The Best Open Source Plex AlternativesTop Media Servers & Media Centers like Plex
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 Universal Media Server, Navidrome, Meelo and Music Assistant.
filter to find the best alternatives
Plex alternatives are mainly Media Servers, but if you're looking for Media Centers or Audio Players you can filter on that. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Plex.- Media Server
- Freemium • Proprietary
- 44 Jellyfin alternatives
A free, open-source media system alternative to proprietary options like Emby and Plex, with Chromecast support, 4K streaming, plugin extensions, focusing on privacy without premium features, managing media from dedicated servers to multiple devices via various apps.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- Flathub
- Tizen OS
- F-Droid
- Android TV
- Kodi
- Docker
- Fire TV
- Roku
Comments about Jellyfin as an Alternative to Plex
Comment summary: Jellyfin is praised for being a free, open-source alternative to Plex, offering increased privacy without requiring a cloud account. It's appreciated for customization, ease of setup, and lack of paywalls. However, users note challenges with certain devices and that Jellyfin is currently less polished than Plex, though improvements are underway. Its functionality and privacy features are highlighted as major strengths.Top Positive CommentMost Recent CommentobradkIt would be ok except it's impossible to disable transcoding and have decent subtitles. It's slow, but it's FOSS and it's not trying to upsell you at all times.
intpCertainly a viable free, open-source alternative, but be advised that getting it working with a Roku, for example, can be a lot more challenging for less tech savvy users.
- 44 Universal Media Server alternatives
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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Comments about Universal Media Server as an Alternative to Plex
Most Recent CommentJonathan BrickmanExtremely easy install. Completely seamless connection to Roku Media Player. Very lightweight, but fully functional.
No faffing about and less intrusive and no personal data shared like plex does.
Works fine with Chromecast.
- 62 Navidrome alternatives
Navidrome is an open source web-based music collection server and streamer. It gives you freedom to listen to your music collection from any browser or mobile device.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
Brazil
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Self-Hosted
- Raspberry Pi
- Cloudron
A versatile self-hosted music server offering music video access, B-Side and rare track identification, extensive format support via transcoding, and detailed metadata parsing. Additional features include automatic 'featuring' detection, song version browsing, and genre retrieval through platforms like MusicBrainz.
- 4 Music Assistant alternatives
Turn your Home Assistant instance into a jukebox, hassle free streaming of your favorite media to Home Assistant media players.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
- International
Platforms
- Self-Hosted
- 43 OSMC alternatives
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 is the leading media center in terms of feature set and community and is based...
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Apple TV
- Raspberry Pi
Comments about OSMC as an Alternative to Plex
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.
totally different piece of software
License model
- Freemium • Open Source
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Video Hub App Features
It's FOSS and they don't spy on you. No paywalls and 'Premium' packages. It's completely free.