- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service’s Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.
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I think it’s important to recognize what Plex is saying with this announcement: their current business model isn’t sustainable. That means those who already have lifetime passes are vulnerable to Plex going away. If/when that happens, what will those users do then? That’s the conversation worth having now.
Jellyfin
A gentle reminder that Jellyfin exists to those thinking of alternatives.
For free (FOSS), and is way better than Plex
If you use it weekly it shouldn’t be free to you, certainly if you use it more frequently than that. Give money to the projects you depend on or they will disappear.
You find a place on jellyfin.org where they take donations? I was looking last night and only found a link where you could contribute your time.
If you click through some of the options on this page: https://jellyfin.org/contribute/
It links to a donation option here: https://opencollective.com/jellyfin
Thanks!
Supporting software that you use by paying for it?
Ew.
/kidding
I’m a very happy lifetime membership owner and have zero problem with them removing features from the free version. Free doesn’t pay the bills unless you want to become the product.
It’s not better in any way other than cost. That cost comes with massive drawbacks.
As someone who picked up lifetime for like $45 or whatever it was (I think a 50% off sale?) what must have been 15 years ago…
I run jellyfin. Its just a better experience IMO.
I’m sorry but you can hate Plex and prefer jellyfin all you want, but you don’t have to lie. Nothing about jellyfin is a “better experience” than Plex.
What are some examples?
Don’t have to make an account, for starters. Gives you more detailed control of transcoding options, audio playback and whatnot.
The UI looks much worse, that much is true, but that’s not the end all be all of user experience.
Making an account is what allows the easy library sharing and remote streaming, something that Plex is significantly better than JellyFin at.
What transcoding options does it have that Plex doesn’t?
How is Plex significantly better than Jellyfin at those things? I can just create a user in 2 seconds on the admin dashboard for Jellyfin, set a temporary password and my friend can log in and change it to whatever they want.
I can even limit the streaming bitrate to the account if I need to avoid bandwidth issues.
Unless your user comes and logs in on your network, and only streams when they’re at your house, then you’ve just opened your server to the world.
Plex has bandwidth controls.
Tailscale and IP whitelisting are both viable options
They mentioned remote streaming which jellyfin doesn’t have a secure way to do by itself
Does Plex? Have they ever been security audited or are we just taking the word of closed source software because they make it easier? Like Microsoft who just got caught adding backdoors into billions of computers and (pick one) closed source software company who has had major security breaches in the last decade.
No, but that’s easy to setup with Tailscale or a myriad of other solutions for free.
It doesn’t cost $750.
…to stream your own media, hosted on your own server 😅
Neither does Plex.
No you are right, it is 800 euro.
No, plex has many price points, including a free one.
Jellyfin is easy to prove you are the owner off. While Plex has issues with that on systems like TrueNas when you don’t have full access to the server
Why are you having to prove you’re the owner of it exactly? What you’re describing is “user error”.
The whole claim token thing and no it was a know issue
Was? So it’s not now?
Again, if you installed Plex in a setup that it is known to have issues with, that’s a user error.
A gentle reminder that Jellyin more or less requires you to set up a reverse proxy and a secure VPN to use it outside of your home.
Why would you not do that anyway?
Because if I’m watching locally I dont need them, and if I’m watching remotely Plex already offers secure remote viewing 'out of the box`. They give every user an SSL certificate and a public accessible URL at app.plex.tv. They also handle secure user authentication. The new price is stupid, but Jellyfin is not a 1:1 replacement.
I wish jellyfin and the apps could ship with something like wireguard setup by default so people that use the jellyfin apps could instantly watch media outside their house without learning what wireguard/tailscale is
The fact that’s needed at all is the problem. Developers need to stop making monolithic structures that have access to everything ever and putting it on the user to maintain to maintain a VPN network for security.
There’s no reason I should not be able to just use an nginx reverse proxy for remote access to my jellyfin and have that be safe. It should at worst give people a copy of my media if there’s a security issue.
Personally I went out of my way to make this be the case, i have my instance locked into an unprivileged lxc whitelist only on syscalls which took a while to figure out the minimum needed for function but I got there. The host System is using the hardened kernel from Upstream and a series of sysctl lockdowns for example P Trace is not allowed even if you are the root user.
So I do indeed just nginx reverse proxy my instant because the worst case scenario even if they got complete shell access to the system they would be locked into an unprivileged container that had no access to any files other than my media files but the fact that I have to go to this level is already ridiculous
It should at worst give people a copy of my media if there’s a security issue.
that’s not the worst possibility. the worst possibility is an RCE into your server.
Personally I went out of my way to make this be the case, i have my instance locked into an unprivileged lxc whitelist only on syscalls which took a while to figure out the minimum needed for function but
that’s a pretty exotic setup. Exciting, but for most people learning to manage a VPN is easier
It should at worst give people a copy of my media if there’s a security issue.
that’s not the worst possibility. the worst possibility is an RCE into your server.
Personally I went out of my way to make this be the case, i have my instance locked into an unprivileged lxc whitelist only on syscalls which took a while to figure out the minimum needed for function but
that’s a pretty exotic setup. Exciting, but for most people learning to manage a VPN is easier
I am aware that an rce is the worst possibility I’m saying it shouldn’t be. The web portion is already its own isolated binary that you have to install but it’s designed with seemingly very little attention to security.
To the point that jellyfin has already had several major RCE and despite having full support for running over the web with http developers are basically just like you should not be using this without a VPN which is overall a pretty pathetic stance for a media server
it is pathetic indeed, but I think much fewer projects admit it than how many should
Recently nginx had an RCE, so if your web server interface has an RCE, it doesn’t matter if jellyfin code is top-notch, if you happen to use a proxy with RCE in front of it. Wireguard has never had an RCE and I’m relatively certain it never will, because I believe you must be in possession of some keys to go very deep in the wireguard code, which in itself is not very large piece of code.
But yes, in principle I agree that we should code securely instead of depending on VPN to solve it for us, unfortunately it’s not the reality today. Memory safe programming languages help, but don’t completely protect against logic errors. VPN is general is pretty good for defence-in-depth.
The nginx rce relied an a series of requirements that affect almost nobody. You had to be using a very specific module and processing a specific type of data reverse proxy was not affected.
But regardless I get your point that anything can have an RCE. However as you say at the end in principle that does not mean you should just give up and expect external projects to handle your security. VPN is a great way to access your services and it is good defense and depth, but for the sake of being a successful project to the masses? It’s basically a dead end Road
but for the sake of being a successful project to the masses? It’s basically a dead end Road
I think that’s why we should still have requirements against software we run (although as some funnily say, we are free to get a refund), but not pretend that the software is more secure than it is known to be. sad that we need a VPN for security, but it is what it is.
I don’t know how could we get our devs to be more attentive to security.
Never used Plex. Jellyfin has always met my needs, so I never bothered to try it.
Plex has been around quite a while longer than JF. Before JF, the only way to really have a “self-hosted Netflix” was with Plex, so there are a lot of us who built our long-standing media setups around that.
That said, I have a JF instance running and matched almost 1:1 with Plex specifically for this situation, so I’m going to start pivoting everyone to that as I wind Plex down.
Meh, I’ve used dlna with PS2 over 20 years ago. Not exactly the same, but for my needs essentially the same.
That’s an interesting method. I actually have a PS2 myself, running PSBBN. Maybe I’ll try that out.
There’s a great project called WatchState that allows you to sync show progress between JF and Plex. Highly recommend it for while you’re switching over.
there are a lot of us still on Plex that hadn’t reached the threshold of issues vs effort that would motivate us to migrate to something like jellyfin.
looks like we’ve arrived.
Why not run both? That’s what I do, then if Plex is an issue for someone I can make them a Jellyfin account
I haven’t. I bought lifetime Plex Pass something like 15 years ago. A price change doesn’t effect me. It’s all their shitty updates and removing of features that makes me keep an eye on Jellyfin. I already have a sync setup for my watch status and a couple of my main users. Jellyfins apps are still worse.
I already have a lifetime Plex pass so this isn’t an issue for me. 6 months from now when Plex decides my lifetime pass has a new expiry, then I’ll be motivated.
this exactly. I got a lifetime pass in the before times (pre-pandemic) back when they were $100 bucks ish, but I know it’s only a matter of time before they come for us grandfathered-in fools.
I have the lifetime pass, bought it for like $80 many moons ago.
looks like we’ve arrived.
Agreed, this is the tipping point. This is where we will see Plex start to abandon the lifetime pass in favor of “imaginary money line go up forever” subscriptions.
Jellyfin has lots and lots of tutorials, fyi. it’s not as intimidating as it seems once you get going with it.
I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of the $74.99 I paid for Plex Pass Lifetime several years ago. If they ever get rid of my Plex Pass and try to say “Lifetime didn’t actually mean Lifetime”, I’ll be gone.
We’ve seen other companies pull this move by saying “lifetime” only applies to X version.
Except when I bought my lifetime it meant lifetime for the SERVICE, not the app…
Did it. I don’t remember it saying that. And I bought it around the same time as you since I paid the same price.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean Plex will do it.
While that’s true, it is in the standard VC playbook to make that move. Since they seem to be using that playbook, there will come a point in the monetization program where the lifetime membership becomes a blocker, which is overcome by diluting the lifetime account to increase the appeal of the subscription by comparison.
So, while nobody in here is named Nostradamus, it does not take a clairvoyance to see the future in this case. Countless other companies have followed this same program, with only minor variation, to extract revenue from the product like a strip mine. If I see 100 companies perform a 15-or-so step monetization spiral, it is not a leap of logic to think Plex is going to do steps 9-15 since we’ve just seen them do steps 1-8.
The lifetime membership will never be a blocked thanks to this price update.
I’ve never had a lifetime license be taken away other than the company going out of business.
No, they can’t just breach the contract you have with them, of course, but the VC playbook has a play for that.
What they will do is create a different service tier that does not include the same features as the standard or lifetime plans have. That tier will initially have some “value adds” that are of little interest to most users. Then, slowly, features will disappear from the other tiers, and a greater percentage of users will be drawn to that one because the “standard” one is increasingly lacking.
Eventually, Plex Standard will be quite anemic, with at least a couple must-have features available to only GigaPlex members. Because you’re a “valued lifetime customer”, you’ll get the option to convert your lifetime membership into 90-365 days of free GigaPlex.
So, Plex wins their game. The lifetime members practically all either switch to monthly premium service or leave, both of which are outcomes that are to their benefit. Nobody took away your lifetime membership, they just transformed it to garbage.
Its not every company, but it is every company owned by venture capital.
You can live in fear of your made up scenarios like this, but I’m just going to continue using Plex with my lifetime license.
I’m not afraid of the inevitable, man. We are having a conversation and I’m sharing my thoughts.
I like to think I got my money out of mine as well, even though I only used it for like a year or two before switching to jellyfin.
I know that whales exist, but seriously… Who is into self hosting but also into dropping $750 on a service that can end on a whim?
They dont want you to buy lifetime they want you to pay month to month.
I think it is safer to say they don’t prefer it. If they didn’t want you to buy it at all, they could discontinue the offering today.
Its like when a contractor quotes you a ridiculous price because they dont want to do the work. They assume you are going to say no, they dont want to do it. But if you say yes to their absurb price they are happy to take your money.
The Jellyfin vs Plex thing always struck me as odd. As in - why are we holding JF to a different standard to (say) Immich, Syncthing, Pi-hole or any one of a thousand different programs people self host?
Yes, JF ships multi-user accounts and client apps etc. I get it, “multi-use” is implied, so the comparison isn’t totally unfair. But there’s a difference between ‘this feature exists’ and ‘this is the primary purpose of the tool’.
The fact that you CAN share it externally doesn’t mean everyone running JF is doing that, or that it should be the benchmark the whole project is judged by.
To me, self host means “I host it, myself” not “I host it and then pretend to be Netflix for family and friends”. If that’s the use case, then of course, Plex away.
It’s cool that you CAN share JF externally, and it’s cool that Plex does that differently / better. We shouldn’t hold one to the standards of the other.
Probably going to get hate for this. But I have easily gotten 750 dollars worth of value out of my lifetime subscription. I’m sure they are doing this to drive down lifetime subscriptions and increase month to month. But I legit think 750 over 20 years it’s still a legit price.
About $3/mo. But for a lifetime deal you’re also buying the risk. If they go bankrupt, stop honoring the lifetime deal, or any variation thereof tomorrow, you’re out $750 - lifetime deals, where they exist are often heavily discounted compared to normal rates due to this. 20 years is though quite a long time. Plex is only 16 years old.
In a perfect world a company would limit the amount of lifetime deals available and only have them in the beginning to get some quick cash allowing them to scale. I don’t think Plex is running a very good business, which also devalues the lifetime deal.
It;'s probably about 800 euro, but that is still 800 euro more than Emby/Kodi/Jellyfin or whatever other altnerative. I had a lot of issues with Plex due to them requiring that proof of ownership thing which didn’t really work on TrueNas core I think it was?
Jellyfin is way easier imo
The company’s blog post also described a number of improvements they plan to make
After you pay: “oops, we won’t”
As a lifetime owner, the number of features they’ve deprecated is probably the worst part.
- Photo support (luckily Immich came along)
- Tidal integration (no idea if that was Plex or Tidal’s decision)
- Plugins (god forbid anyone add the functionality they keep removing)
It’s close between that and the last app overhaul that removed a bunch of functionality.
Watch Together isn’t removed, but it’s been deprecated and has stopped working on at least one platform (Chromecast).
Really shitty move to be removing/deprecating functionality and then asking for more money.
Fucks sake, when did that happen?
https://support.plex.tv/articles/watch-together/
February of 2025, looks like.
Thanks
I “defend” plex against silly complaints, but jesus christ that is one giant leap for no gain. That’s stupid, no one will pay that - though I tend to think that’s the whole point.
So basically, they just want to phase our the lifetime plan, but they know removing it outright would cause outrage so they “just” increase the price to massively lower interest and then say: “Well nobody wanted it so we removed the product”.
I swear to god plex and the profiteering sons of bitches behind it can go fuck themselves.
It’s good “fuck off” pricing.
The make more off of FAAS then lifetime sub’s. More of their users are FAAS users them stream your own.
I got this on Black Friday many years ago for ~70 and despite the pass I am slowly moving over to Jellyfin. I really don’t see how they came up with this valuation, seems like a last money squeeze before abandoning ship.
They don’t want lifetime licenses to sell, they want monthly subscriptions from everyone.
Everything changed when they signed that A24 deal, and its not even the good movies, its the shitty also-rans. They want revenue now.
I wish them luck, but it seems despite all the data collection they failed to understand who their customers are. Idgaf about their content, I block and remove it where I can. Instead now we have content that will not convince anyone to cancel their Netflix or HBO to move to them and I have a home server that barely runs anymore because the software is so bloated.
