On July 1, 2026, the Plex Pass lifetime price went from $249.99 to $749.99. If you were waiting for a sale to buy it, that door has closed. If you already own a server full of movies and shows, it's a good moment to ask what you actually want to pay for.
This post lays out your choices plainly, including the ones that don't involve us.
What Plex costs now
Plex itself is still free to use at home. The paid options, at US list prices as of October 2026:
- Plex Pass monthly: $6.99 a month
- Plex Pass yearly: $69.99 a year
- Plex Pass, five years: $249.99 (new in July 2026)
- Plex Pass lifetime: $749.99
- Remote Watch Pass: $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, if watching away from home is all you need
We worked through the totals over one, three and five years in Plex Pass vs Jellyfin: the real cost. The short version: lifetime now costs about as much as eleven years of the yearly plan.
Option 1: stay on Plex and pick the cheapest plan that fits
If Plex works for you and your family knows it, staying is a reasonable choice. Two tips:
- If you only pay for Plex so you can watch away from home, the Remote Watch Pass is the cheapest way to do it.
- If you want everything and expect to stay a few years, the five-year pass costs less than five yearly plans.
Option 2: move to Jellyfin
Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server. It plays the same files from the same folders. It has no paid tier: hardware transcoding, live TV and its apps cost nothing.
What you give up is the "it sets itself up" part. The first evening goes on libraries, users and apps. Watching away from home is the step that trips most people up, because it means a certificate, a router setting, or a private network like Tailscale. After that, you have the odd bit of upkeep when an update or your home's internet address changes.
If you're comfortable with that, Jellyfin on its own costs $0. Our Plex to Jellyfin guide walks through the move step by step.
Option 3: Jellyfin, with the hard parts done for you
This is where Reelhost comes in. It's an independent app (we're not affiliated with Jellyfin or Plex) that sets up and fixes your own Jellyfin server on Windows, Mac or Docker.
- Switch from Plex copies your watched history, resume points and collections from a copy of Plex's database. Plex itself is never changed, the preview is free, and there's a one-click undo.
- Watching away from home gives you an address like yourname.watchhome.app with an HTTPS certificate that's issued and renewed for you, or private access through Tailscale with no ports opened. Video streams straight from your home; our servers never see it.
- People and invites sets up family logins and kids profiles with rating limits, and sends invites by message or QR code.
Reelhost Complete is $99.99 once, or $79.99 for the first 500 buyers. That's less than one and a half years of Plex Pass yearly, and you keep it. Every fix is previewed, backed up first and reversible, and there's a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Which one is right for you?
- You like Plex and only watch at home: stay on free Plex.
- You only need remote watching: Plex's Remote Watch Pass, or Jellyfin with Tailscale for free.
- You want to stop paying every year and keep your watch history: Jellyfin, with Reelhost doing the setup.
Not sure where your server stands? The free check-up scans your setup in a few seconds and explains what it finds in plain words. No account, no card.