Self-hosted alternatives to Plex
Remote streaming moved behind a Plex Pass in 2025 — on a server you already own and pay to run.
Below are 10 open-source projects that cover the same ground, each scored 0–100 on how actively it is actually maintained — commit volume, release cadence and recent trend. 6 of the 10 are currently rated healthy or better. Ordering reflects that score, not sponsorship.
| Project | Health | Activity (11 mo) | Stars | Licence | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kodi Multimedia/Entertainment center, formerly known as XBMC. Runs on Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows. | Thriving · 95 | 21k | GPL-2.0 | 27 Sept 2026 | |
| Jellyfin Media server for audio, video, books, comics, and photos with a sleek interface and robust transcoding capabil | Thriving · 92 | 58k | GPL-2.0 | 15 Sept 2026 | |
| MediaMTX Ready-to-use, zero-dependency real-time media server and proxy to publish, read, record, playback and route vi | Thriving · 84 | 20k | MIT | 20 Sept 2026 | |
| Kyoo Innovative media browser designed for seamless streaming of anime, series and movies, offering advanced featur | Healthy · 77 | 2.5k | GPL-3.0 | 27 Aug 2026 | |
| Stash A web-based library organizer and player for your adult media stash, with auto-tagging and metadata scraping s | Healthy · 76 | 13k | AGPL-3.0 | 22 Sept 2026 | |
| Meelo Personal Music Server, designed for collectors and music maniacs. | Healthy · 71 | 1.4k | GPL-3.0 | 16 Sept 2026 | |
| MistServer Public domain streaming media server that works with any device and any format. | Steady · 60 | 514 | Unlicense | 24 Jul 2026 | |
| Gerbera UPnP Media Server, which allows you to stream your digital media throughout your home network and listen to/wa | Steady · 55 | 1.4k | GPL-2.0 | 20 Sept 2026 | |
| ClipBucket Start your own video sharing website (YouTube/Netflix Clone) in a matter of minutes. | Steady · 55 | 182 | AAL | 25 Sept 2026 | |
| Emby Home media server supporting both DLNA and DIAL (Chromecast) devices out-of-the-box. | Unrated | — | ⊘ Proprietary | — |
How these were picked
Every project listed here is open source and can run entirely on hardware you control. We start from the categories that match Plex's job — Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming, Media Streaming - Video Streaming — then rank by health score so that a popular-but-abandoned project never appears above a smaller one that is actively shipping. The scoring method is documented in full.
The scores are recomputed from repository data on every rebuild, so this page reflects the state of these projects as of 1 Oct 2026 — not the day it was written.
Kodi
Multimedia/Entertainment center, formerly known as XBMC. Runs on Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows.
Best fit: Users who want a customisable, local media playback interface for a dedicated living room setup or multi-platform device collection.
Worth knowing: It functions primarily as a standalone client application rather than a server-first streaming daemon, which can complicate remote web access and multi-device synchronisation.
Jellyfin
Media server for audio, video, books, comics, and photos with a sleek interface and robust transcoding capabilities. Almost all modern platforms have clients, including Roku, Android TV, iOS, and Kodi.
Best fit: Users who want to centralise their personal media collections and stream them across multiple devices without relying on third-party cloud services.
Worth knowing: Transcoding high-bitrate media files can demand significant CPU or GPU resources from your host server depending on the client compatibility.
MediaMTX
Ready-to-use, zero-dependency real-time media server and proxy to publish, read, record, playback and route video/audio streams over SRT, WebRTC, RTSP, RTMP, HLS, MPEG-TS, RTP.
Best fit: It is well-suited for developers and systems administrators who need a lightweight, protocol-agnostic streaming relay or proxy without complex software dependencies.
Worth knowing: As it handles multiple low-latency protocols simultaneously, you will need to monitor network throughput and ensure your server hardware can support the required bandwidth and encoding overhead.
Kyoo
Innovative media browser designed for seamless streaming of anime, series and movies, offering advanced features like dynamic transcoding, auto watch history and intelligent metadata retrieval.
Best fit: This is a good fit if you want a dedicated, self-hosted interface for anime and general video collections with automated metadata management.
Worth knowing: The project has a smaller user base and fewer integrations than industry heavyweights like Plex or Jellyfin, which may limit community support and troubleshooting resources.
Stash
A web-based library organizer and player for your adult media stash, with auto-tagging and metadata scraping support.
Best fit: This is a suitable choice if you manage a large, local collection of adult media and want a dedicated web interface to organise and stream it.
Worth knowing: The AGPL-3.0 licence places copyleft requirements on your deployment if you modify and distribute the source code, and dealing with extensive metadata scraping can consume significant storage and network resources.