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Jellyfin just won the streaming wars without lifting a finger thanks to Plex’s controversial decision


I’m a huge Plex fan. I’ve written about my love of Plex many times, but the recent change in pricing of the Lifetime Plex Pass is simply a bad move, and Plex is definitely going to regret it. Jellyfin, on the other hand, is only going to get better thanks to Plex’s boneheaded decision.

Plex has long been the industry standard for running your own streaming server

All good things must come to an end

Plex logo.

I have been a Plex user since December of 2013, almost 13 years ago. At that time, the remote access functionality was called myPlex, which is even more interesting.

Plex has been around since 2007, and it has held the title as the best and easiest to use streaming media platform since then. While Jellyfin came out over a decade later, Plex has still held strong as the main recommendation of many for starting a streaming media server.

It was just over a year ago when Plex increased the price of its Lifetime Plex Pass from $120 to $250, and just today, Plex announced that the price of Lifetime Plex Pass will be going up to $750 starting July 1, 2026.

This is a very stark contrast to the Plex that I grew up knowing and loving. The previous Lifetime Plex Pass price of $120 was the same for over a decade before going to $250, and now the jump to $750 feels like a rug pull for Plex users the world over.

While I get an insane amount of use out of my Plex server, it’s hard to deny that this change will drastically change the home streaming media server landscape forever and pave the way for platforms like Jellyfin to take over.

I think the worst part of this recent announcement is the fact that Plex is alluding to the potential cancellation of future Lifetime Plex Pass sales, pushing everyone to monthly subscriptions. In a world where everything is a subscription, at least Plex had the option of offering a buyout, but that could be going away.

I get why Plex charges for some of their features, but I just don’t see why they’re actively pushing the homelabbing community away from their tool. The homelab community is what built Plex, and now they’re alienating them.

Sure, Plex can be used to stream free (or paid) content, but the majority of Plex users are streaming their own content. Stop charging me Netflix prices to watch my own media, Plex.

Jellyfin has silently waited in the shadows for its glow-up moment

While it recently grew in popularity, Plex just skyrocketed it into the limelight

When it comes to streaming media platforms, there really are only two main players: Plex and Jellyfin. Emby and Kodi are definitely options out there, but it seems that Jellyfin is definitely the go-to for non-Plex users, and this pricing change is only going to bolster Jellyfin’s user base.

It seems that Jellyfin has been silently waiting for its glow-up moment, building a Plex replacement in the shadows. Last year, when Plex bumped the price of a Lifetime Plex Pass, Jellyfin’s popularity and its maintenance definitely received a pretty big boost.

Jellyfin offers things that Plex simply can’t compete with, though. There is a plethora of plugins for Jellyfin that can completely change the experience. It offers hardware transcoding for free, while Plex locks that behind Plex Pass. Remote access is also free, though it’s more difficult to set up.

Really, Jellyfin is perfecting what Plex used to be—a free and easy way to stream your own media library. Plex had the DIY streaming server world in its grip and lost it all within less than a year and a half with a few anti-community decisions.​​​​​​​

I’m still a Plex fan at heart, but Jellyfin just won my letter of recommendation

I just really hope Jellyfin is able to streamline some things

Angled iPhone view of Jellyfin recently added media rows. Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek

I want to love Jellyfin, but Plex still does a handful of things better. Remote access is one of those things, and I genuinely prefer the look of Plex over Jellyfin.

However, Plex’s recent pricing change is definitely going to make me rethink my recommendation of them to casual users and even hardcore users. While I still think Plex’s $750 Lifetime Plex Pass could be worth it to the right person, Jellyfin offers a comparable experience for $0, and that’s hard to bear.

Now is the perfect time for the Jellyfin team to lock in and work on the core user experience of the platform. Make it easier to open up Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy, for example. Another thing that Jellyfin really needs to work on is downloads.

Jellyfin is simply poised to take over Plex at this point unless the latter does a 180 on several of its recent changes. My recommendation is going to be placed in the Jellyfin camp unless there’s a specific Plex feature that someone needs. Jellyfin is free, works on all hardware, and delivers the same overall feature set that Plex does.​​​​​​​

jellyfin

OS

Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, Fire TV, Roku OS, WebOS, Xbox,

Price

Free

Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.


It’s going to be hard for Plex to right this ship

I don’t see a way for Plex to win here. If they reverse course and cancel the price increase, the community will still be mad. Even if Plex lowered the Lifetime Plex Pass back to the $120 it used to be, it would be a knee-jerk move, and the community would very likely still balk at it and ditch.

I’m still going to use Plex in my own homelab, but only because I have an active Lifetime Plex Pass. If I didn’t already own a Lifetime Plex Pass, I would either buy one now (before the price increase on July 1) or start working on moving everything to Jellyfin.

Plex, it was nice knowing you, and I’ll still love you, but this was a bad move.



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Recent Reviews

Why your new laptop has almost no ports (and why that’s actually great)


The first computer my family owned was an 80286 IBM clone, and it had lots of ports, none of which looked the same. There was a big 5-pin DIN for the keyboard, a serial port, a parallel port, a game port for our joystick, and of course, the VGA port for the monitor.

In comparison, a modern computer has much less diversity in the port department. Not only are there fewer types of ports, but the total number may be quite low as well. When we move to modern laptops, it can be much more minimalist. Some laptops have just a single port on the entire machine! Is this a bad thing? As with anything, the extremes are rarely ideal, but I’d say overall, this has been a pretty positive development for PCs.

The port explosion era was never sustainable

It was more like a port infection

You see, the reason we had so many ports for so long is that people kept inventing new interfaces to make up for the shortcomings of existing ones. However, instead of the newer, better interfaces making the old ones obsolete, they just became additive as perfectly summarized in this classic XKCD comic.

A comic illustrates how competing standards multiply: first showing 14 competing standards, then people agreeing to create one universal standard, followed by a final panel showing there are now 15 competing standards. Credit: Randall Munroe (CC-BY-NC)

In laptops, the need for so many ports reached ridiculous heights. In this video posted by X user PC Philanthropy, you can see his Sager/Clevo D9T absolutely packed with all the trimmings leading to a rather massive laptop.

It is undeniably a cool machine, but obviously goes against the principle of portable computing. Also, every port you install means power and space that could have been taken up by something else. That’s true for laptops and desktops.



















Quiz
8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge

PC ports and motherboard I/O
Trivia challenge

Think you know your USB from your PCIe? Put your connector knowledge to the test.

PortsStandardsHardwareConnectorsMotherboards

Which USB connector type is fully reversible, meaning it can be plugged in either way?

Correct! USB Type-C features a symmetrical oval design that lets you insert it in either orientation. Introduced in 2014, it has become the dominant connector for modern devices and supports everything from data transfer to video output and fast charging.

Not quite — the answer is USB Type-C. The older USB Type-A connector (the flat rectangular one) famously required you to flip it at least twice before getting it right. USB Type-C’s reversible design was one of its biggest selling points when it launched in 2014.

What does the ‘x16’ in a PCIe x16 slot refer to?

Exactly right! PCIe x16 means the slot has 16 data lanes, allowing significantly more bandwidth than smaller x1 or x4 slots. This is why discrete graphics cards almost always use x16 slots — they need that extra throughput to feed pixel data to your display.

Not quite — the ‘x16’ refers to the number of data lanes. More lanes mean more simultaneous data paths between the CPU and the card. Graphics cards use x16 slots because their massive data demands require all 16 of those lanes working together.

Which port on a motherboard is most commonly used to connect a display directly to the CPU’s integrated graphics?

That’s correct! The HDMI and DisplayPort connectors found on a motherboard’s rear I/O panel are wired directly to the CPU’s integrated graphics unit. If you have a discrete GPU installed, you should use that card’s outputs instead for best performance.

The right answer is the HDMI or DisplayPort connectors on the rear I/O panel. These ports bypass the discrete GPU entirely and tap into the CPU’s built-in graphics. It’s a common troubleshooting trap — plugging a monitor into the motherboard instead of the GPU and wondering why nothing works.

What is the primary function of the 24-pin ATX connector on a motherboard?

Spot on! The 24-pin ATX connector is the main power connector that delivers multiple voltage rails — including 3.3V, 5V, and 12V — from the power supply to the motherboard. Without it seated properly, your PC simply won’t power on at all.

The correct answer is delivering power from the PSU to the motherboard. The 24-pin ATX connector is the big wide plug you’ll find on every modern motherboard. It supplies several different voltage levels that the board distributes to components. PCIe cards get their supplemental power from separate 6- or 8-pin connectors directly from the PSU.

Which of the following rear I/O ports transmits both audio and video in a single cable and is most commonly found on modern motherboards?

Correct! HDMI carries both high-definition audio and video over a single cable, making it one of the most convenient display connectors available. It became standard on motherboards as integrated graphics improved, and modern versions support 4K and even 8K resolutions.

The answer is HDMI. VGA is analog-only and carries no audio, DVI-D is digital video only without audio, and S-Video is an older analog format. HDMI bundles both audio and video digitally, which is why it became the go-to connector for TVs, monitors, and motherboard rear panels alike.

What maximum theoretical data transfer speed does USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support?

Impressive! USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 achieves 20 Gbps by using two 10 Gbps lanes simultaneously — that’s what the ‘2×2’ means. It requires a USB Type-C connector and is most commonly found on high-end motherboards, making it ideal for fast external SSDs.

The correct answer is 20 Gbps. The ‘2×2’ in the name is the key clue — it bonds two 10 Gbps channels together. USB naming got notoriously confusing around this era, with the same physical port potentially supporting very different speeds depending on the generation label printed in the spec sheet.

What is the role of the M.2 slot found on most modern motherboards?

Well done! M.2 is a compact form-factor slot that most commonly hosts NVMe SSDs, which connect via PCIe lanes for blazing-fast storage speeds. Some M.2 slots also support SATA-based SSDs and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo cards, making the slot surprisingly versatile.

The correct answer is housing compact storage drives or wireless cards. M.2 replaced the older mSATA standard and supports both PCIe NVMe drives and SATA drives depending on the slot’s keying. NVMe M.2 drives can achieve sequential read speeds many times faster than traditional SATA SSDs.

Which audio connector color on a standard PC rear I/O panel is designated for the main stereo line output to speakers or headphones?

That’s right! The green 3.5mm jack is the standard line-out port used for speakers and headphones in the PC audio color-coding scheme. Blue is line-in for recording, and pink is the microphone input — a color system that’s been consistent across PC motherboards for decades.

The correct answer is green. PC audio jacks follow a long-standing color convention: green for headphones and speakers, blue for line-in (recording from external sources), and pink for the microphone. It’s one of those legacy standards that has quietly persisted even as USB and digital audio have become more common.

Challenge Complete

Your Score

/ 8

Thanks for playing!

USB-C (almost) solved the problem

So close, but not quite there yet

Released to the public in the mid ’90s, USB came to the rescue. The “U” is for “Universal” and for the most part USB has lived up to that promise. Now there was one port that handled data and power. More importantly, USB is fully backwards compatible. So if you plug a USB 1.1 device into a modern USB port, it should work. Whether you can get software drivers for it is another story, but it will talk to the host device.

USB-C has proven to be less universal than I’d like, and the situation is still far better than it used to be. A single USB-C port on one of my laptops can act as a video output for just about anything, even an old VGA monitor.

A Macbook, CRT monitor, and iPad connected together. Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/How-To Geek

My smaller laptops don’t need special chargers anymore, and the latest laptops can pull 240W over USB-C, which is enough for all but the beefiest desktop replacement machines. There is no type of peripheral I can think of that doesn’t give you the option to use it over USB.

But the complaints aren’t so much that we only get USB these days, it’s more that we get so little of it.

Minimal I/O enables better hardware design

Harder, better, faster, stronger

When you only put a handful of USB-C ports on a mobile computer, you reap numerous benefits. The low profile of USB-C means the laptop can be thinner, and the frame can be a stronger and more rigid unibody design. Internally, you have room for more battery, larger performance components, or better cooling.

A green Apple MacBook Neo on display on a wooden table with a product sign behind it. Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek

It also means the internals can be simpler, and cheaper to design and fabricate, though whether those savings are passed on to customers is another story altogether.

Wireless and cloud-first workflows reduce physical dependency

I guess they are “air” ports

Perhaps the first sign of major change was when smartphones dropped headphone jacks, but the fact is that wireless technologies are now good enough for most peripheral and data connections. So, there’s no need to connect them directly to a port on a computer. Which, in turn, means that there’s no reason to have as many ports on the computer in the first place.

I can’t remember the last time I used a wired mouse or keyboard, and I only use Ethernet for devices that need extremely high speeds, low latency, or improved reliability. For normal day-to-day use, modern Wi-Fi is just fine. So while your laptop might not have as many wired ports on the outside, those wireless chips on the inside still give it numerous connectivity options for audio, input, and data transfer.

You could even make the same argument about storage to some extent, with many thin and light systems leaning on cloud storage to make up for a lack of ports to connect external storage.

MacBook Neo colors on a white background.

Operating System

macOS

CPU

A18 Pro

The MacBook Neo with the A18 Pro chip is Apple’s most affordable laptop yet, with all-day battery life and buttery-smooth performance in a thin and light profile.


The dongle backlash misses the bigger picture

The last bit of the port protest centers around dongles, but I never understood the complaints. Having one port that can be broken out into whatever ports you need using a little box is amazing. It makes ports optional and gives you the choice. If you never plug your laptop into anything, why deal with all the ports you’ll never use?

Likewise, if you only ever use ports with your laptop when you dock it at a desk, then you can just leave your dongle ready to go on your desk, but throwing a small dongle in your laptop sleeve or bag in case you might need it is a small price to pay for all the benefits of minimal IO.



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