Neither does the same thing as Plex (with regard to remote streaming). Plex provides nearly zero-config (in most cases) secure streaming (certificate-based). In either Emby or Jellyfin, if you want secure streaming, you have to do the legwork yourself (get a domain, get a certificate, etc.). It may not be an important distinction for you, but is a pretty big one for some.
6 Likes
There are some pretty good posts out there that walk through how to get them setup fairly easily.
2 Likes
Sorry, but Iām a Plex employee
If I respond to that, I suspect my answer might be considered biased 
8 Likes
pshanew,
Appreciate that information. Had no idea.
Seems like PLEX is the only way to go if I want to install the software and share content with family members without any configuration whatsoever. Been doing it for free for two years now with no issues from my Mac Studio.
Itās almost a no-brainer to buy a lifetime license at $120 before it doubles in another month ā especially since my family who streams from my Mac wonāt have to pay extra for the privilege.
4 Likes
Will āCustom Server Access URLsā be affected?
4 Likes
If used to access a server remotely, yes. Those donāt bypass the infrastructure for how remote access works.
And this is wholly unacceptable.
Adding fire to the reaction here, does Plex Inc. think their userbase is stupid - or without other options? Itās hostile, and it is arrogant to treat your power users this way.
Remote access is WHY I use plex. Thatās the whole point. Itās not a āpremium featureā with ongoing expenses, as far as Iām concerned - this is MY bandwidth. It would be different if we were talking about Relay, but weāre not. This is BS.
Iām not going to pay for this, I will simply switch to another software package if these changes to remote access arenāt rolled back ASAP. I canāt be the only one, the read over on Reddit is HOSTILE too.
22 Likes
Thereās some other updates I suggest you guys make, like deleting this whole embarrassing plan!
9 Likes
While understanding that such ease of remote access and unmatched client application experience requires funding, I just wonder if the companyās pivot from personal media to streaming media was worth it.
6 Likes
itās terminal growth-ification. Nobody can be happy āstaying in their laneā anymore, itās got to be constant parabolic growth or investors arenāt happy
We use plex because it allows you to remotely access media files - either in your home or outside. Thatās why weāre ALL here. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY cares about the OTT free streaming.
If you guys want revenue so bad make new features worth paying for - donāt take away currently standard ones
22 Likes
They couldāve kept the existing client apps (and made them better by adding new features, etc. - instead of the social and online streaming crap being forced down our throats!) and I wouldāve happily paid another subscription.
But honestly not seeing anything in the blog post today that I need. And the new Plex Experience client apps are garbage.
8 Likes
Plex Inc. COULD HAVE nailed other streaming products and services like PODCASTS and AUDIOBOOK subscriptions had they actually built these services properly. Nearly everything that has come out as āexperimentalā from Plex Inc. has failed or has been half baked with numerous of problems covering inconsistencies across multiple platforms. Plex offered GAMING, VR, PODCASTS, TIDAL integration, and they all were gutted and trashed. At bare minimum Podcasts and Internet Radio should have been EASY targets to bring to the ecosystem since they are just lists of streams, similar to Plex TV Channels. Yet, here we are. 2025 and Plex is still pretending itās an incubator startup unicorn when they actual are well passed that. I think itās actually well overdue for the prices to have increased, but PLEX Inc. and its executives have their work cut out for themselves given that THOUSANDS of older customers have lost faith and trust in them for their nonsensical decisions. They have no one to blame but themselves for all of this.
Plex Inc. has gotten away for way too long for biting the hand that feeds them. They must bring more enticing features that are well-tested if they want people to continue to pay for what has become a complex SaaS.
8 Likes
Not true? You think the 900+ comments in the last 5 hours are support?
Anyway, invasions of my privacy damned - Iāve absolutely had a monthly plex pass account in the past and simply never found your premium product worth it to continue investment.
And for what itās worth ā I always thought it was exceedingly shady to feature-lock GPU acceleration from the FFMPEG encoder project - which was the āheadlineā feature before this change for those self-hosting IMO.
For a project born from XMBC and the open source community, yāall have a REALLY funny way of sharing back.
For all these reasons, and more, Iām done.
Your individual attitude about this is as arrogant as the corporate decision.
20 Likes
Looks that way. Iāve been using Plex for many years and all I ever wanted was a portal to watch my own media. Sad to lose this tool to folks that left the initial course of Plex, to provide its basic service for the masses. But, all good things must end. And there are options to do the basic stream that arenāt going to force another subscription.
Thank you Plex programmers for the time we had. But I think your platform will eventually suffer for this choice. Guess we will see.
9 Likes
Frankly, the price increase is fine if plex justifies it with more features, but removing core features like remote play from regular people while increasing the price is inexcusable. Had I known plex would go this route when I was buying plex pass, I wouldāve gone with another platform. I seriously hope you guys reconsider making remote play paid, this is a mistake for the sake of greed.
22 Likes
ahh ok so as long as i have plex pass for my server none of my friends that use my plex will need to pay.
4 Likes
The enshittification started.
There is no reason for the price increase since Plex is removing features (Hello Watch together, Plex arcade, broken mobile downloads, extensions) and still bombards you with ads when watching the āfreemiumā content.
I thought it was going in the right direction when PlexAmp opened a little more for non pass user, this is a massive step backward.
Give significant reason for the price increase. Redesign and app for server options arenāt one of them, you can litterally do that in the freemium version of both competitors, being foss or not.
Increasing the total number of Plex Home users is on the other side a good step forward.
17 Likes
Plex was awesome while it lasted, we can only pray they walk this back and donāt enshitify further, but if other companies are anything to go off of, the future of plex is looking grim
I meant to reply to @Capitaine-Iglo XD thought the reply button under that would make it a reply to their comment, not the whole thread
5 Likes
Anyone know if the Sonos Plex Music service plugin(ie adding Plex as a music service in Sonos) will still work for non-Plex pass users? ie accessing local media on plex server via Sonos App?).
I ask becuse it requires remote access to be on to work, even when you are still actually local and proxies everything through the plex relay, even if you are on your own LAN (basically due to the new Sonos API changes released last May). It used to work without plexpass despite using the plex relay servers. Will it continue to work for nonplexpass users?
Is this update dependent or are you going to enforce some kind of blocking from.the Plex side? Honestly I think this is bad. It cost plex nothing for us to stream our own resources. This seems sudden and shady. Iāve been a plex user since the XMBC days and this actually upsets me. When you took and replaced plugins for normies and gave us the TV thing, we went along with it. But thisā¦is foul.
12 Likes
