I ran Plex for 4 years (since 2018). Last month I migrated to Jellyfin. Here's what pushed me over, what I miss, and what I gained.
Why I left Plex
The breaking point was the 2025 Plex "pass" changes — when they started requiring a Plex Pass subscription for hardware-accelerated transcoding that used to be free. Not a huge deal individually, but it was the 4th or 5th "previously free feature now paywalled" change in 2 years.
The other thing: I run my media server on a Synology NAS with an Intel Celeron. Plex transcoding pegged the CPU. Jellyfin's hwaccel (Intel QuickSync) uses ~5% CPU for the same workload.
What Jellyfin does better
- Truly free: no subscription tiers, no "Plex Pass" upsells, no premium features locked away
- Open source: full code, full features, can fork it
- Better TV client support: Free TV apps on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV. Plex charges for TV apps on some platforms.
- Music library: I switched from Plex to Jellyfin for music. Auto-playlists are better, codec support is broader (Opus, FLAC, OGG all native).
- Photo library: Was using PhotoPrism in parallel. Jellyfin 10.9 added native photos. Good enough for me to drop PhotoPrism.
What Plex still does better (the honest list)
- Mobile apps: Plex mobile (iOS/Android) is slicker than Jellyfin. Swipe gestures, Chromecast integration, offline downloads are more polished.
- Discoverability: Plex's universal watchlist + "Similar to" recommendations are genuinely better than Jellyfin's basic metadata view.
- Hardware ecosystem: Plex has apps everywhere. I have Plex on my Samsung TV natively; for Jellyfin I had to install Kodi + Jellyfin plugin.
- TV show metadata: Plex has stricter metadata standards. Jellyfin sometimes matches the wrong season/episode.
The migration took a weekend
- Set up Jellyfin in docker-compose alongside Plex (port 8096 for Jellyfin, Plex stays on 32400)
- Point both at the same /media directory
- Run both for a week. Compare UX.
- After 7 days of side-by-side: Jellyfin won for me (my wife also preferred it)
- Tear down Plex, drop the port
What I kept from Plex
- My watch history (exported via Plex API, manually merged into Jellyfin's)
- My collections (manual recreation, ~2 hours for 50 collections)
- My metadata edits (didn't migrate these — Jellyfin re-scanned and matched cleanly enough)
My setup now
- Jellyfin 10.9 in Docker on Synology DS220+
- Intel QuickSync hardware transcoding enabled
- Reverse-proxied via Nginx Proxy Manager + Tailscale
- Clients: iOS app, Android TV box, Roku (free official app)
- Cost: $0 (vs $120/year Plex Pass I was paying)
When to stay with Plex
- You have a huge existing watchlist + watch history you don't want to lose
- You rely on Plex's mobile app daily (commuter viewing, offline downloads)
- You want Plex's TV-show metadata quality (some users really care)
- You already have Plex Pass lifetime and the new changes don't bother you
When to switch to Jellyfin
- You're paying for Plex Pass and resent the recent paywall changes
- You want hardware-accelerated transcoding without Plex Pass
- You're already self-hosting everything else (it's the same ethos)
- You want open-source everything
The 4th option that worked for me: keep both running for a week. Test on every device. Let your household vote. That's how I ended up with Jellyfin.
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