Jellyfin vs Plex vs Emby: Best Self-Hosted Media Server (2026)

Plex raised the price of Plex Pass to $120/year in early 2026, pushing more homelab builders to evaluate alternatives. This article compares the three dominant self-hosted media servers — Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby — across licensing, hardware transcoding, client support, and real-world performance on low-power hardware like the Intel N100. The goal is to give you enough data to pick the right platform for your situation, not to sell you on any of them.

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TL;DR Comparison Table

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Plex: Still the Most Polished, But at a Cost

Plex has the best UI of the three. The web app, TV clients (Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV), and mobile apps are consistently well-designed, and the overall experience of browsing a large library feels closer to a commercial streaming service than any other option. If someone in your household has never used a self-hosted media server before, Plex will be the easiest to hand them without explanation.

The catch in 2026 is the subscription model. The free tier lets you access your own media from any Plex client, but meaningful features are gated behind Plex Pass:

• 4K hardware transcoding — the free tier falls back to software transcoding, which will overwhelm most low-power hardware at 4K
• Offline sync / downloads on mobile — requires Pass
• Live TV and DVR — requires Pass
• Lyrics and enhanced music features — requires Pass

At $120/year (or $250 for a lifetime pass), the value depends on how many people use your server. For a single household where you own a lot of 4K content that needs transcoding, the math works out. For someone who primarily direct-plays to capable devices (Nvidia Shield, Apple TV 4K, a modern Smart TV), the free tier is more livable — as long as your clients support the codecs in your files natively.

Plex is also the only option of the three that offers a hosted "Plex Discover" layer for streaming from third-party services, which some users find useful and others find cluttered. You can disable it, but it reflects Plex's commercial direction.

Best for: Users who want the most polished interface and are willing to pay for full hardware transcoding access. Also the best choice if the people sharing your server are non-technical and need a client experience that just works.

For hardware recommendations to pair with Plex, see Best Low-Power Mini PCs 2026.

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Jellyfin: The Best Free Option

Jellyfin is a community fork of Emby (pre-2018, before Emby went closed-source). It is entirely free, has no premium tier, and no features are locked behind a paywall. Hardware transcoding via Intel Quick Sync, AMD VCE, or NVIDIA NVENC works out of the box without any subscription. On an Intel N100, this means you get full 4K hardware transcoding support at zero licensing cost.

The trade-offs are real but manageable:

• UI is functional, not stunning. The default web interface is clean and usable, but it does not match Plex's polish. Third-party clients like Infuse (iOS/tvOS) and Swiftfin (iOS) close this gap significantly for Apple device users.
• Client breadth is narrower. Official clients exist for Android, Android TV, iOS, and web. For Roku and older smart TVs, you depend on community-maintained apps or third-party clients. Coverage has improved in 2025-2026 but Plex still leads here.
• Setup requires more configuration. Remote access works, but you configure it yourself (reverse proxy, DDNS, or Tailscale). There is no managed relay like Plex's hosted relay service.
• Subtitle support is excellent — arguably better than Plex for subtitle-heavy libraries, with OpenSubtitles integration and more granular rendering controls.

For privacy-conscious users, Jellyfin's architecture is preferable: the server makes no outbound connections to a vendor server by default. There is no account requirement, no telemetry unless you opt in, and no risk of features being deprecated or moved behind a paywall.

Community members on r/selfhosted consistently report Jellyfin handling 4K direct play without issues on modest hardware, and hardware transcoding working reliably once drivers are correctly installed. The main friction point in community threads is initial setup complexity, particularly around GPU driver configuration and remote access.

Best for: Anyone who wants full functionality at zero recurring cost, prioritizes privacy, or runs an Intel N100 or similar SoC where Quick Sync is available. Also the right call if you are comfortable doing initial configuration and do not need Roku support today.

For the underlying OS and hypervisor setup that pairs well with Jellyfin, see TrueNAS vs Proxmox vs UnRAID.

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Emby: The Middle Ground

Emby sits between Plex and Jellyfin in almost every dimension. It started as an open-source project but went partially closed-source in 2018, which is what prompted the Jellyfin fork. Emby Premiere (the paid tier) costs $119/year and unlocks hardware transcoding, mobile sync, parental controls, and Chromecast support.

The feature set with Premiere is comparable to Plex Pass, and the UI quality is between Plex and stock Jellyfin. Emby's client support is broader than Jellyfin's official offerings (Emby Theater apps exist for most platforms), though still not as polished as Plex's.

Where Emby differentiates itself:

• Parental controls are more granular than either competitor, which matters for multi-user family setups
• Live TV and DVR support is solid with Premiere
• The Android TV and Fire TV apps are generally regarded as better than Jellyfin's stock Android TV client, though third-party Jellyfin clients (like Findroid) close this gap

The honest assessment: if you are going to pay for a subscription, most users end up preferring Plex's superior client ecosystem. If you want to avoid paying, Jellyfin gives you everything Emby Premiere does without the annual cost. Emby's strongest case is for users who left Plex and want a familiar commercial product, or who specifically need Emby's parental control depth.

Because Jellyfin is a direct fork of early Emby, the underlying architecture is similar — migration between the two is more feasible than migrating from Plex.

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Intel N100 Performance: Hardware Transcoding Compared

The Intel N100 is a common choice for low-power media servers in 2026. It includes an Intel UHD Graphics iGPU with Quick Sync Video support, including AV1 decode acceleration. This matters because AV1 is increasingly common in streaming content and newer Blu-ray remuxes.

N100 Quick Sync capability:

• H.264: encode and decode
• H.265 (HEVC): encode and decode
• AV1: decode only (no AV1 encode on N100)
• VP9: decode

Enabling hardware transcoding on each platform:

Jellyfin: Install the intel-media-driver package (Ubuntu: sudo apt install intel-media-driver). In Jellyfin Dashboard, go to Playback → Transcoding, set "Hardware acceleration" to Intel QuickSync, and check the codecs you want to offload. No license required.

Plex: In Plex Web → Settings → Transcoder, enable "Use hardware acceleration when available." Requires an active Plex Pass subscription. Without Pass, the N100's iGPU is not used for transcoding regardless of driver state.

Emby: In Emby Dashboard → Transcoding, enable Intel QuickSync. Requires Emby Premiere. Setup is otherwise identical to Jellyfin.

Measured power draw on N100 hardware (fanless mini PC, 16 GB DDR5, NVMe SSD):

The difference between hardware and software transcoding at 4K is 30–45 W sustained — relevant if your server runs continuously. On Jellyfin, Quick Sync is free. On Plex and Emby, that 30-45 W saving costs you $119-120/year.

For a full comparison of N100 vs N305 for this workload, see Intel N100 vs N305 Home Server Guide. For storage configuration on a media server build, see All-Flash NVMe NAS Build.

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Which Should You Choose?

Choose Jellyfin if:

• You want zero recurring licensing cost and full hardware transcoding support
• Privacy matters — no vendor account required, no outbound telemetry by default
• You are comfortable with initial configuration and do not need Roku or broad smart TV coverage out of the box

Choose Plex if:

• You want the best client experience, especially for non-technical household members
• You have multiple people sharing the server and want the smoothest multi-user management
• You are already paying for Plex Pass or can justify $120/year given your usage

Choose Emby if:

• You need granular parental controls across multiple user profiles
• You are migrating from early Emby and want to minimize change
• You want a commercial product but find Plex's hosted features and UI direction unappealing

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Community Reports

The following threads informed the performance data and practical trade-offs in this article:

• Is this good enough for Plex/Jellyfin use? – r/HomeServer – Consensus that a modern 4-core CPU with 8 GB RAM handles 1080p streams comfortably; 4K needs hardware transcoding enabled
• Self-hosting is not a hobby anymore – r/selfhosted – Community discussion on treating media servers with production-level reliability expectations
• Finally gave my scattered media a real home – r/DataHoarder – NAS-style build with dual HDD plus SSD delivering sustainable throughput for multiple 4K streams
• Did I get a deal? – r/DataHoarder – Community guidance on cost-effective hardware sourcing for media server builds
• Any reason to use TrueNAS if I want a media server that also runs Nextcloud/Immich/Tailscale? – r/homelab – Discussion on single-node setups running Jellyfin alongside other services
• Info about home server – r/HomeServer – ECC RAM relevance for ZFS vs non-ZFS media server configurations
• What is best route for me to start home NAS with big move coming up? – r/HomeServer – Portable and compact NAS enclosure recommendations
• Remote streaming bandwidth cap of 750 kbps – r/HomeServer – Solution: enable Direct Play and configure port forwarding; hardware transcoding resolves the cap issue on both Plex and Jellyfin
• First Home Server — Guidance Needed! – r/HomeServer – First-build guidance covering software selection and hardware sizing
• EU-ES Parts List for Jonsbo N6 NAS/Home Server – r/HomeServer – European build discussion with ECC RAM and mini-ITX NAS form factor
• Wondering which is better — DAS + Mini PC or just a straight-up desktop? – r/homelab – Form factor trade-offs for media server builds, relevant to N100 mini PC vs full desktop
• CW-AT-10G-8P mobo — no ASPM / C-state support – r/HomeServer – Specific hardware power state limitations affecting idle power draw on Plex builds

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Conclusion

In 2026, Jellyfin is the strongest choice for most homelab builders who are running hardware with integrated graphics like the Intel N100. Hardware transcoding is free, there is no subscription, and the platform is actively maintained. Plex remains the best option if you need the most refined client experience and are willing to pay for Plex Pass. Emby is a reasonable middle ground for users with specific needs around parental controls or who prefer a commercial product without Plex's UI direction. All three run well on low-power hardware when Quick Sync or similar GPU acceleration is properly configured.

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Resources

Official documentation:

• Jellyfin Documentation
• Jellyfin on GitHub
• Plex Media Server Support
• Emby Documentation

Related guides on this site:

• Intel N100 vs N305 Home Server Guide
• Best Low-Power Mini PCs 2026
• All-Flash NVMe NAS Build
• TrueNAS vs Proxmox vs UnRAID

Communities:

• r/selfhosted
• r/HomeServer
• r/homelab
• r/DataHoarder
• r/jellyfin
• r/PleX