A Plex alternative without a subscription
Updated ยท 5 min read
You're looking for a Plex alternative without a subscription: a server for your own movies and shows that you don't rent by the month. There are three real choices, one useful extra, and a free way to watch away from home. Here's what each one costs and what you trade.
The options
Jellyfin is a media server, like Plex Media Server, that is free and open source. There's no paid tier: hardware transcoding, live TV and recordings, and the apps cost nothing. The project says plainly that it has no premium licenses or features. The catch is that you do the setup, including watching away from home.
Emby is the server Jellyfin was forked from in 2018. The server is free to install, and Emby Premiere unlocks a set of features, among them hardware acceleration, DVR recordings and offline downloads. Premiere comes monthly, yearly or as a one-time lifetime license, so you can avoid a subscription by paying once. It's closed source.
Kodi is a free, open source media player, not a server. It plays files on the device it runs on, or from a shared folder on your network, and it does that very well. On its own, it doesn't stream to phones away from home or keep one watch history across every device. Many people pair Kodi on the TV with Jellyfin as the server.
Infuse is a player app for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. It connects to Jellyfin, Emby and Plex, and plays almost any file without the server converting it. It has a free version, and Infuse Pro adds more formats and features for $1.99 a month, $16.99 a year or $99.99 once (as of October 2026). It's an option for the Apple devices in the house, not a replacement for the server.
How they compare
| Jellyfin | Emby | Kodi | Plex | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Server | Server | Player | Server and service |
| Cost | Free | Free; Premiere $4.99 a month, $54 a year or $119 lifetime | Free | Free at home; Plex Pass $69.99 a year, $249.99 for five years or $749.99 lifetime |
| Hardware transcoding | Free | With Premiere | Not needed; plays locally | With Plex Pass |
| Away from home | You set it up | You set it up | No | With Plex Pass or Remote Watch Pass ($29.99 a year) |
| Apps | Free, most devices | Polished; full mobile apps with Premiere | Runs on the TV box itself | The most polished, nearly everywhere |
| Open source | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Prices are US list prices as of October 2026. Reelhost isn't affiliated with Jellyfin, Plex or Emby.
What you give up, and what you get
Leaving Plex costs you some comfort. Plex's apps are the most polished of the lot, and they're on almost every TV and streaming stick. Plex sets up remote watching for you once you pay for it. It also has things no home server has: free ad-supported movies and live channels, and Discover, which shows where a title is streaming across services. If those matter to your family, say so before you switch.
What you get is a server that's entirely yours. With Jellyfin there's no account with a company, nothing that stops working if a price changes, and no feature held back for paying users. Hardware transcoding, which keeps an old laptop or a small NAS from struggling, is free. If Plex was mostly a way to play your own files, Jellyfin covers it. Moving from Plex to Jellyfin shows how to keep everyone's watch history, and Emby vs Jellyfin helps if you're torn between the two servers.
The real price of a free server is your time. Expect an evening for the first setup, and a little upkeep after.
Watch away from home without paying
Remote watching is the part Plex charges for and Jellyfin leaves to you. Two free ways work. The simplest is Tailscale, a private network between your own devices. Its Personal plan is free for up to six people. Nothing is opened on your router, and nobody outside your Tailscale network can reach Jellyfin.
- Install Tailscale on the computer that runs Jellyfin. Get it from tailscale.com and sign in. The computer gets a private address that starts with
100.. - Install Tailscale on each phone, tablet or laptop. Sign in with the same account, or invite family members to your Tailscale network.
- Open Jellyfin at the server's Tailscale address. In the Jellyfin app, add a server with the address
http://100.x.y.z:8096, using your server's own address from the Tailscale app. - Check it away from home. Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and play something over mobile data.
The catch: Tailscale has to be on each device, and most smart TVs can't run it. For a TV at a friend's house, or for people who won't install anything, you need a public web address. That means a reverse proxy with an HTTPS certificate and, usually, your own domain name, which typically costs $10 to $15 a year. Getting an HTTPS certificate for Jellyfin walks through it.
Careful: don't forward port 8096 on your router to the internet. That's Jellyfin's plain HTTP port, so your password and everything you watch would cross the internet unencrypted. Put HTTPS in front of it, or use Tailscale.
Questions
Is Jellyfin really free?
Yes. Jellyfin is free and open source, with no paid tier. Hardware transcoding, live TV and its apps cost nothing.
Can I watch Jellyfin away from home without paying?
Yes. Tailscale's free Personal plan connects your devices to your server privately. A public address needs HTTPS and usually a domain name, which typically costs $10 to $15 a year.
Is Kodi a replacement for Plex?
Not by itself. Kodi is a player, not a server, so it plays files on one device. Paired with Jellyfin as the server, it covers what most people used Plex for at home.
The one-click way: Reelhost
Reelhost sets up and fixes Jellyfin on Windows, Mac and Docker, and it's paid once, not monthly. Core is $49.99 once for the check-up's fixes. Complete is $79.99 once at launch, then $99.99, and adds watching away from home (private with Tailscale, or your own yourname.watchhome.app address), Switch from Plex and the rest. Yearly is $29.99 a year for everything in Complete while you're subscribed.
The check-up is free and changes nothing. Every fix is previewed, backed up and reversible.