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Open Source Plex Alternatives

The best open source alternative to Plex is Jellyfin. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Plex and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Plex are Stremio, Universal Media Server, Ampache and MiniDLNA.

Plex alternatives are mainly Media Servers but may also be Media Centers or Audio Players. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Plex.
This page was last updated Jun 20, 2022
Plex
  807
  • Freemium • Proprietary
  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Chrome OS
  • Windows S
  • Android Tablet
  • Windows Phone
  • iPad
  • Apple TV
  • Daydream
  • Kindle Fire
  • Android TV
  • Kodi
  • Roku

Plex bridges the gap between your computer and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that...

Learn more about Plex

  1. Jellyfin

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • HP webOS
    • Chrome OS
    • Android Tablet
    • iPad
    • Self-Hosted
    • Google Chrome
    • Ungoogled Chromium
    • Mopidy
    • Roku
    • Cloudron
    • Kodi
    • Fire TV
    • Xbox
    • Firefox

    Jellyfin is a personal media server and client. The Jellyfin project was started as a result of Emby's decision to take their code closed-source, as well as various philosophical differences with the core developers.

    Jellyfin vs Plex opinions
    Almost everyone thinks Jellyfin is a great alternative to Plex.
     all • positive • negative      relevance • date
    prayagprajapati17

    Jellyfin is customizable, its transcoding is better than plex and there is much more to it than plex. Sure right now it is not as polished as plex but they are working on it

    Top positive comment  8 months ago
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    1
    tijmen

    Jellyfin is actually open source, unlike Emby.

    Top positive comment  over 1 year ago
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    3
    onkoe

    It's a fork of pre-proprietary Emby with numerous fixes and changes to make the experience more smooth and modern. Simply amazing for privacy and functionality!

    Positive comment • 6 days ago
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    0
    gustavodsilvagd

    it is trully self hosted without the need of something like the plex server and it also has some features, like multiple accounts, that are paid in plex

    Positive comment • 5 months ago
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    0
    Kedman

    Best alternatif from Plex ! And it's FREE et OPEN-SOURCE ! ?

    Positive comment • 12 months ago
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    0

    FOSS, easy to set up, and easy to customize!

    Positive comment • over 1 year ago
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    2
    tom967

    True FOSS ! Works great on atomic pi.

    Positive comment • about 2 years ago
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    2
    Show more comments ▾
    7 of 13 comments

  2. Media center allowing to watch movies, series, YouTube channels instantly. You can watch in HD, with subtitles, and easily cast any file to TV through DLNA, Chromecast, AppleTV!

    Stremio vs Plex opinions
    This alternative is disputed. Stremio is still a legitimate alternative to Plex, but it might have issues that some users think are important.

    Does not play local content, only paid online content.

    Negative comment • over 4 years ago
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    11

    Does't allow local content.

    Negative comment • over 3 years ago
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    1

  4. Universal Media Server is a media server capable of serving videos, audio and images to any DLNA-capable device. It supports any device capable of DLNA and runs on all major operating systems: Windows, OS X and Linux.

    Universal Media Server vs Plex opinions
    Most users think Universal Media Server is a great alternative to Plex.

    Works fine with Chromecast.

    Positive comment • almost 7 years ago
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    0

    ums is only a dlna server but plex serves the clients with custom apps, video transcoding and other features.

    Negative comment • over 3 years ago
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    -11

    No faffing about and less intrusive and no personal data shared like plex does.

    Positive comment • about 3 years ago
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    3
    jebofponderworthy

    Extremely easy install. Completely seamless connection to Roku Media Player. Very lightweight, but fully functional.

    Positive comment • over 3 years ago
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    2

  5. Ampache

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    • Cloudron

    Ampache is a web based audio streaming application and file manager allowing you to access your music from anywhere, using almost any internet enabled device.

    Ampache vs Plex opinions
    Some users think Ampache is a great alternative to Plex, some don't.

    Ampache is an audio server only, which is only a small subset of what Plex does, and not even Plex's primary focus.

    Negative comment • 11 months ago
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    0

    Ampache is an audio server, while plex supports both audio and video (and it is heavily focused on video streaming)

    Negative comment • over 4 years ago
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    6

  6. MiniDLNA

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Linux

    MiniDLNA (aka ReadyDLNA) is server software with the aim of being fully compliant with DLNA/UPnP-AV clients. It is developed by a NETGEAR employee …

    MiniDLNA vs Plex opinions
    Almost everyone thinks MiniDLNA is a great alternative to Plex.

    Plex is too commercial too many nags - also smart tv apps are variable SAMSUNG smart tv app hasn't worked for years :(

    Positive comment • almost 5 years ago
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    3

    Overly complicated and conditional 'compiling' required. A very out-dated approach for today. Much as I hate Plex, this doesn't come close to its convenience, power, and simplicity in execution.

    Negative comment • over 4 years ago
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    -8

  8. OpenELEC

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Linux
    • Raspberry Pi

    Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center (OpenELEC) is a small Linux based Just Enough Operating System (JeOS) built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a Kodi (previously XBMC) media center.

    Discontinued

    Since 2017 source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenELECalso, the website is dead.

  9. Video Hub App

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    • Freemium • Open Source
    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Browse, search, preview, and organize your videos.

  10. Airsonic

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Online

    Airsonic is a Free and Open Source community driven media server which allows you to stream, transcode, manage, and share your personal audio from anywhere via an HTML web browser or any number of apps (available for both iOS & Android).

  11. OSMC (Open Source Media Center) is a free and open source media player based on Linux and founded in 2014 that lets you play back media from your local network, attached storage and the Internet.

    OSMC vs Plex opinions
    This alternative is disputed. OSMC is still a legitimate alternative to Plex, but it might have issues that some users think are important.

    From the FAQ of the project: What is the difference between OSMC and Kodi?

    Kodi is a media center application and OSMC is the operating system that runs Kodi and brings it to your device. OSMC is not a fork of Kodi but rather a Linux distribution that ships Kodi as the main application.

    Negative comment • almost 6 years ago
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    15

    totally different piece of software

    Negative comment • over 4 years ago
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    7

  12. Streama

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    • Free • Open Source
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • Self-Hosted

    Ever had a huge bookshelf full of shows and movies? Ever wanted to digitalize them, but didn't have a good way of organizing the files? Worry no more! Streama is your own personal Netflix for just such a purpose!

    Streama vs Plex opinions
    pros, cons and recent comments

    Streama is very like Netflix

    Positive comment • about 4 years ago
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    0
Showing 10 of 44 alternatives