Jellyfin vs Plex on Raspberry Pi: Which Is Best?

If you’re planning to use your Raspberry Pi as a media server, the good news is that you have many software choices. If you’re trying to decide between Plex and Jellyfin to watch movies and TV, let me compare these two for you and share my recommendations.

Plex is a freemium media server with pre-configured defaults for an easier user experience out of the box. Jellyfin is similar to Plex, but it’s a completely free, open-source solution with advanced customization.

Plex and Jellyfin are both packed with features and share a lot in common, so instead of trying to cover them all, I’ll focus on the key differences that you might find important. Let’s see how they stack up.

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Key Differences Between Plex and Jellyfin

Let’s start by comparing the overall features of these two popular media servers for Raspberry Pi. After that, I’ll discuss their more specific aspects, like performance and library management, and share with you my opinion on whether Plex or Jellyfin pulls ahead in each area.

Features

Plex and Jellyfin are quite similar in terms of core functionality. They are self-hosted services that can organize media on your server and then stream those files (like movies or TV shows) to other devices and other users.

Here’s a quick comparison of their features:

Feature	Plex	Jellyfin
Library management	✅	✅
Multi-device streaming	✅	✅
Multiple users	✅	✅
Remote access	✅	✅
Hardware Transcoding	✅	✅
Offline Viewing	✅	✅
Plugin Support	❌	✅
Automatic subtitles	✅	❌
Live TV channels	✅	❌
Free access to all features	❌	✅

As you can see, Plex and Jellyfin are quite similar when it comes to the main features.
They differ only a little bit in minor areas.

Automatic Subtitles – Plex will automatically download subtitles that sync with the episode or movie you’re watching. It works flawlessly most of the time, which is a huge time-saver, especially if you ever watch anime or international films (like Arco).

Jellyfin can process subtitles, too, as long as they’re included with your video files, so you have to manually add and manage the subtitles yourself. Or you can install a plugin that handles it.

Plugins – Previously, Plex explicitly supported third-party plugins, but not so much these days. Jellyfin, on the other hand, has a thriving plugin scene, meaning you can add features like skipping intros, merging duplicates, or cross-syncing recommendations with Trakt.

The truth is, where Plex and Jellyfin actually differ is in how well the core features work, and whether they’re included for free. We’ll judge these differences in the following sections.

The Winner: Tie.

Ease of Setup

So which one is easier to get going with on a Raspberry Pi?

Plex and Jellyfin both provide official scripts you can run to install them on a Raspberry Pi.
It’s a single command pasted into your console, and you’re done.

For example, we show you how easy it is to use Jellyfin in our guide below:

How to Install Jellyfin on the Raspberry Pi

Once installed, you access the admin panel from a web interface to configure the rest.
So they’re both easy to install, but what about configuring them?

I found the Plex setup wizard more user-friendly here, in terms of getting it to recognize my media folders on the Raspberry Pi. We cover how to configure Plex in our guide below:

Getting Started With Plex Media Server on Raspberry Pi

Configuring Jellyfin was similar, but I ran into unexpected snags. For instance, you’ll need to apply a workaround fix if your Raspberry Pi has less than 4 GB of RAM. I also had issues with it recognizing my video files due to the way folder permissions are handled. It didn’t take me long to solve these issues, but I think they could trip up new users.

It’s a close call, but I believe that the setup on a Raspberry Pi is easier with Plex.

The Winner: Plex.

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Performance on Raspberry Pi

From all the tests I’ve done and benchmarks I’ve seen, Jellyfin uses fewer system resources. That’s because Jellyfin operates locally only when you play videos, whereas Plex connects to the cloud and runs other processes in the background.

Here’s a comparison of playback performance between the two at different video resolutions:

• 720p: I doubt you’ll notice any difference in performance between Plex or Jellyfin when streaming a movie at 720p. It’s an older standard, and the more recent Raspberry Pi boards (e.g., Pi 4 or Pi 5) should be able to handle this resolution with ease.
• 1080p: This is the sweet spot on a Raspberry Pi for video quality and system performance. Jellyfin felt lighter than Plex here, but it wasn’t dramatically different on my end.
• 4K: At this resolution, you’re pushing the Raspberry Pi’s hardware limits. You’ll likely notice Jellyfin streaming more smoothly than Plex when dealing with complex formats, like HDR or H.265.

How do they compare in terms of hardware transcoding? I don’t recommend doing this on a Raspberry Pi at all. It’s simply more trouble than it’s worth. For best performance, I’d lock the settings to “direct play,” which forces clients to stream at the original resolution.

The Winner: Jellyfin.

User Interface

Plex’s user interface is like a professional streaming service or set-top box, which looks fantastic when viewed from my couch. Jellyfin’s appearance is more minimalist, which isn’t bad per se, but it doesn’t have the same level of polish.

In terms of menu layout, however, I find Plex less user-friendly, with multiple sources on the side, extra settings at the top, and another layer of server settings. Plex mixes in live TV channels and paid streaming services like Netflix, above your stuff, so the menus cover a lot of ground.

On the other hand, I find Jellyfin’s menu layout to be more straightforward and intuitive. Oh, you’re here to watch your media? Well, here’s what you were expecting in a simple way.

In short, I like Plex’s visual presentation more, but I prefer Jellyfin’s cleaner UX flow.
This one will come down to what you personally care more about.

The Winner: Tie.

Client Apps

On any platform, you can access your Plex or Jellyfin server using only a web browser. So they’re equal here. But what about if you want a cleaner TV-like experience? In that case, you’ll want to install a client app.

Plex provides official apps on more platforms, and they’re all called the Plex app. It can be found on smartphones and tablets, every major smart TV brand, as well as streaming devices like the NVIDIA Shield, Roku, and even on an Xbox gaming console. In short, Plex covers almost every platform you can think of and keeps it simple by having an official app.

Jellyfin also offers official apps on the major platforms, but not as many as Plex. For example, there’s no official app for the Apple TV 4K. However, there are a lot of 3rd-party apps, many of which are more functional than the official app. For instance, Fladder is a popular choice on Android, Wholphin on Android TV, and Infuse on Apple TV 4K.

I don’t find the concept of 3rd-party apps difficult to manage personally, but you can imagine the tech support calls when you have to tell your uncle to use Wholphin and your friend to use Fladder, so that they can access Jellyfin.

Plex is easier when it comes to client apps, whereas Jellyfin is a bit messier but gives you more options.

The Winner: Tie.

Library Management

Automatic library management is the number one feature that originally sold me on media servers. By scanning for metadata, the software identifies the show or movie, the year, the season, etc. It then grabs thumbnails for display on your shelf, all without you having to do anything manually.

Jellyfin is pretty good at library management, but I think it could be better, as you can see below. It has trouble recognizing some files (missing thumbnails), and it sometimes has trouble merging multiple seasons of the same show (repeated thumbnails).

The nice thing about Jellyfin is that it’s fully self-hosted and customizable. So you can fix these improper categorizations with a little labor of love on your part.

Switching to Plex, it never fails to impress me in terms of automatic library management. Even if episodes are named differently or stored in different folders, Plex manages to group multiple seasons in one organized entry.

The one thing that does irk me about Plex is that, on the rare occasion that it can’t identify something, it won’t display it in the app at all, leading to confusion about what the actual problem is behind the scenes. This issue doesn’t happen on Jellyfin; even if it can’t identify a work, the file still appears in the app, so you can still watch it or deal with it up front.

Overall, Plex has a major head start for library management, with Jellyfin playing catch-up.

The Winner: Plex.

Sharing and Remote Access

Plex used to be the most frictionless platform for remote sharing. Once you grant access to other users, they can simply log in to the official Plex site, and they’ll get access to your media. My non-techie friends and family wouldn’t have to deal with IP addresses or anything complicated.

Unfortunately, I say ‘used to’ because Plex now charges a subscription for remote streaming. More on that later.

Jellyfin isn’t as easy for remote sharing. To make it secure for someone to access your home server, you’ll need to set up something like a reverse proxy or VPN server. Imagine walking Grandma through that over the phone. I can’t.

Still, Jellyfin holds onto some advantages here. First, remote sharing is free. Second, Jellyfin can do offline authentication, so you can watch locally even with no internet access.

Plex is easier for remote sharing (with a paid subscription), but Jellyfin makes this feature free for everyone.

The Winner: Tie.

Privacy

Plex basically tracks everything you watch. They share this information with their advertisers and also to suggest other shows and movies based on your watch history.

With Plex, you can add streaming services (even ones you don’t have subscriptions to) and get recommendations for virtually all digital media in existence. It’s pretty darn amazing, and I use this feature often to discover new movies and documentaries.

But make no mistake, you are being tracked by Plex.

In contrast, Jellyfin is a local-only server and does not share your data with anybody.

The Winner: Jellyfin.

Cost

From everything I’ve said so far, you might think that I’m biased towards Plex. I’ve indeed been a fan for many years, as Plex made it easy to share media with my non-techie friends.

But Plex has been headed in a direction that’s making a lot of loyal users reconsider.
They’re now locking a few key features behind a paid subscription.

Here’s a comparison of a few paid features between the two:

Feature	Plex	Jellyfin
Remote streaming	Requires subscription	Free
Sharing your library with others	Requires subscription	Free
Media download for offline viewing	Requires subscription	Free
Skip TV show intros and end credits	Requires subscription	Free plugin available

If you’re new to Plex, there are a couple of gotchas that might catch you off guard:

• Streaming to a mobile device – It’s free to download the Plex app, but to actually watch something in full, you’ll have to pay a one-time fee of $5 (last I checked) to unlock the app.
• Streaming remotely or sharing your media – If you don’t have an active Plex Pass, then other users will need to buy the Remote Watch subscription to use your server. That’s right, Plex is charging others to access the machine that you maintain and supply hard drives for.

Plex is free to use on the local network, but remote sharing requires a subscription in some form. Jellyfin, on the other hand, is FOSS, so all features are unlocked for free.

The Winner: Jellyfin.

How to Choose Between Plex and Jellfyfin

If you’re still not sure whether to choose Plex or Jellyfin, let me give you my quick recommendations.

Choose Plex if you want to:

• Get the most user-friendly experience out of the box.
• Spend the least time fiddling with library management.
• Watch free live TV channels and get suggestions from paid streaming services.
• Make remote sharing easy, and are willing to pay for that convenience.

I’m a huge Plex fan, but now I have to pay a recurring fee to share with others. The continued monetization of self-hosted features makes me feel like Plex is moving away from its roots and turning into a commercial streaming service (like Pluto TV).

I will probably migrate to Jellyfin in the near future. It won’t be difficult from a technical standpoint, but the hurdle is getting my non-techie users to make the switch.

Choose Jellyfin if you want to:

• Have full control of every aspect of functionality and user interface.
• Keep your user data private.
• Also, access your music, photos, or books in one place in addition to videos.
• Keep all features free, like remote sharing.

If you’re new to self-hosting a media center on Raspberry Pi, I recommend starting with Jellyfin. You can spend time from the outset to overcome the learning curve, and in return, you’ll get all the features for free from the get-go, with less worry about losing access to them later.

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