"Lifetime" -- a.k.a. until Plex folds
this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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thats more expensive then a AAA game.
Sure, can I bundle it winRAR subscription?
Time to set up Jellyfin instead!
https://gardinerbryant.com/plexs-lifetime-pass-is-basically-dead-heres-how-to-switch-to-jellyfin/
It's still hilarious to me that Plex, a project forked from the XBMC (now Kodi) free open-source app for organizing and playing one's own entirely legally obtained video files, is a big streaming business thing that charges people money.
It's like finding a tree in the forest that gives out infinite free apples, and then setting up an apple-selling table right next to it stocked with apples you obviously got from that tree.
This happens all the time in FOSS
Someone comes in, contributes a bit, then forks, then closes it off once they realize there’s a path to monetization.
Plex is a particularly egregious example: the initial author forked xbmc to make a mac port. This led to a crazy amount of popularity very fast and they saw the path to monetization. They soon after created plex server separate from the client and went to the crazy step of rewriting everything GPL so they could fully close source.
This is legally fine but ethically fucked; they had a derivative app that technically no longer shared code with kodi but there was the fact that design cues, data structures, etc were mostly inherited. Plex wouldn’t exist without kodi. And that’s totally fine, derivative works should be allowed and encouraged. But what’s fucked is that they made serious efforts to close source and give nothing back to the community that they were built from. Code? Nothing. When they got 40 million in VC? nothing.
See also a bunch of players in 3d printing, notably Bambu at the moment. But they’ll keep getting away with it thanks to a combination of governments that are like “money is more important than fairness or progress” and idiotic consumers that are like “oh I have to spend 30 seconds longer figuring something out? Ugh fuck you im gonna buy what some YouTuber was paid $400 to recommend”
No… it’s like picking up those apples, shipping them across the country, and then charging customers a delivery fee. Which is perfectly reasonable because time and fuel cost money.
Plex helps you (and others) stream from your library pretty brainlessly. Sure there are other options, but all of them are more complicated.
This is it. People have always paid for convenience.
Just look at console vs PC gaming.
Steamdeck made Linux gaming mainstream because it's brainless. Backed by proton.
But console has a vice grip on some communities / groups due to a long standing "plug and play" sales pitch. Now they're stuck because "my friends are there."
My brother-in-law is a sysadmin and stuck on Playstation due to his friends. Doesn't even own a gaming PC because "he doesn't have the time to tinker."
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I've never used any of the features they've added after they allowed me to host my library of ripped optical media ~2013-2014.
I have a lifetime pass already but I’ve been souring on the app as they changed direction.
Previously it was the best app for running your own personal streaming service. It lets you share your library with friends and it even had its own group watch feature allowing multiple people to watch the same stream together. It was perfect for remote friends and family, brilliant during Covid…. And they removed it for no obvious reason.
Now the company spends more and more time trying to promote their own ad-laden video streams, they want us to rate movies and presumably sell that data. The company lost its way.
Lifetime Plex was still worth it with those features at $200, not at $750. If I had to do it all over again I’d probably use JellyFin.
And they removed it for no obvious reason.
$
This is almost certainly a ploy to get an influx of buyers before the cutoff of July.
They want to round up all the people that they think were considering a lifetime pass, but were holding out.
I guarantee you when July comes they're going to reduce the cost to somewhere less than $750 and much closer to the current price due to "we listen to our customers" when really it was the plan all along.
They're using the Decoy Effect and FOMO.
Or maybe they want monthly/annual/whatever subscribers, not lifetime, and so they're making the lifetime pass prohibitively expensive. I have a lifetime pass I purchased a few years ago but after running Jellyfin alongside Plex for a few months, I don't think I could recommend Plex to anyone who simply wants to host their own media.
Plexamp is the reason I'm still using Plex. I'll fully transition to Jellyfin as soon Finamp (or another music app) incorporates robust caching to handle internet deadspots.
Jellyfin: free Cloudflared: free
Jellyfin behind Cloudflared is probably the best move ATM.
It's not specifically against TOS, they do provide you some modest protection against infiltration.
combine that with running it from a container with RO access to your media and you have a damn nice home solution.
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Sigh. I still enjoy my Plex pass that I bought for < $100 but this is another sign to bail on them. I don't particularly like them trying to further monetize my collection.
I do like the ease of sharing with friends and it does generally just work. But this is bad.
The rate of change in their eco system certainly does not justify the price they’re charging. Still, an IPO looms and business gotta business, so here we are. Ready for those stock options to tank and the boat to sink.
my lifetime pass for jellyfin cost me $0, pretty good value
I didn't get into self-hosting until recently, and people recommended Jellyfin, so I don't even know what I'm missing with Plex, if anything. It feels like Jellyfin does everything I need.
You’re missing getting to pay for it. Imagine how good it would feel to see $750 less in your bank account.
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almost a fucking grand for a media server that you host yourself, and only really rely on their login servers for. Can anyone else say "enshittification"?
They provide the apps, metadata servers, and relay service. It's a lifetime pass. IMO that's worth the price it used to be, $70 or whatever. The new price is just absurd, they want you to pay periodically for life because people spend more that way.
Do they provide the metadata services though? Pretty sure that's still handled by imdb and such
Been looking at jelly fin. I have a lifetime with Plex but it feels like they're headed for bankruptcy anyway.
And seems the same. Only problem is that the docker server keeps crashing on my Synology unfortunately
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Jellyfin Lifetime Pass continues to be better value.
As always, donate to the FOSS alternatives instead.
In the case of Youtube Premium, donate to Ad Blockers instead.
To be clear, you still need your own HW and electricity, right?
Yep, definitely heading for bankruptcy.
Couldn't pay me to use that software lol
Used Kodi and now using Jellyfin.
As if there weren't enough reasons to use jellyfin already.
What a joke. Plex isnt worth paying for
Hmm, perhaps I should sell my lifetime pass. I won't, but I should. (Switched to Jellyfin long ago)
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I think software subscriptions are a scam, but I don’t mind buying a perpetual license that is only good up to a certain version with additional fees for newer versions. It’s also fair to charge a recurring fee for something that has recurring hosting costs like a VPN, cloud storage, etc.
If they weren’t such dipshits, the “lifetime pass” should have been a perpetual license you can keep using as long as you want, but charge an optional fee for newer versions if you want to upgrade and get more features. They should also have offered a hosted service to make your instance available to others and charge a monthly fee for that. I think people would’ve been fine with all that.
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