Replace / Plex
Replace Plex with Jellyfin
The best open-source alternative to Plex is Jellyfin, self-hosted on Railway. A media library you host. Jellyfin is GPL — Plex without the library in someone else's building.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Plex compares
| Plex | Jellyfin | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Jellyfin
GPL self-hosted media server
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Jellyfin licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Plex seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Plex?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Jellyfin stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Plex links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Jellyfin stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Jellyfin plus a large volume for the library. Hardware transcode is optional and often a VPS or a box at home. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Photos stay on /stacks/immich-photos.
- What does this replace?
- Plex. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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