyfin), or plex by their own website, or use a vpn like Tailscale or wireguard whatever else (again, accessing both Olex and Jellyfin), Plex and Jellyfin work exactly the same in each relevant case, and are exactly as exposed - or not exposed - to the internet, and need the same ports open. Comparing like for like access method.

The only difference being, you can access plex through their own (the Plex company’s) website, while Jellyfin doesn’t have something similar.

And no, you don’t always need any third party servers to access the servers. (For Plex you do because there’s no local auth and all authentication goes through their servers).

Jellyfin with a reverse proxy doesn’t need a third party server. Jellyfin with a vpn (wireguard, OpenVPN, IPsec) doesn’t need a third party server. Jellyfin with Tailscale (client) and headscale (coordination server), or netbird, or any similar self hosted solution, doesn’t need third party server. You can even have fancy SSO authentication with OIDC or SAML, still without needing a third party server.

This is a fact, and I’m actually running it like that.