The Best Open Source Plex AlternativesTop Media Servers & Media Centers like Plex

Alternatives list

1. 

   

   Jellyfin

    379 likes

   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.

   84 Jellyfin alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (GPL-2.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Media Server
   • Media Center

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android Tablet
   • iPad
   • Self-Hosted
   • Flathub
   • Tizen OS
   • F-Droid
   • Android TV
   • Cloudron
   • Kodi
   • Docker
   • Fire TV
   • Roku

   • United States

   

   

   

   +5

   

   More about Jellyfin  

   

   Good alternative?Is Jellyfin a good alternative to Plex?

    

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   18comments

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   Jellyfin vs Plex Comments

   Top Positive Comment by seczamotu · Oct 5, 2019

   It's FOSS and they don't spy on you. No paywalls and 'Premium' packages. It's completely free.

   Comment by obradk · Feb 12, 2024

   It 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.

   Positive comment by intp · Dec 23, 2023

   Certainly 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.

   3 of 18 comments

   

   

   • Jellyfin is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Jellyfin is Privacy focused and DecentralizedPlex is not according to our users
2. 

   

   Kodi

    1563 likes

   Open-source media player compatible with Linux, Mac, Windows, Xbox, and iOS, designed for home theater PCs. Customizable with themes, supports 4K, audio and video formats, streaming, privacy-focused operations, and extensible with plugins.

   93 Kodi alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source

   Application typeApplication types

   • Media Center
   • Media Player

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android Tablet
   • BSD
   • iPad
   • Flathub
   • Flatpak
   • Raspberry Pi
   • Fire TV
   • Apple TV
   • HUAWEI AppGallery
   • Xbox
   • F-Droid

   • United States

   

   

   

   +8

   

   More about Kodi  

   

   Good alternative?Is Kodi a good alternative to Plex?

    

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   12comments

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   Kodi vs Plex Comments

   Top Positive Comment by Guest · Mar 5, 2019

   Kodi has way more functionalities than Plex

   Top Negative Comment by Guest · Nov 26, 2017

   kodi is not a media server, it's a media viewer not designed to share content

   Negative comment by fPortal · Sep 18, 2018

   It is not a media server. It is a player.

   3 of 12 comments

   

   

   • Kodi is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
   • Kodi is a Media Center Plex is a Media Server
   • Kodi is Privacy focusedPlex is not according to our users
4. 

   

   Universal Media Server

    137 likes

   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.

   55 Universal Media Server alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (GPL-2.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Media Server
   • Video Streaming

   Origin

   • United States

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux

   • United States

   

   

   

   More about Universal Media Server  

   

   Good alternative?Is this a good alternative to Plex?

    

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   4comments

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   Universal Media Server vs Plex Comments

   Positive comment by Jonathan Brickman · Nov 16, 2018

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

   Positive comment by Guest · May 4, 2019

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

   Positive comment by Guest · Jul 7, 2015

   Works fine with Chromecast.

   3 of 4 comments

   

   

   • Universal Media Server is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
5. 

   

   Meelo

    17 likes

   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.

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Audio Player
   • Media Server

   Platforms

   • Android
   • Self-Hosted
   • Docker
   • iPhone
   • iPad

   

   

   

   +3

   

   More about Meelo  

   

   Good alternative?Is Meelo a good alternative to Plex?

    
6. 

   

   Plezy

    8 likes

   Cross-platform media client with Flutter UI offering native performance and a visually streamlined interface, compatible with Plex and Jellyfin servers, enabling direct streaming, HDR and Dolby Vision playback, offline downloads, and minimal transcoding.

   25 Plezy alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Freemium
   • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

   Application type

   • Media Player

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Android
   • iPhone
   • Android TV
   • Fire TV

   

   

   

   +4

   

   More about Plezy  

   

   Good alternative?Is Plezy a good alternative to Plex?

    
8. 

   

   Music Assistant

    13 likes

   Turn your Home Assistant instance into a jukebox, hassle free streaming of your favorite media to Home Assistant media players.

   9 Music Assistant alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Free
   • Open Source (Apache-2.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Music Streaming
   • Audio Player

   Origin

   • Switzerland

   Platforms

   • Self-Hosted
   • Docker
   • Windows
   • Mac
   • Linux

   • Switzerland

   

   

   More about Music Assistant  

   

   Good alternative?Is Music Assistant a good alternative to Plex?

    
9. 

   

   MediaChips

    20 likes

   MediaChips is a desktop app for organizing local media libraries. It helps you tag, filter, preview, and browse videos, images, audio, and text files that already live on your disks or NAS — with no accounts, no cloud, and no data collection.

   46 MediaChips alternatives

   Cost / License

   • Freemium
   • Open Source (GPL-3.0)

   Application typeApplication types

   • Media Manager
   • Media Player

   Platforms

   • Mac
   • Windows
   • Linux
   • Docker

   

   

   

   +2

   

   More about MediaChips  

   

   Good alternative?Is MediaChips a good alternative to Plex?

    
10. 

    

    Ampache

     62 likes

    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.

    115 Ampache alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (AGPL-3.0)

    Application typeApplication types

    • Music Streaming
    • Audio Player

    Origin

    • Germany
    • EU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    • PHP
    • Cloudron

    • Germany
    • EU

    

    

    

    +5

    

    More about Ampache  

    

    Good alternative?Is Ampache a good alternative to Plex?

     

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    2comments

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    Ampache vs Plex Comments

    Negative comment by Guest · Feb 25, 2018

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

    Negative comment by Guest · Aug 7, 2021

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

    2 of 2 comments

    

    

    • Ampache is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
    • Ampache is a Music Streaming Plex is a Media Server
11. 

    

    MiniDLNA

     48 likes

    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 …

    35 MiniDLNA alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    • Media Server

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Termux
    • Terminal

    

    More about MiniDLNA  

    

    Good alternative?Is MiniDLNA a good alternative to Plex?

     

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    2comments

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    MiniDLNA vs Plex Comments

    Positive comment by Guest · Sep 17, 2017

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

    Negative comment by Guest · Dec 21, 2017

    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.

    2 of 2 comments

    

    

    • MiniDLNA is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
12. 

    

    Video Hub App

     24 likes

    Browse, search, preview, and organize your videos.

    46 Video Hub App alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    • Media Manager

    Origin

    • United States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    • United States

    

    

    

    +3

    

    More about Video Hub App  

    

    Good alternative?Is Video Hub App a good alternative to Plex?

     
13. 

    

    LibreELEC

     24 likes

    LibreELEC is ‘Just enough OS’ for Kodi, a Linux distribution built to run Kodi on current and popular mediacentre hardware. We are an evolution of the popular OpenELEC project. LibreELEC software will be familiar to OpenELEC users.

    12 LibreELEC alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application typeApplication types

    • Audio Player
    • Media Player

    Origin

    • Germany
    • EU

    Platforms

    • Linux

    • Germany
    • EU

    

    More about LibreELEC  

    

    Good alternative?Is LibreELEC a good alternative to Plex?

     
14. 

    

    OSMC

     81 likes

    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...

    47 OSMC alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application typeApplication types

    • Media Center
    • Audio Player

    Platforms

    • Apple TV
    • Raspberry Pi

    

    More about OSMC  

    

    Good alternative?Is OSMC a good alternative to Plex?

     

    |

    2comments

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    OSMC vs Plex Comments

    Negative comment by Guest · Jul 6, 2016

    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 by Guest · Nov 26, 2017

    totally different piece of software

    2 of 2 comments

    

    

    • OSMC is Free and Open SourcePlex is Freemium and Proprietary
    • OSMC is a Media Center Plex is a Media Server