Plex or Jellyfin in late 2026: what each really costs now
Plex has spent the past 18 months putting remote streaming behind a paywall and has tripled the price of its lifetime pass. Jellyfin remains free. We compare the two as they stand today, so you can decide which one belongs on your home server.
By OwnYourStack Admin · Published
Plex and Jellyfin do the same basic job: they turn the films, series and music on your own disks into a polished streaming service you can watch on any screen. Until recently, the main question was polish versus principle. In 2026, money has become a much bigger part of the decision.
How Plex’s pricing has changed
- April 2025: Plex Pass rose to $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year (from $4.99 and $39.99), the lifetime pass went from $119.99 to $249.99, and streaming your personal media away from home began to require a paid pass. A cheaper Remote Watch Pass ($1.99 a month or $19.99 a year) was introduced for people who only watch someone else’s server remotely.
- Late 2025 to 2026: the remote streaming requirement spread from the mobile apps to Roku and then to the other TV apps, and to third-party clients that use Plex’s API.
- 1 July 2026: a new lifetime Plex Pass rose to $749.99, triple the previous price. Plex says it had considered dropping the lifetime option altogether and introduced a five-year Plex Pass at $249.99 alongside it. Existing lifetime holders keep their benefits, and monthly and annual prices were unchanged.
Prices above are Plex’s published US dollar prices; UK prices are shown in pounds at checkout and may differ. Streaming on your home network still works without paying.
The comparison
| Plex | Jellyfin | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Proprietary, free tier plus subscriptions | Free and open source |
| Streaming at home | Free | Free |
| Streaming away from home | Server owner needs Plex Pass, or each viewer needs Remote Watch Pass | Free (you set up remote access yourself) |
| Hardware transcoding | Plex Pass | Free |
| Live TV and recording | DVR recording needs Plex Pass | Free |
| Price for full features | $6.99 a month, $69.99 a year, or $749.99 lifetime | £0 |
| Account with the vendor | Required | Not required: everything stays on your server |
| Ease of setup and remote access | Excellent: works out of the box | Good, but remote access needs a reverse proxy or VPN |
| Apps | Official apps on almost every device | Official and community apps on most platforms; quality varies more |
Where Plex still wins
Plex remains the most polished experience, particularly for less technical relatives. Its apps are on virtually every smart TV and console, remote access works without touching your router, and features such as skip intro, downloads and a unified watchlist are mature. If you already own a lifetime pass, there is little reason to leave.
Where Jellyfin wins
Jellyfin costs nothing, needs no account with any company and sends no data anywhere: your viewing history stays on your server. Every feature, from hardware transcoding to live TV, is included. The recent Jellyfin 12 release also closed some of the gap in performance and interface quality. The price is a little more work, mainly setting up secure remote access, which is a weekend project with a reverse proxy and a Let’s Encrypt certificate, or a VPN.
Our verdict
Choose Jellyfin if you value privacy, are comfortable with basic networking, or share your library with friends and family outside your home: the savings add up quickly when each remote viewer would otherwise need a pass. Stay with Plex if you have a lifetime pass, or if your household needs things to just work on every device and a subscription is a fair price for that. And remember you do not have to choose only one: both can point at the same media folders, so you can try Jellyfin alongside Plex before deciding.
Sources
- Plex blog: New Lifetime Plex Pass pricing (updated 1 July 2026)
- Plex forum: New Lifetime Plex Pass pricing announcement (18 May 2026)
- 9to5Mac: Plex increasing Lifetime Plex Pass cost to $750 (19 May 2026)
- TechCrunch: Plex raises subscription price for the first time in a decade (March 2025)
- How-To Geek: Plex is now enforcing remote play restrictions on TVs
- PCWorld: Plex puts another key streaming feature behind paywall
