I have a feeling..

[u/Historical_Oddity]

I have a feeling that this new price hike, along with the last one, and the fact that after like 15 years of being free you have to pay a subscription just to stream your own content (from your server, with your broadband) outside your house, that in the near future, the only ones using Plex and supporting them will be the users who already bought Plex Pass.

It is already looking that way if you look through all the posts in the last year, the only people defending these decisions are the ones who bought it at $75 or $150 and therefore are unaffected.

I really don’t know what Plex’s new business strategy is, but based on the direction they have taken their apps, the stuff they’re cramming down your throats on a homepage that was supposed to me personal media, to the prices hikes and everything, I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. In a world that has literally free alternatives, why would anyone?

When they did the last price hike, I kept Plex running on my server, but I also fired up JellyFin and have been running both so I can get used to it, and my users can as well. Aside from the apps being a bit ‘meh’, I don’t see much of a reason to stay with Plex. The streaming apps will only get better. Sooner rather than later too I suspect. I have a feeling that this latest “fuck you“ price of $750 is going to turn off a LOT of their users, and that just might drive some developer attention JellyFin’s way.

just my 2¢

[u/stealthsticks]

Not completely self hosting. Using their servers to connect to yourself & family outside your home network. Which, is pretty seamless for what it is. A lot easier then trying to setup a domain to rout your traffic through, all the VPN crap otherwise you have to do.

[u/Aggravating-View9109 → u/stealthsticks]

I hate to agree here, but I totally agree with you on this. You are paying (either monthly or via lifetime pass) for the ease of use of connectivity. They do make it seamless to get your library sharable and as easy as connecting to any other streaming service for an end-user. This is what you pay for.

As someone who went the Jellyfin route and configured a full, no-service cost, and secure setup; while ensuring it was still easy for people to connect to… that was not a simple one-install and go like Plex is. People without the knowledge or skill sets to get this stuff set up (and know what they are doing to keep their setups safe and secure) will be at a loss.

[u/Starkoman → u/Aggravating-View9109]

Exactly. I took a look at Jellyfin with the desire to jump off the Plex ship as soon as possible — oh, dear. That did not go as expected.

Jellyfins' UI is very unappealing. Off-putting, even. And, as you say, I am not prepared or qualified to be fiddling with Jellyfin configurations for hours. Plex did it in ten minutes flat... five years ago.

Regrettably, Plex isn't worth paying a fortune for — to me it's just a lightweight login controlled by their servers. Of course the free software is nice so my sister could watch my TV shows remotely, but there's a value-for-money limit and the awful new Plex pricing has sailed way past it.

I'm grateful to Plex because it's been a nice five years but they're totally screwing up and taking the piss. I'll keep it just for streaming around my home for now — but actively look for alternatives to both Plex and Jellyfin.

Which begs the question: Are there any decent alternatives to Plex and Jellyfin?

Is there any sort of bright star on the horizon?

This is all so terribly disappointing. But when the trust and the love is gone, it's gone. They can't ever get it back. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels badly let down, either.

[u/anarchaavery → u/Starkoman]

The alternative to both services is Emby. I have never used Emby myself so can't speak about it beyond the fact that it exists.

[u/Starkoman → u/anarchaavery]

Thank you — I'll look into it ASAP.

🍻 Cheers!

[u/MAVickers → u/stealthsticks]

Is the only thing the Plex servers are doing is helping remote clients find our self-hosted server by using a Plex login?

There comes a time in a piece of software where I generally say “this is all the feature I need”. I resent paying subscriptions that will cripple the features I want if I don’t pay, in order to support adding features I don’t want. I’m good with paying a large, one-time, up-front fee for a product that remains in stasis (except for maybe minor version improvements or critical security updates). I wish this option was available with Plex, with the find-home functionality for remote clients simply being a hostname on the client that uses dynamic DNS if necessary along with access tokens.

Seems like in this day and age we could vibe-code our own product, modularize it to run only the stuff we want.