Which is the Best NAS Media Server Tool – Plex, Emby or Jellyfin
Although modern Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices can be used for a multitude of purposes, there has always been a large percentage of users who buy a NAS from the likes of Synology, QNAP, Asustor and Terramaster (or go full DiY/Open Source and opt for TrueNAS) in order to host their own multimedia server. If you have been out of the loop this last decade or so, then you might not be aware that the standard of media server software and ease of use has evolved incredibly and when it comes to NAS drive multimedia streaming, there are THREE big players in this arena – Plex, Jellyin and Emby. These three platforms (alongside many others, including tools such as Video Station from the NAS brands themselves) have allowed users who own DECADES of digital media (Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photos, eBooks, Comics, etc) to not only access them conveniently remotely from the comfort of their soft/hotel room/commuter train/beach – but also do so with the slick graphical user interface that you would often associate with premium streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. This is done thanks to massive only databases (such as TheMovieDatabase and IMDb) that mean that your years of multimedia is scanned, sorted, and arranged into searchable titles. It then adds boxart, movie posters, cast lists, trailers, synopsis, trailers, extra content and more. Suddenly your dull breadcrumb ‘file/folder’ pile of media takes on an insane quality level and you have your very own personal Netflix – BUT CRUCIALLY YOU OWN ALL THE MEDIA!! That is the appeal of media server software like Jellyfin, Plex and Emby!
|
Jellyfin
|
VS |
Plex
|
VS |
Emby
|
| Truly Open Source? | Premium Package? | The Middle Ground? |
Although all three are quite similar on the face of it, all three have appealing design, interface, cost and customization choices that will almost certainly make one of them more suitable for you than the others! All three are supported by the bulk of modern NAS platforms, with via an available app in the brand’s official app center, available via a 3rd party app center (see QNAPClub or Synocommunity for example) or allow you to create a container within the NAS software and run from there, but there are definitely distinctions between all three that you might want to know before taking the plunge on your new multimedia server setup! So, today I want to go through all of the differences between Plex, Emby and Jellyfin media servers and, hopefully, by the end help you decide which is best for you!
Note – A huge thank you to Protektor-Desura for his time breaking down these services and his permission to use his data. You can find out more about his ongoing project HERE.
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – What have they ALL got in Common?
Before we go any further, it is worth highlighting the things there are supported by all three of these media server applications. It needs to be underlined that regardless of your specific requirements, Plex, Jellyfin and Emby are all EXCELLENT media server applications and alongside a massive range of client applications to watch/listen/read your multimedia on your devices, they have all grown into platforms that rival most paid subscription streaming services like Prime, Netflix, Disney+, etc. Here is a quick snapshot of all the things that Jellyfin, Emby and Plex have in common:
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Plex, Emby and Jellyfin ALL Support the following: (Note – Some Services for Emby/Plex Require Subscription Services) |
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Now, there are a whole bunch of other things that Plex, Emby and Jellfin have in common (the above list would easily be 10x longer if I names them all), so I stuck with the most requested/sought-after features. But what about the things that they don’t have in common? Or those things that are locked behind a subscription/one-off-fee? Let’s begin with the first difference that many users consider the biggest hurdle – the cost of Plex, Emby and Jellyfin.
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Pricing
Now, for many users, the idea that the media server software that they want to use on their NAS costing them MORE money is REALLY annoying! The whole point for many users making the switch AWAY from streaming services (Netflix, HBO Max, etc) is because they wanted to spend that money on the hardware to watch the media they own, as well as ensure that it’s not changed/removed from one money to the next. Now, unfortunately, this is only half the story! The fact is that media platforms such as Jellyfin, Plex and Emby have REAL PEOPLE working o them, as well as continued development (and that is not even factoring in security/stability/feature improvements in the software’s life) that all needs to be subsidized. The NAS brands DO NOT financially support them, the Streaming services actively avoid/discourage them and although users can always donate – the user vs donation ratio is obviously is painfully uneven. Therefore unless these platforms embrace advertisements and/or 3rd party sponsorship (which is a slippery slop for many), the more ambitious platforms need to find ways to fundraise their services in a way that doesn’t hurt casual/low-end users, but pushes the heavier users to support the service.
Here is how Plex, Jellyfin and Emby breakdown their costs:
| Server License Fees |
Jellyfin
|
Plex
|
Emby
|
| Free Option? | Yes, Completely | Yes, but some services unavailable | Yes, but some services Unavailable + Some Client Apps Need One-off payment |
| Monthly | Free
Unlimited Users |
Plex Pass | Emby Premiere |
| Yearly | Free
Unlimited Users |
Plex Pass | Emby Premiere |
| Lifetime | Free
Unlimited Users |
Plex Pass | Emby Premiere |
So, IMMEDIATELY Jellyfin looks appealing, RIGHT? It’s totally free for the server application, client tools and (remember the chart above showing what all three support) has most of the same features as Plex and Emby. Although all three have free-to-use options, the ability to use ALL services and client tools is where the subscription services appear. Of the three, Emby works out the tiniest bit more expensive, but actually (when you work it out at the per-user vs cost) it is largely identical to Plex in costs. The main reason that Emby works out the most expensive technically is that although the Emby Premiere subscription is optional, some of the client applications (eg iOS, Android, FireTV, etc) require you to either have an existing Premiere subscription OR pay a one-off fee. Plex allows you to install the app for free on most platforms, but limits the range of supported services that you can use (eg, hardware transcoding, share watch, etc) without a Plex Pass subscription in place. Next, let’s dig deeper into those available features and services available in Emby, Jellyfin and Plex to see what is available, what differs and what is free/paid-for!
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Features, Functions and Supported Formats
Now, as mentioned in the introduction, Emby, Plex and Jellyfin all support a whole bunch of services and features to help you enjoy a wide range of multimedia, in a wide range of formats and on a wide range of devices! But there is definitely some disparity when you dig deeper. Let’s go through the range of supported features of these three applications and see where they start to separate:
| Features |
Jellyfin
|
Plex
|
Emby
|
| License | GPL v2 | Full Commercial | Full Commercial |
| Client/Server | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 4K Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ATSC 3.0 Support (4K HEVC Main 10 profile at Level 5.2 Main Tier, HDR, Dolby AC-4, MPEG-H 3D Audio) |
No | No | No |
| AV1 Support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Audiobook Support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bandwidth Limiting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Camera/Photo Upload | No | No | License |
| Collections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Comic Book Support | Yes | No | No |
| Commerical Skip | 3rd Party Add-on/Free | License | No |
| E-Book Support | Yes | No | No |
| Favorites and Tags | Yes | No | Yes |
| Game Support | No | $2.99/Month | Broken |
| Group Watching | SyncPlay/Free | Watch Together/License | Limited/Free |
| Hardware Transcoding | Yes | License | License |
| Internet Radio Support | Yes | No | No |
| Intro Skipping | Yes, Plugin | Yes | Yes |
| LDAP Support | Yes | No | License |
| Live TV/DVR Support | Yes | License | License |
| Lyrics | No | License | No |
| Magazine Support | Yes | No | No |
| Mobile Media Optimizer | No | License | No |
| Mobile Sync | No | License | License |
| Movie Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Plugin Repositories | Yes | No | No |
| Multiple Users | Yes | License | Yes |
| Music Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Music Video Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Offline Media (Download & Play Offline) |
Yes/Free | License | License |
| Parent Controls | Yes | License | Yes |
| Per User Bandwidth Limit | Yes/Free | License | License |
| Photo Albums | Yes | License | Yes |
| Plug-in Support | Yes | No | Yes |
| Podcast Support | 3rd Party Add-on/Free | No | Yes |
| Recommend & Discover | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Remote Login Server | Never | Yes | Yes |
| Server Backup | No | Yes | License |
| Server Stats | Playback/Free, Reports/Free, Embystat/Free | License, Tautulli/Free | Yes, EmbyStat/Free |
| Sharing Libraries | No | Yes | No |
| Simultaneous Login Limits | Yes | No | Yes |
| Smart Home/Voice Control | Alexa/Free, Home Assistant/Free | Alexa/License, Google/Free | Alexa/License, Google/License |
| Theme Songs and Videos | 3rdParty Plugin/Free | Yes/Songs only | License |
| TIDAL Music (Requires Subscription) |
3rd Party Add-on/Free | License | No |
| Tonemapping CPU | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tonemapping GPU | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trailers & Extras | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tuner Sharing | No | No | No |
| TV Episode Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TV Guide Data | Yes/3rdParty Add-on/Free, fHDHR/Free | License | License |
| Virtual Reality | No | License | No |
| Video Chapters Metadata DL | No | No | No |
Now, Jellyfin is the most open of the three (cough because it’s pure Open Source), and as good as that sounds, it is worth remembering that this does come with a downfall in platform development when compared to the platforms that get user-subsidy via subscription. Jellyfin is the less visually modern of the three (for those that care) and also throws alot of information at you on the server side, whilst not guiding the user as much. This results in a slightly steeper learning curve vs Plex and Emby. Emby also suffers from this a little, but also does a slightly better job of guiding the user through the experience. The main difference here is regarding the extent of open source! Of the three, PLEX is the one that is the closest to ‘the establishment’, it has long since shrugged off it’s free ‘indie’ type image, as it is the closest in design, appearance and presentation to subscription services. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as this results in a premium level of support, development and updates, connections with existing services and just generally a much better-presented platform overall (server-side and client-side) that is more user-friendly and intuitive – exactly what you would expect from the more premium presented/priced package in 2023/2024. However, this also results in the platform being alot more rigid, restricting optional add-ons and packages that are typically ‘unofficial’ (i.e. ones that Plex do not add to the service themselves). Equally, that Development vs Subsidy balance results in ALOT of the more exciting features being locked/restricted behind a Plex Pass subscription. This is initially understandable (again, see previous paragraph about supporting good work), but many users bulk at the idea of paying for a service, when they already paid for their hardware and said software will occasionally intentionally limit that hardware utility behind the subscription. Both Emby and Plex are guilty of this. Let’s talk about Hardware Transcoding!
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Hardware Transcoding
What is Transcoding? Transcoding (also referred to as encoding, decoding and converting in similar means) is when a file is changed in order to be better suited to the destination client device that it will be enjoyed on. Here are some examples of when you might need to take advantage of transcoding:
- You might own media in a specific compression (the technique used by the media industry to make cinema screen blockbusters into at-home watchable content, among other reasons), such as HEVC/H.265, but not have a licence to play it on your client device, a NAS that supports HEVC or have sufficient client-side hardware/permission locally to convert it
- You might own 4K versions of your multimedia, but you want to watch it on a mobile device where a 480p or 720p version is much, MUCH more client power/hardware efficient to watch
- You are on a limited internet/cellular connection (morning commute, hotel, coffee shop, etc) and need a compressed version of a media file streamed
- Your media might be in an unsupported format (a hugely overlooked factor in audio formats) such as mp4a, FLAC, ACC, etc and needs changing
Transcoding can be done in advance (offline transcoding) or as/when the file is being accessed (known as on-the-fly transcoding) and that later one requires your NAS/Media Server to have sufficient hardware to change the file quickly enough to keep up with organic natural playback (i.e. it takes less than a second to convert/transcode a second of media). Now, you can use software transcoding (i.e the NAS will use raw CPU/System power to change the file, which is less efficient and less effective) or you can use hardware transcoding, which uses specifically available NAS system hardware (graphics card or CPU integrated graphics) to do the job, which is MUCH faster and MUCH MORE efficient. Where Plex and Emby hit a wall is that both platforms have put hardware transcoding support in their premium subscription services Plex Pass and Emby Premiere. This effectively means that the media server software is charging you to use the hardware in your NAS. This upsets quite a few people. Now, in their defence, hardware transcoding does require the software to be adaptive to different graphical hardware, requires time/energy invested in optimizing the software to take advantage of the hardware the best it can and is technically a more specialized media service/function that is not used by everyone – so in a way it makes sense tha this would be one of the optional settings to use as a means to subsidize development in their platform. However, the fact that Hardware Transcoding is available for free in Jellyfin is one of the strongest benefits that users that need this service will observe when comparing Jellyfin, Plex and Emby.
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Supported NAS Hardware & Software Server Platforms
Although Plex, Jellyfin and Emby are all supported on the bulk of NAS platforms, the actual installation of them on NAS devices (from brands such as Synology ,QNAP, WD, Asustor and Terramster) or Custom built NAS servers that run on TrueNAS Core, TrueNAS Scale or UnRAID is not as straight forward from one media server app to the other. Here is how the three media server applications compare with it comes to installing the server-side application for Emby, Plex and Jellyfin:
| Server OS |
Jellyfin
|
Plex
|
Emby
|
| Android | No | Yes | Yes |
| Asusor | No | Yes | Yes |
| Docker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FreeBSD | No | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MacOS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Netgear ReadyNAS | No | Yes | Yes |
| Nvidia Shield | No | Yes | Yes |
| Open Media Vault | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| QNAP | No | Yes | Yes |
| Rasberry Pi | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Synology | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Terra Master | No | Yes | Yes |
| Thecus | No | Yes | Yes |
| TrueNAS | No (docker supported) | Yes | Yes |
| WD My Cloud & My Passport | No | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Straight away, you can see that the installation of Plex and Emby on..well..EVERYTHING is supported. Once again, that optional paid subscription model has evidently paid off! Not only is Jellyfin not available as a standalone installer on a large number of platform, but in some cases it can only be installed as a custom-built container application (requiring a container hypervisor such as Docker) and although this is not hugely difficult, it will be dependant on the end user to create it right, as well as the efficiency of the NAS hardware in question to run the container as efficiently as possible. Overall, when it comes to the installation of the server-side application for these three multimedia server applications, Plex and Emby are winning the race! However, this is just the client-side application (i.e the one running the media server on your NAS), what about the support of the client applications for all your devices? Let’s take a look.
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Supported Client Apps & Player Devices
The success of your multimedia server is going to be based on the smoothness of how well your NAS runs the server slide Plex, Emby or Jellyfin application – but also HUGELY dependant on the quality and extent of how well it is supported on the devices that you plan on accessing and enjoying your multimedia (referred to as clients or client-tools). Although all three applications can be accessed via the majority of web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge, Mozilla, Opera, etc), the bulk of users want to access their media via their phones, laptops, Smart TVs and streaming boxes such as FireTV and Roku. The range of supported clients and the means/extent of their use is possibly one of the biggest areas of difference between Emby, Plex and Jellyfin that you will find! Here is how they compare:
So, let’s break this down a little. In the case of Jellyfin, the application continues to be largely free and available on the bulk of currently used client hardware platforms. I say ‘largely’, because in some cases Jellyfin is not available as a direct client application for those platforms. You will need to use 3rd pary tools/plugins on some client hardware, some apps are glorified browser tabs with a lite GUI on top and some need to have a small fee to maintain their existence on certain app centers. Emby on the other hand is available on more platforms than Jellyfin, however, a large number of those platforms require you to either have an existing Emby Premiere subscription in place in order to download/use them or need you to pay a fee at the app center in order to use them. Finally, we have Plex, which is the one that seems to be the most freely available client application, widely available native installer client app and has much fewer instances of app-payment requirements than Emby.
Now there IS the argument that Emby and Plex need to subsidize these apps being hosted on these app centers, as their continued appearance there and patches being developed over time needs funding. But I do think the availability and potential pricing of these tools is something that is not advertised enough and something that many users do not realize until AFTER they have invested a bunch of time setting up their respective Emby/Plex Media server on their NAS. Jellyfin is clearly the one that is trying to keep itself Free/Open-Source as much as possible, but that comes with limitations on how far they can stretch themselves and the ease of installation on client devices in some cases.
Plex vs Jellyfin vs Emby on a NAS – Conclusion
Choosing between a Jellyfin, Emby and Plex Media Server NAS for your massive multimedia collection is one that going to be about the extent you are going to use it! If you are looking to create a simple media server that is largely accessible everywhere, but has lots of users, is user-friendly on both the server/client side, won’t need all the bells and whistles of a higher-end media enthusiast and you are just looking for a pretty way to enjoy your existing media that compares with premium subscription services – GO FOR PLEX!
If you are looking for a moderately customizable and featured multimedia server that gives you a good balance of control, usability and hardware support, but where the pricing can be a lot more flexible/ad-hoc (i.e one off payment per client of $5) and want the slick GUI, but also the option to customize it and take advantage of a few community add-ons – GO FOR EMBY!
Finally, if you are much more of a multimedia enthusiast, have a wide range of different media formats (i.e Audio, Video, literature and more), want to be able to link a large number of other services/tool and want to take advantage of the full extent of your NAS hardware (but are prepared for a slightly higher learning curve) – GO FOR JELLYFIN!
In summary, here are the pros and cons of each:
| Clients |
Jellyfin
|
Plex
|
Emby
|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
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not gona lie got lost and lost interest about half way thoruhg even though i sitend tot eh whole thing
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I hate seagulls ! hahahaha then i was back in your video mate 🙂 🙂
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Now that Synology is forcing users to forever remove Video Station in their newest DSM update (7.2.2), this video is more significant than ever before. Thank you for your excellent methodical review!!!
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Jellyfin is completely free and the only time you need internet is when your TV requires it once to initially see the server.
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This video is the best comparison for these two apps. Thanks a lot!!
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Can’t I do all this with Kodi or am I missing something.
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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.
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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
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I’ve tried both and don’t like Plex. Just the user experience is unpleasant.
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Latest version from the developer if it helps anyone
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eO6483FsyDdxc-lFQ46uWVbCYSyqLHH8
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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.
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Jellyfin server and kodi as client works perfect.
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Main takeaway: seagulls were not invited to this party.
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Plex won’t recognise my media properly. It insists some media is not what it is, even with optional folder naming ID and lifetime Plex Pass.
It crashes regularly when showing Plex ads,requiring restart every time ads are shown.
Support, for a lifetime Plex Pass holder, is non-existent.
Emby is much more controllable.
Jellyfin can’t be installed when Emby is installed without changing ports and breaking some Emby client setup
Transcoding regularly fails in both Plex and Emby.
Often I resort to VLC via DLNA which will play all my files with no issues at the cost of having to navigate through folders, but that works.
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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 ????
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Thank you
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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.
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funny how people feels good about JF being open source dispite a much worse quality and execution.
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Emby just works, Jellyfin always has some problems to fix which ends up wasting a lot of time in my life.
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I have a Synology DS-923+ just getting it running. Can you use a Zimaboard for hardware transcoding on Jellyfin and Emmy? I saw a video using Zimaboard with Plex. Love your videos.
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I have Emby and do not pay anything. Any of the paid options are not something I need. When I watch a movie on my phone, I watch it at 480p instead of e.g. 4K to save data. No problem ever. I also do not need to pay the app on my Android. So not sure what that 5USD is about. The best is to see if you actually need the paid things. Because it might well be that you do not need to. I know I do not need it.
The only thing that is a bit of a downer is that I can not download subtitles when I am watching the video, but I can when I go to the file before I start it.
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I have found that jellyfin is an amazing application with many excellent features but at the end of the day, not useable for very big collections.
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Can you use both? Setup Jellyfin and Plex to both use the same Movies folder on a Synology?
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just give jellyfin 6 bucks and then use it for life
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I love it when you say “I HATE SEAGULLS!!”
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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.
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Short answer is Plex, because you can install it on 99% devices sold for the last 10+ years (even not officially supported) from device’s default app manager and without DevOps skills.
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Just as a curiosity does Emby pay money/support upstream ffmpeg ?
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Plex freezes my TCL Android TV if I try to browse my movies with it.
It is better than jellyfin in that it feels slightly more refined and for some reason jellyfin can’t look for new subtitle out maybe I don’t know how to use it but that’s an issue I’ve seen.
jellyfin is more stable on the TCL Android TV though.
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JF is 5 years behind in development. And they are not catching up because there is only couple main-developers that walled off from the “free dev community”. There is PRs open in JF since three years! Nothing is implemented because the Jellyfin-Devs have their own “master-plan” and they sleep most of the time. In my opinion they just use the reference to JF to make their reputation as IT-Consultants bigger through github. It’s is basically abandoned by now unfortunately. I wanted it to succeed very much but in order to progress someone would have to fork it again. They haven’t even managed to remove the references to Emby in JF in all those years. They seem not to understand the code at all. And the very needed update for the database also not coming. Emby has implemented it years ago.
Also you should read about reputation of Luke, the head-developer of Emby. He is active in the community since a decade and has developed pretty popular application WMC. This guy knows what he is doing. If you are serious about such a media-server you should go definitely with Emby. I am quite sure that on the long run everybody will get to the point of dissatisfaction with JF, especially since important plugins/addons can suddenly stopped from being updated because the maintainers decided to do something else and also because customization is pretty bad.
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I tryed jellyfin, and i can’t access to it outside my home and the help is non-existent. Did emby is the same when trying to configure remote access to my content? Did i have to configure third-party software or reverse proxy, dyndns or anything else?
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Emby client not available for Linux? But it’s over there in the Snap Store…made by the Emby developers themselves…
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I’ve had PLEX since there were just starting. Paid for the Lifetime membership hoping for the best. Unfortunately, there are MANY ISSUES with the service and there is NO TECH SUPPORT! PLEX’s idea of tech support is to LEAVE THEIR PROBLEMS TO OTHER USERS TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT PLEX’S PROBLEMS WITH WORK-AROUND FIXES. There is NO direct line for TECH SUPPORT, ZERO, ZIP, NADA!
You have to post your problems to “THE COMMUNITY” and HOPE someone else has found a way to correct the same issues you are having OR EVEN READS YOUR POST. If you try to send a email to them for help you get a robotic reply with a link that does NOT WORK to submit your question to “THE COMMUNITY”. TOTALLY USELESS! I have spent, now, over 6 hrs looking for a fix for my latest problem.
If you get PLEX, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Don’t expect help from them at all. Buyer beware!
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Ah phooey. I can’t run Jellyfin on my TV.
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After I found out about Infuse supporting Jellyfin source, I immediately delete Jellyfin app from my iPhone and Plex from my synology 🙂
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I use neither of them i use videostation
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Dude you must be a politician. It takes an awe full lot of time and a lot of words to say anything.
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What sucks with plex is codec support. Dolby Vision, DTS-HD, and TrueHD. It also transcodes in x264 instead of hevc which pretty much everything supports natively now days. I do a lot of streaming in hotels (doing it now) and the image quality with hevc would be better on this limited bandwidth.
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So, I have a QNAP NAS and access my NAS media through Kodi on my TV. I just add NFS connections to the various Movie and TV folders on my NAS through Kodi. Is there some downside to that, that I’m missing? Because it’s very easy to set up and you can also install Kodi on anything and have the advancedsettings.xml file reference a SQL database hosted on the NAS if you want every Kodi instance to show the same media and your watched progress.
There is nothing wrong with doing it this way.
The Emby forums are amazing. Quick responses by Luke the owner and his team. Emby plug-ins are great and the interface is generally simple and snappy.
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My decision to switch from Plex would be: does it have season-specific special features for TV Shows? Does it have multiple airdates per country? (I have foreign versions of US shows that aired on a different date and want to preserve that). Does it have an aired today category/pivot on the recommended screen? Does it allow me to create my own custom channels and schedule shows so my wife can watch all her Jane Austen stuff on a channel and I can watch Star Trek on my own Star Trek channel? Does it allow movie pre-rolls dependent on various criteria (holiday, season, date, genre, series, etc.)? If Emby or Jellyfin could do that, I might switch
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I would use a polished setup and use vs ease of use as it describes it to both techies and normies.
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The big problem with Jellyfin is that you have to jump though so many hoops in order to download it which makes it really hard, You have a great step by step guide on how to install Jellyfin on Synology. Emby is just easier to use and setup as compared to jellyfin
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I use infuse from FireCore as media player. Just stream backed up videos from nas.
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Big JellyFin fan here. Love it. Once Plex started forcing me to “login” to their app I bailed. Prefer staying offline and only connecting to my LAN so everything is well fortified.
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Which is the most useful for a family who is on the apple ecosystem. Don’t wanna pay apple for iCloud storage
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The only things Jellyfin don’t support are niche and basically irrelevant to your weird uncle.
Jellyfin supports ISO. Plex arrogantly refuses to. End of discussion for me.
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Direct play and format support in Emby is superior to Jellyfin and Plex
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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.
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Yep would not touch Plex with a barge pole, jus too intrusive, nosy and if I understand right needs Internet access to function. Happily paid what worked out to be £99 GBP for lifetime. It is a bit annoying that have to pay for premiere to watch on iOS and Android but I would not say the cost of premium is that bad if paying for lifetime. Jellyfin needs docker on Synology which kind of puts me off a bit.
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why using plex today? whats the meaning?
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You have to pay for Emby to be usable, but it is worth every penny – it is years ahead of Jellyfin and less nosy than Plex.
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I’m still a Plex user (with liftetime I got on sale a lonnng time ago) but slowly starting to explore Jellyfin. Setting one up to slowly test it out. Plex has been slow to roll out some things and seem to be focused on the wrong features for me. Example plex still doesn’t work with latest over the air codec but seems Jellyfin might be able to work with some tweaking. Without any research video is already working, just not audio.
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What percentage of nas media streamers transcode? Personality I hate it.
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Came to watch the latest video and dying for your input on the just announced Qnap TS-855eU!
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When are you going to talk Gen 5 NVME drives? Some read and write up to 13 GBps.
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I hope you will be discussing Kodi. I only use Kodi.
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I’ve used jellyfin, Plex and others. Plex is by far my pick.
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Jellyfin. Emby has a lot of weird limitations even if you pay for it.
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I’ve used Emby for about three years, and while the server is competent, the clients have their problems. The version for Android TV, in addition to being paid, had a horribly optimized interface. I never considered paying for premiere because my NAS didn’t have the capabilities to take advantage of the extra features of the subscription. When I changed my NAS and it had such capabilities, I realized that it wasn’t worth paying for the only feature I wanted to use, transcoding. So I opted for Jellyfin. So far I’m finding him superior to Emby. Transcoding works fine and clients are better optimized. My only gripe is with the subtitles. Advanced options are only available when I choose another player (default is ExoPlayer) and subtitle options don’t always work well. Strangely, the Android mobile client works perfectly.
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Great video. I have a Qnap Nas, and I have used all 3 of these applications. For me Emby is my favorite. I am a person who loves customization. I want to visually change as much as I can, and craft it the way I want it. I loved Plex, but Emby exceeded my expectations of available customizations. For that reason I don’t mind paying the price for premiere. Just like a lot of services, and applications, it comes down to what your wants or needs are. All 3 of these are good, but for me Emby is my number one.
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Plex
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Good in-depth analysis of the differences between the two
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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.
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Accessing your own hardware (hw acceleration) is a bit of a moot point (around 26min mark). Every application uses your hardware in some way, so whenever you pay for an application, you’re in a way paying to access your hardware (in some custom, specific way). In case of plex and hw accelleration, you’re not really paying to access your hardware (it’s not like they’re actively blocking that on free tier) but for (as you have said) dev time to integrate that hardware capability into plex. It is strong leverage to get people to get the license though. Great and informative video, thnx!
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As soon as I bought my NAS I adopted Plex but quickly abandoned it. It couldn’t find my non-English content well and it rarely recognized my subtitle files. In addition to the constant connection problems. I migrated to Emby, which was lighter, found the correct data and recognized my subtitles. But it still presented a problem: some clients were horrible. The Android TV client, in addition to being paid for, did not work properly and the plugin for Kodi was deficient. I recently decided to try Jellyfin and, so far, more joy than sadness. There are still some problems. Notifications, which worked perfectly well on Emby, require a little more effort to work properly. Overall I’m happier using it than I was using the others.
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I wish Jellyfin could download entire albums with one click. Unfortunately, you have to download every song one by one. =(
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Plex has given up on life. They’ve lost all motivation.
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I have a Qnap nas mainly for backup and media streaming with Plex.
I have a lot of dvd’s that i want to backup to my Qnap.
The problem is that converting them from a dvd to mp4 takes a lot of time.
Is there a way to play a copy of the VIDEO_TS folder of a dvd on my Qnap nas?
Can i copy the VIDEO_TS folder to my Qnap nas and convert it on my nas to mp4, just like “Transcoding” in “Multimedia Console”?
This way i don’t have to use my computer for transcoding and let my nas do the work.
Thank you
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Hi Can you run both Plex and JellyFin on the same Synology server?
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Best of the best videos , great comparison, FYI Asustor has installer for jellyfin .
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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.
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Thank you for your truly excellent video. For me, not being 100% free is a dealbreaker, so I would go with Jellyfin over Plex in a heartbeat. I am actually using Synology Video Station right now, and I am quite happy with it, as I really don’t feel the need any additional bells and whistles. Perhaps I will consider switching to Jellyfin at some future time.
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Plex have been very good for some years, but lately they move further and further away from a “home” Media server to a Streaming service, and hiding to many things behind their Plex Pass. (I have been using Plex for many years, but would not recommend Plex as a frist choice. Mainly for the insane slow to implement “new” standards (codex, file formats, Tags etc)and also unwillingness to listen to their users.
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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!
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As far as I know, neither of these are fully supported in DSM 7.1.1 – Plex is a Beta and Jellyfin is a community app, that comes with a bunch of warnings/waivers.
I’m a bit risk averse and will wait for DSM 7.2 and see what is supported before I potentially risk all my data just to stream a DVD that I can put in a machine.
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Nice side-by-side comparison.
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I use Emby running in Docker on a DS920+. I was wondering if there’s anyway to make use of the 2 lans and have Emby only running on lan 2, whilst everything else runs on lan 1? Can this be done? Video idea maybe??
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I used plex for the better part of a year without complaint. My experience with it was finally soured when I got a nice OLED 4k tv, and I played a 4k movie via plex. I tried to turn on subtitles, and plex said I needed to pay to enable hardware transcoding if I wanted subs. Imagine you have a service running on your own hardware – you’re paying for the silicon and the power – but you need to pay someone to unlock a feature that you yourself are going to serve on your own server. That’s like ordering a pizza, but then it shows up and you have to put it together and cook it yourself. I’ll do that, I’ll cook it myself, but I don’t want to pay someone for the right.
I also ran into a situation where I had no internet, but plex required an internet connection before I could start the server. I switched to Jellyfin later that week. If you like plex, and you paid for it, and you’re happy with it, then there’s no reason to leave. However if you value running a service that’s actually yours (one of the main reasons many of us got into home networking) with no asterisks, then its Jellyfin; every day.
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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
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i use plex now but have issues with the scrobbler as it will skip ffw 10min only. no back. which makes not spoiling movies suck if you want to pause. it also goes fwd 10 even if you hit back. Don’t know if it’s my remote but it’s annoying. i now have plex and like the visuals but usually actually watch longer movies i might have to pause on the shield tv vlc app. Tried emby for music it was great till it broke. It’s a major pain to configure the music libraries and it doesn’t read mp3 metadata remotely correctly and since that’s how it organizes it screws up albums splitting them. Also when you navigate on the phone app by genre it goes genre, then songs, then gives a massive list of songs. Nobody with a music collection visualizes music like that. It should go genre, artist, album, song. And there’s no option to force navigating like that and despite requests i’ve read they won’t do it. Apples native app switched to doing that which is why i used a 3rd party one. But it’s a major pain to pick like hip-hop as a genre and then just get a list 18k songs. Hell i don’t even know the names of plenty of songs. I just know when i bought the album what album it’s on. But it is useful if you have tons of music as basically a free spotify. Especially if you’re like me and have lots of out of print or local music spotify doesn’t have.
I do like that once you figure out plex it pretty much just works. Wish i could just use vlc as the default video player cause vlc is rock solid and rarely fails me in terms of competent playback. I researched Jellyfin but won’t get to try it until i buy a NAS.
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I still love my Plex. I bought Lifetime licence already. Plex is better and better. I don’t think any other App can beat it !!
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doesn’t synology have a media player…how does it compare to plex or jellyfin
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I see from one comment that Plex has a relay server. ( I’m pretty new to Plex.) But, I don’t want to open port or activate UPnP on my router. Can you Tailscale directly into your home Plex server ?
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I’d say use Emby
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I find Emby the best overall but havn’t tried jellyfin in a long time in all fairness. Had nothing but library and streaming issues with plex.
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Awesome great video!
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I feel like ive been under a rockall my life…never heard of jellyfin
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I like the look of Jellyfin but that is a hard pass when it comes to the need to install docker to run it.
Like VMware…Docker is a waste of time and effort if all you plan on doing is running the one thing… Both Docker and VMware are only worthwhile for a very small number of use cases.
It is like Buying a flatbed truck and then hauling around your sports car with it.
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Having gone from plex premium -> emby premium -> jellyfin, if possible you really should run a 3 side by side to get an idea of what each is like day to day. Once you have one setup it’s not difficult to tack them onto each other. They all have “gotchas”
I’ve long abandoned plex, I don’t think I’ve use it in a few years.
I’ve found surprisingly the Roku app for jellyfin has FINALLY solved the h265 (my Rokus are old and need hw transcoding) bug that has was in all of them, it made playback unusable, really. The Roku and android TV apps both have been flawless lately.
I’m hopeful for jellyfin for the first time in awhile, the development seems to be back on track. The Roku app is still getting consistent new features added, they are also implementing new features like playlists and other stupid things that emby has ignored. I do wish jellyfin had a backup app, EmbyBackup was one of my favorite features, I’m surprised there isn’t even a plugin (that I’ve been able to find anyways).
Once I figured out there was an intro skip plugin available I’ve been on jellyfin exclusively.
My library is ~40tb
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I just run both Jellyfin and Plex media servers pointed to the same media folder
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why not include Kodi?
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Only you can do a review like this. You’re such an expert in this field. Thanx mate????????????
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One of the Best reviews of Jellyfin and Plex..
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Plex has the Trump card in all comparisons. They are the only 1 with a relay server option. I’d pay for something like jellyfin to supply a relay service for remote playback outside the home.
That’s the main reason I still use plex over the alternatives.
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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 Jellyfin…..
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I’ve used plex for years, went to Emby and then Jellyfin, now back on plex, it just works.
Jellyfin is my second favorite but apps are garbage.
I wish Plex had more customization like Jellyfin though. We need need a Plexifin lol
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What did you think about using pc as nas
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100% Jellyfin for me, android app is great, browser experience is great, with my nas – IS the solution, from years.
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The effort and intelligence you put into these videos is superb. Thank you to yourself and the seagulls
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To me plex is still ahead of jellyfin, simply because it has the share screen feature, while on jellyfin, despite having the icon, it just doesn’t work. Besides, plex has the subtitle seeker built in, while the other is done though an extension. The movies and tv show covers are also very accurate, and if you don’t find it, it’s fairly simple to seach for it. On Jellyfin you have to go to imdb to search for the right cover, and that’s kind of a handful.
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