For a long time, Plex was the go-to option for hosting your own media server, but it has fallen out of favor a bit over the years.

Yes, Plex still offers a ton of features, and yes, Plex probably offers the most polished experience, too — but a host of small annoyances and unnecessary expenses have turned many users away from the platform. If you're looking to jump ship from Plex to another media streaming service, there are plenty of alternatives available.

Jellyfin

The best free, open-source Plex alternative

Jellyfin is likely the most popular Plex alternative, and for good reason: it's streamlined, features a robust community-made plugin library, and is completely free and open-source. Plex offers little in the way of features that Jellyfin doesn't match, either natively or through plugins, such as hardware transcoding and live TV support. Tools like Sonarr or Radarr integrate seamlessly, and there are many themes to choose from to customize the exact appearance of your interface.

Since Jellyfin is community-driven, you don't have to worry about paywalls. The feature restrictions that crept into Plex over the years aren't a problem with Jellyfin. If you prefer self-hosting to any other method, Jellyfin gives you much more control over your media stack than Plex, with none of the wallet-busting fees that add up over time.

Emby

Similar to Plex, but less expensive

Unlike Jellyfish, Emby is not open-source. It used to be, but it went the route of Plex and added a variety of fees and subscriptions. In fact, when Emby shifted to a proprietary platform, users forked it to create the Jellyfin everyone knows and loves. That said, Emby still offers a free tier that provides access to the majority of its features. If you want to upgrade to Emby Premiere, that will set you back either $5 per month, $54 per year, or $119 for a lifetime pass. Premiere offers offline media, DVR, hardware-accelerated transcoding, and more.

In that sense, Emby Premiere comes out as a significantly better value than Plex. It's highly customizable, and many users claim it has better parental controls than Plex does. Plex Pass is a $250 lifetime subscription, making Emby a much more appealing option for streamers on a budget.

Kodi

For local-first users

Kodi is another free and open source option, and it has a massive user base that consistently pushes out updates, and it has a great add-on ecosystem, too. It's wildly customizable. Widgets allow for granular tweaks to the appearance, while overall themes change the color schemes, navigation layout, and more. Some users criticize Kodi, claiming that it has an outdated appearance and layout, but I've never found that to be true. While there is a certain retro charm to it, it doesn't feel out of touch; in fact, it beats Jellyfin in some ways.

Jellyfin is great for streaming content across multiple devices, but Kodi is the king of local-first content. If you only want to manage media on a single device (such as a home theater setup) and you aren't worried about remote streaming while on the go, Kodi is likely the best option. On the other hand, since you have to set it up manually per device, Kodi isn't a great choice for someone who wants a centralized home media server.

Ampache

The audiophile's dream

Most everything on this list has been a video streaming service with music tossed in as a bonus, but Ampache is a dedicated, music-first platform that's ideal for audiophiles with large music libraries. It's free and open source, which means users have full control over their data. There's no need to worry about third-party companies collecting telemetry while you rock out to your favorite tunes. You can access content in your Ampache library from anywhere, and transcoding can adjust to specific requirements on the fly. For example, if you normally stream FLAC, but you're using a device that doesn't support that, Ampache can quickly switch the format to MP3.

You might have already used Ampache; it serves as the backend for quite a few streaming platforms and supports other tools like the Subsonic API and DAAP. You can even download content for offline listening if you're going to be away from an internet connection for a while.

Plex might be the biggest option, but it's not the only one

Plex is probably the most well-known media server platform, but it's far from the only option. Any of the four we've listed here performs admirably, but these aren't all the options. Other options, like Universal Media Server and Serviio, also do a great job, depending on what you're looking for. In most cases, I'd suggest going with a free and open-source pick; these guarantee better control and privacy than premium services, and give you more customization options, too.