When Microsoft shuttered Windows Media Center, Plex Media Server stepped in to catalog and stream purchased music, movies, and shows. It's been one of the best options for creating your own media server on NAS hardware, and can run on SBCs and other lower-powered devices. While it's still often recommended, it's not the only option for organizing your personal media hoard. There are now numerous open-source alternatives that provide a sleeker experience without the feature creep that Plex has introduced over the years. The service that started many on their digital media collection is beginning to fall behind, and it might be worth looking at the alternatives

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3 Advanced features locked behind a subscription

Plex Pass is needed for some essential features

Running your own Plex server doesn't cost a cent, but it does lack a few features if you don't upgrade to a Plex Pass subscription. The list of features locked behind the paywall has been reduced in recent years (it used to limit playback on mobile apps to one minute at a time!), but not everyone wants to pay $5 monthly or the $120 lifetime unlock fee. One of the other well-known Plex alternatives, Emby, also has a similar pricing structure, but they seemingly lock the mobile apps behind the subscription. These are the exceptions, however, with many media server options giving you everything from mobile apps to transcoding and sharing functions for free.

I'm not saying we shouldn't support the developers who make the software we use. The lifetime unlock fee is regularly discounted and is good value if you know you'll use your Plex server often. However, with other alternatives giving you hardware transcoding for free, the value of paying for Plex Pass is diminished. Other features, like offline media support and Live TV/DVR functionality, are nice to have but aren't strictly necessary. That's why another alternative, Jellyfin, uses plugins to add those features instead of enabling them by default. It's all about letting the user choose the level of features they need and not bloating the apps unnecessarily.

Building your own media server is partly about using the media you own, and having a subscription for advanced features feels like you're almost better off paying for streaming services. Maybe a lower price for the lifetime license would help because, again, I think we should pay for the things we use daily. Until then, the pricing structure is designed to push you to buy the lifetime pass, even if you're unsure whether you need all the features.

2 Plex has forgotten its roots

It feels like cable TV feature creep

Plex was initially made as a replacement for Microsoft Media Center when Redmond's finest decided it would no longer be maintained. I've been using it for almost that long, starting around 2011, before the rise of commercially available streaming services. I've seen the shift from only showing the media users had saved on their server to the encroaching streaming options, Live TV, and now on-demand movie rentals. Some of those moves are handy, like Universal Watchlist, which lets you make a watchlist from all the streaming services you subscribe to instead of going to each service. Some are less so, like the push of Plex's free movies or TV shows, which are supported by advertising, like traditional TV.

That goes against what I, and many other users, feel Plex was all about. It was a way to create your own streaming service, digitize and organize the stacks of physical media you'd accrued as a movie fan, and share content with your friends and family. The ability to create your own DVR was also welcome, as adding a TV tuner to your server hardware gave you TiVo-like powers. With the rise of on-demand streaming, it feels like Plex is caught between needing to satisfy the niche customers who wanted media servers full of their owned content and future users who couldn't care less as long as they could press a few buttons and stream it over the internet. The planned inclusion of social sharing features is another polarizing addition that will alienate Plex's core user base.

1 Other options are less bloated

Simplicity is a virtue

Gone are the days when Plex used to show your own local media files and nothing else. Now, the search results are peppered with external streaming results and results from Plex's free streaming channels. I'm not too fond of this, and neither are many longtime Plex users, including some of the XDA staff. That's prompted some to switch to alternatives, like Jellyfin, because the UI is cleaner, like how Plex used to be before it added extras. Jellyfin is free and open-source software (FOSS) with almost as many server installers and clients for the most popular operating systems including those used on smart TVs. Those mobile apps are unrestricted, with no features locked behind subscription paywalls. It's what Plex used to be, before Plex Pass and Plex server accounts were needed, and even has a wide range of plugins to improve the experience.

If Jellyfin isn't to your taste, there are other more stripped-down options, like Universal Media Server which offers a basic DLNA/UPnP media streaming server. It doesn't have many frills or features but will transcode files if the client device can't play them natively, which is one of the most important media streaming server features. The other refreshing thing is its simplicity, allowing it to stream to any device that can play DLNA streams, which is almost anything.

Plex might go the way of Windows Media Center if nothing changes

I've loved Plex for many years, so seeing it faltering and being surpassed by alternatives is sad. I don't think it will ever go back to when you didn't need a Plex server account to operate it, but some quality-of-life improvements are sorely needed. The home media server users I know don't like the insistence of adding streaming services to the UI, with no way to hide them, and would prefer searches only to return their local files. Maybe Plex will find longevity and profitability with a new user base that leans heavily into content from streaming services, rather than streaming their own. If not, there will still remain a place in my heart for it, alongside the memories of Media Center.