Plex lays off 20% of its workforce
Plex lays off 20% of its workforce
Plex, the free streaming app, laid off approximately 20% of its staff. The company reportedly blames a slowdown in the advertising market.
Plex, the free streaming app, laid off approximately 20% of its staff, TechCrunch has learned, which will affect all departments, including the Personal Media teams.
“This is by far the hardest decision we’ve had to make at Plex,” CEO Keith Valory said in a statement. “These are all wonderful people, great colleagues, and good friends. But we believe it is the right thing for the long-term health and stability of Plex.”
The streaming app gives users a single destination to upload and organize content (video, audio and photos) from their own server while also allowing them to stream it via mobile app, smart TV or desktop.
In recent years, however, Plex has invested in free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) and live TV offerings. The FAST market has become saturated as many companies have entered the space. Plus, the overall advertising industry has taken a hit, making it harder for companies to earn enough revenue.
Valory noted in his statement that the company was significantly impacted by the slowdown. “While we adjusted our business plan last year after the shift in equity markets to get us back on a path to profitability without having to cut personnel expenses, the downturn in the ad market in Q2 put significantly more pressure on our business and ultimately it became clear that we would need to take additional measures in order to maintain a confident path to profitability within the next 18 months,” he said.
He added that the company is still expected to see 30% growth this year.
According to a Slack message from Valory, obtained by The Verge, which first reported the layoffs, Valory noted that 37 employees would be impacted.
Additionally, it seems that Plex may have had another round of layoffs earlier this year. Five months ago, a former account executive posted on LinkedIn that they were “affected by company layoffs.”
As of January, the company had 175 employees, and its revenue was in the double-digit millions.
Updated 6/29/23 at 12:10 p.m. ET with a statement from CEO.
Or we could all switch to an Open Source alternative, Jellyfin, and either donate what you’d normally pay Plex or just enjoy it for free. I’ve never used Plex and started with Jellyfin. It’s gotten the job done thus far
It’s the app ecosystem for plex that keeps me there. There’s an app for my LG tv, an app for my in-laws’ Roku etc.
Yes you’re right, Jellyfin isn’t on many platforms but I’m pretty sure they have an app for LG and Roku (Clients here). Although the LG app isn’t the best from what I remember. What I usually do is use an Amazon fire stick with Tailscale for my family and it’s been working well. But also as popularity increases others will be able to contribute more and the apps will become better.
Agreed. If Jellyfin has any desire to become the market leader and a legit alternative for home media streaming, an already narrow niche, they need to refine this piece of the end user experience.
And I'm not saying Jellyfin wants to do this. They've definitely found their hardcore enthusiast crowd.
Its the only reason I am still using Plex, I don't know if we will ever get Jellyfin on even half the devices that Plex is on. : (
If jellyfin could record and playback OTA TV on my Apple TV I’d switch tomorrow, but it seems the team is either unable to or unwilling to work on that feature which is core to how my household uses Plex. The only maybe solution is Infuse which is paid and closed source so is no better really than using Plex in that regard.
Like most things in the world, your use case is not the only use case and as such a solution that checks all the boxes for you will not check all the boxes for everyone.
Does jellyfin supoort Ota recording at all?
It’s a big part of how I use plex as well.
Edit: looks like they may will be looking into it much more but I use hdhomeruns : https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/live-tv/
I wonder how I would replace plexamp
Part of plex’s problem is their lifetime license subscription simply isn’t sustainable, much less geared for growth. Add in some of the cruff they have added into stuff like their “streaming” services and yeah this seems kinda obvious. Especially since they were relying on VC funding drives as recently as 5 years ago.
How does jellyfin compare to Kodi and Emby? I've been using Emby for the last couple of years and it's fine, but I wonder if I'm missing out on any features.
I've never paid plex but just seals the deal. They obviously can't be trusted to handle the money I give them properly. I wish Jellyfin was a litte more fullybaked though. The app for appletv is really bad
Edit:
Due to some maximally pedantic comments from @SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml , I should clear something up. I've never paid plex. I can't trust them to handle the money I give them hypothetically. This doesn't mean that i've both not given them money and given them money. This means that in the case in which I did give them money, I wouldn't trust them to handle it properly, given the rounds of layoffs happening there
It seems like in the last few years the company's focus has primarily been on adding things to Plex that I do not want as part of Plex. And not adding the audiobook support that I do want.
Look up audiobookshelf if you're willing to mess with docker a bit and forward a port or two. It's open source and does a, wonderful job.
Audiobookshelf is great
Look up audiobookshelf if you're willing to mess with docker a bit and forward a port or two. It's open source and does a wonderful job.
I used Plex for years, and it is the superior product (if you pay) compared to Open Source alternatives. However, after seeing Plex's recent incentive pivots and looking for investors I jumped shipped to Jellyfin. The thermometor of enshittification is indicating that Plex is on its way out.
Folks who haven't looked at alternatives yet, do so now.
Jellyfin, caddy and duckdns can get you all the benefits Plex offers without needing to use their servers for logging in
Literally the only two things keeping me from jumping ship are the multi-user support and Plexamp.
Jellyfin has support for mutliple users
If you are on Android there is Finamp for Jellyfin. It's not quite as nice but it is clean and free. There is also Symfonium which is I think $3 but it is even nicer than Plexamp IMO. The great thing about Jellyfin is there are many options.
And Jellyfin has third party music player apps for android and IOS.
Well shit… it seems the recent rash of enshittification continues. I didn’t realize Plex was doing this so I guess an exit strategy is required. Thanks for the heads up.
I'm a lifetime Plex pass subscriber and I've also used Kodi and Emby.. as far as I can remember at the moment I've never really looked into Jellyfin tho... Does it support OTA DVR with a tuner card like Plex?
That's my must have at this point.
The last time I was having problems with Plex and authentication I installed emby alongside it
Emby was a hell of a lot more responsive, Plex seemed to be more compatible with, well everything.
I use live TV and DVR so I think I might miss that on jellyfin
Jellyfin does support live tv and recording
I'm honestly surprised that Plex has revenue in the "double-digit millions"
Jellyfin is so good now. I used to use Plex but I have no need for it now at all.
Know a good way to export/import? I've got a large database with custom artworks etc.
Jellyfin has tools that let you export a watch list from one app and merge it with jellyfin
I tried Jellyfin a couple years ago, but it always struggled with ASS (advanced substation alpha) subtitles. I remember it had to burn them on play, or I'd have to use something like SickRage or handbrake or something to pre-burn them, otherwise my relatively modest server would cry. Googling isn't telling me much, anyone know if this has gotten better?
I have no issues. You can either set up automatic transcoding, or enable DirectPlay if your TV (or whatever other client you use) supports the format you're playing.
Anywhere for people to browse pay-for-access jellyfin servers?
Oh well, worse-case scenario- at least we already have Jellyfin.
I really hope Jellyfin gets a leg up soon, as a Plex Lifetime Pass owner I have become more and more discontent with the platform.
When I paid for my personal licence, it included downloads for all my users, now its cutoff to only older users. I had expected that Plexamp would only be restricted to me while it was being developed, but it remains locked away from my users should never individually have a reason to subscribe for just themselves.
I bought my licence to support the company for the use of my server and I feel like they've only downgraded my service in the last couple years. Getting new users to jump through all of the hoops with their pinned content, only to have them ask me why there are adverts on my movies is frustrating.
I feel like very little has improved in the core product in years, my users default settings are still transcoding to the same bitrate, or 10x its bitrate. Every time I have made a valid suggestion on the old subreddit, the Plex devs had plenty of time to reject any and all criticism.
I don't believe Plex is going to get much better and likely we will see further erosion of our licences as the company only focuses on free users and the FAST service. I will keep checking in on jellyfin and alternatives, hopefully they get a boost soon.
I only use plex because jellyfin remote is very difficult, especially when allowing other people on your account
I only use plex because jellyfin remote is very difficult, especially when allowing other people on your account
Jellyfin NEEDS a plexamp tier music streaming app for me to consider moving unless plex completely self-owns harder than Twitter and reddit combined
Agreed. Plexamp gave me random album radio and I can't go back to minutes of silence until I realise I have to choose another album.
I’ve never used plex or plexamp but I have used Finamp for listening / offline downloading of my music collection from my Jellyfin server. Is this perhaps what you’re looking for? iOS: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/finamp/id1574922594 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unicornsonlsd.finamp
I know nothing about PlexAmp, but could FinAmp be what you search for? Does Music only and let's you grab your songs for offline usage.
Jellyfin needs apps I can install on my parent's TV, that's the only thing that keeps me on Plex.
Well they also spent the past 10 years building 80% stuff we never wanted
And forcing logins to go through their centralized servers.
Plex login system is such a nightmare. There's a mix of something that is local, some that are online but displayed as local, and some that are completely online. I gave up on Plex when I can't figure out how to remove an old Plex instance that somehow the clients still connecting to instead of the new server.
Doesn't Plex still use Python 2 as well?
Unfettered Capitalism breeds emshitification.
Why build and keep a great product when shareholders will always push for more growth and higher revenue. Even if that means laying off your best devs and pissing off users.
Corporate Greed
Seriously. They expect 30% growth? They can afford a few salaries.
They don't want to invest in the core program features anymore, they only want more customers & content acquisition.
What they want is inevitably going to make us their competition, Plex's FAST userbase growth will be the death of the original product.
Why are all these large tech companies failing this week? Is AI really decimating the internet on all fronts?
They’ve been failing for a while. It’s capitalism failing, not some magic tech entity concept like AI.
and it's by design too
The problem isn't AI, but interest rates.
Silicon Valley lived for a long time with an investor market that didn't really have anything better to invest their money in, so they would invest in a series of Internet companies with the hope that one of them would make it rich. Now that lending money can make you more money, it isn't worth it to invest in companies or ideas that don't make money right now.
The VC funding that Silicon Valley relied on dried up. If you are a startup, you need to be profitable before you burn through your cash. If you aren't a startup, you don't have to worry as much about new tech cannibalizing your core businesses, so they are more willing to cut product lines.
It's been going on for nearly a year now, but the layoffs tend to happen in waves because the stock market and investors in general tend to be very reactionary. Also a lot of companies released their quarterly earnings recently
Its not a tech issue, its a finance issue.
The tech industry has always been highly speculative. What we saw in the 2010s was only made possible through venture capital and high digital advertising budgets.
Now that there's uncertainty and investments are expensive due to high interest rates, VC and advertisers are pulling back. As a result, we're seeing a bunch of business models that have never been viable on their own have to try and support themselves for the first time.
Money isn’t as cheap anymore as it used to be. Tech companies have been struggling for about a year now. Even the larger ones have to show profits these days (not defending them, just explaining as I’m working in tech as well)
Not just this week but the past year or so
During covid many companies hired a ton of people due to the growth of many industries, particulalry consumer electronics and platforms like Plex and Netflix, and places like Amazon, Google, etc. Because many people were off work, there was greater demand. Obsiously infinite growth is not possible, and when things slowed down after covid, they moved to dump the employees they no longer needed
It doesnt necessarily have anything to do with AI; AI implementations are still extremely rough and moves to implement them at this point means providing an inferior experience. That said, some companies have been implementing AI, which will likely lead to worsening layoffs down the line
The current prime interest rate means it’s more expensive to borrow money right now, which means PE and VC are not throwing money at tech firms that aren’t traditionally profitable anymore. Plex likely runs at a steep loss and relies on private capital to stay afloat.
The era of free money is over. You can easily get >4% returns just parking your money in fixed income, so investors want to see cash flow and the easiest way to boost margin is to cut your largest expense (aka headcount). AI is just a convenient excuse.
It isn't AI, it's the economy. Companies that got money from investors regardless of their profitability now have to survive on their own profits which forces them to restructure
I only still have a plex server running for audiobook support with the app Prologue. Everything else is happy in Jellyfin and and has been rock solid. Plex went way to corporate and it creeped me out.
Copy/paste mostly from another reply I made:
I have a huge audiobook library, I was fully prepared to do all the processes to move and organize my mess of a library to get it working with Plex. I'm sure you've seen the GitHub guide floating around.
But when it came time to sit down and configure my server for audiobooks, ebooks, tv, movies, and music, I found that audiobookshelf just did a way better job with less of a headache. My current stack is Beet.io with audible support to move my already downloaded library into a better folder and naming structure. Once I get those all finished I won't have to use this step. This gets stuff about ~80% of the way there except when the source is really messed up.
From there I have Readarr looking at the Beets destination folder and managing downloads. This is pretty good for getting most of the rest of the info with some clean up and is similar to setting up other Arrs. Then audiobookshelf for final tweaks and browsing/downloading.
It's quite a pain to ingest an initial large library but for new downloads it's been pretty seamless. Way easier and more consistent than having to do most of this anyway plus fight with Plex.
The audiobookshelf library is really great and can pull audiobook specific information from a lot of sources automatically. You can browse by series or narrator or genre too and if you listen through their app or through the browser it syncs your progress which is nice.
The audiobookshelf app is pretty good for browsing and downloading but I don't like the player as much as my usual one. But you can just point the download at whatever folder your favorite player uses.
Since you're already using Plex for audiobooks you can probably skip all these steps straight to audiobookshelf if your folder structure already matches
I’ve tried Audiobookshelf and it just wasnt for me. I hadn’t used Beet with it, but my issue was never really the organization part, more the playback part. I can’t remember exactly what features were lacking in ABS, but I do remember being disappointed in it. To the point where I spun up a dedicated plex server JUST for my audiobooks, and to since then, I’ve been incredibly happy with the UX.
I didn’t know that beets supports books. I used that tool like… honestly at least a decade ago to organize a giant music library I had, and it was a great tool. Thanks for sharing!
Also, I just wish Jellyfin supported audiobooks in the same manner that Plex does. Then I’d be back to one media server running.
Plex DMCA'd my private server a few months ago.
So I cancelled my Plex Pass and moved on to greener pastures.
They seem to be doing everything they can to get rid of their foundational userbase so they can attract... Ad supported free TV watchers?...
What morons are running the show in Silicon Valley?
I hadn't heard of Prologue and it looks amazing, unfortunately it's not on Android.
Shit. I'd have moved to Jellyfin already if they had an Apple TV client. If they go under I might have to get a 2nd set top box just to run JF.
They have "Swiftfin" but it's had two updates in two years and it's close to useless
It's a paid app, but infuse works very well on apple TV
Good tip. Thanks.
I’ve been using Swiftfin on my Apple TV with zero problems. Its a lot more simple than Plex.
Good tip.
they have an app on apple tv thats been working well with unraid and a jellyfin docker
Wasn't even aware that Plex was still around. Swapped to Jellyfin years ago.
Jellyfin's the way to go IMO, screw Plex and their constant BS.
Yeah, I switched to Jellyfin ages ago and never looked back. Haven't really run into anything I'd want to do that Jellyfin can't do but Plex can.
Wow, it’s almost like those free channels the put all over my Plex that nobody wants was was a bad investment. Still love Plex as a service but I find it hard to see any value in FAST.
Try Jellyfin. Much better
I use Apple TV, something about needing a third party proprietary app makes it seem cobbled together compared to Plex, especially with that app being freemium. Maybe someday they will have a dedicated app. Last time I looked (probably a year ago) they didn’t have a system for ratings to make a kids account, has that been added?
As of January, the company had 175 employees, and its revenue was in the double-digit millions.
And yet, it is not enough. Perhaps the lesson is to NOT take that VC money if you want your company to survive.
You're probably confounding revenue with profit. I'm not sure about Plex in particular, but it's completely possible to have millions in revenue and actually be in the red
As someone who’s working for their third VC-backed firm, I took the previous comment to mean that the VC money was used to grow the company knowingly in the red, like many growth-stage, VC-funded businesses.
Heck a fair number of post-IPO tech firms continue to operate in the red as a result of their share sales.
The evil clone of XBMC is finally in its death throes (yes I’m still bitter about that). No worry, Jellyfin is better.
XBMC
Wow that takes me back lol
007 Nightfire softmod crew checking in. Kodi has been making the best htpc for more than a decade now. I love me some jellyfin, but I'll probably always have a kodi box or two around the house.
Does XBMP ring any bells?
I think Kodi would be more akin to XMBC. What's the relation with Plex?
Kodi IS XBMC. It’s the same team, XBMC changed their name to Kodi once it became unavoidably awkward that no one was running XBMC on actual Xboxes anymore. Plex started as a fork of XBMC but went down the proprietary route and shunned their FOSS roots.
As a long-time Jellyfin user, I've never really understood how Plex makes money providing a handful of additional features over the FOSS alternative.
Plex is available in a lot more app stores than Jellyfin or Emby is. I run a plex server for friends but I use emby for my personal consumption. The reason I continue to use plex is because it's available on all sorts of smart TV's and semi-obscure streaming devices that Jellyfin isn't.
Why the fuck is Plex even a company? Attention venture capitalists: Get your money grubbing fingers the fuck off decent technologies that should in no way be tied to profit-seeking. We live in a dystopian hellscape.
The problem is that it's public. A private company could very well exist to sell to its users a good service. It being public means it's beholden to the investor's desire for constant growth.
Tell me, what is Plex's Nasdaq ticker?
The problem is that it's public. A private company could very well exist to sell to its users a good service. It being public means it's beholden to the investor's desire for constant growth.
Plex is private though?
This doesn’t surprise me. The “features” that keep being added to Plex drive me nuts. I just want to be able to browse and watch from my own library.
Those features are what bring in revenue and I don't blame them for trying to be profitable. You can only get so far on lifetime subscriptions.
As long as they don't abandon the core product so I can continue using it as the awesome media server that it is I have no complaints. They can add all the additional features they want.
DVR, commercial skip, intro and credit detection, plexpy etc... are all awesome features which have been added in the last 5 years or so and enhance the core product.
30% growth after a 20% layoff huh?
Makes the growth 30% easier when it's 20% less!
Valory noted in his statement that the company was significantly impacted by the slowdown.
He added that the company is still expected to see 30% growth this year.
Which is which?
Growth isn’t always revenue. Or an indication of profitability. If anything their model including a lifetime pass is probably not helping.
More people are cutting the cord daily. And plex is the easiest and most accessible option for less technically inclined.
They have also tried HARD to shake the “piracy” links often associated with them and invested heavily in FAST streaming and other freebies folks here care nothing of but are probably slightly more marketable to non tech people n
You better see growth when laying off 20% lol
I hated using Plex. They make you suffer unless you pay way too much for what the service is worth. Jellyfin has been a far more pleasant experience.
I haven’t tried jelly fin so I’ll have to try it out; on my Apple devices I use Infuse Pro.
That being said, I really enjoy Kodi even though I know many despite it. Kodi to me is Firefox pre v56/57 where even though it shows its age, the customizability and utility is what makes it what it is.
Jellyfin would be fine for “just me”. Unfortunately I need the media server to be super simple, so that the rest of my house can navigate without issues. Unfortunately IME Jellyfin is not there… yet.
I love it’s growth and I keep a close eye, but I’m still mainly using Plex for now. I run Emby and JF alongside it as well. As it currently stands, I think from an end user perspective it’s Plex > Emby > Jellyfin, but I’m looking forward to the day I can fully move to JF.
That said, I think they’re all getting really close.
Plex has been going downhill for a bit now. FAST is killing it.
I'm not sure how streaming compares to your own curated content. I mean sure in overall convenience for the average person FAST wins, but that's not the core audience for Plex. If they're competing with FAST then it would mean there was a major shift in it's users and I don't think it has. Nobody who's enjoyed having a NAS full of on demand content (and invested time and hardware) will just chuck it and go "ah yes streaming random stuff with ads was better after all".
If you ask me, Plex should take a hard look at what Emby and Jellyfin are doing right because that's their main competition. I understand they have to make money but locking everything behind their remote server is fundamentally flawed when I can't access a server sitting two feet away from me without a major detour over the internet. They should have integrated with existing solutions like Authelia, reverse proxies and Talescale not piss against the wind.
Fully agree
Yeah this is one of the reasons I don't like companies that profit directly of of pirating. It never ends well and eventually someone is going to figure out they can just buy the company instead of competing on convenience.
One of the main things that made me make the switch to Jellyfin last year was the constant pushing of the ad-supported and other internet based streaming content. I was getting tired of pinning my local media libraries only to have them buried at the bottom of the list again under all the other streaming content after the client apps would update on my family's Rokus. Hardware transcoding is also a nice bonus since I only used Plex's free tier.
Well, it's pretty unsurprising considering all companies are doing the same.
I've given a chance to Jellyfin but it's really frustating how it simply refused to play video files without any descriptive error logs. I think it mostly doesn't work properly on HEVC files (I think Edge is the only browser that properly supports x265) and my Android TV also doesn't play the damn thing.
Also adding that video files from the same release (which assumed are the same encoder), they either work perfectly or just refuse to work :(
I do not pay for Plex but I considered in the past getting a lifetime sub x)
I've had a lifetime licence for a couple years, I'm becoming more and more bitter about the service but jellyfin isn't as appropriate for the people I share with.
Plex isn't improving its core service, in favour of focusing on new FAST customers, but there just isn't an alternative so they get to abuse their position.
After having checked out Plex, Jellyfin and Emby I've decided the latter was still my favorite. Jellyfin just isn't there yet, lack of built in image-scrubbers, intro-outro-detection and quality clients just makes it inconvenient for me. Plex's external authentication makes it a no go for me.
Emby is the only one that's focused on what it tries to achieve and delivers. Also the support team is super helpful and pushes out fixes in a pretty good time. Not FOSS though
HEVC files work fine in JF. I stream to a smart (android) TV, Shield and windows app. You need to have transcoding enabled though for smart tvs and browsers which isn't really an option for docker unless you have the grunt on your host.
Docker does work for transcoding but because I'm using Proxmox it's slightly more complicated since I want my windows VMs to not be a slog and run mediaservers on a iGPU.
Atleast on Plex it can do software transcode and not be bothered by an annoying "cannot play this media on this device". This was a few months ago and I still run both but Plex serves me fine fot the time being
Great, let them burn. I am a plexpass lifetime sub, but switched to Jelly. Opensource for the win.
Hopefully they leave the free features as is, and don't starting going down the road many other companies have to squeeze out profit.
Hahaheheheh, aaahhhhh...
wipes eyes
Anyway, thanks for the morning chuckle.
If they're trying to appease shareholders, then I feel like the enshittification is just starting. I've got Emby Premiere (webhooks were paywalled and are quite useful) and like that I have an off-ramp to Jellyfin if they start heading down a similar path.
Just curious, for everyone saying they switched to jellyfin, were you using the free version of plex?
I had a Plex subscription and switched to Jellyfin. Same reasons as everyone else- it was all about Plex's content and recommendations running on my equipment when the whole point for me was to have something with only my own content.
Well I use both (server and user) and plex is imo more stable with Google Cast wich is 90% of my use case. Mobile viewing is way more superior with jellyfin tho, but nothing beats plexamp
Yes. There was a bit of a learning curve, but my Jellyfin now works better than Plex ever did (and I finally have GPU acceleration working).
Yearly pass sub here. Canceled and will be exploring jellyfin and emby
Whew I'm glad I just started up my jellyfin server!
As someone who’s been laid off, it always annoys me when people at the top try to act all hurt. Their name was never brought up as a potential layoff. The decision wasn’t nearly as hard as getting laid off.
Those who made the decision to go after the FAST market and lose money aren’t the ones getting laid off, it’s the ones who followed and built it. The risky outcome was never on the heads of those deciding to take the risk.
‘Some of you may die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take’
That doesn’t make it easy, knowing you have to make a choice that negatively impacts people that have dedicated time and parts of their lives to your project. Having to make a choice that impacts others is not easy and only a sociopath wouldn’t give a shit. Despite what many think on sites like this, often many leaders, especially in smaller companies like this that started as a passion project are not those types of people etc. They often don’t have the same personality traits you HAVE to have to climb a ladder at say, IBM or Dell etc.
That’s not to say it doesn’t suck for the people being laid off. And that you can’t have empathy and sympathy for both sides. It’s not a competition or a binary choice.
When COVID started really popping off, management at my old job gathered all the technicians together in the shop. They read a bunch of names off a piece of paper while everyone stood around confused, then they said "If you heard your name, this is your last day with the company." Absolutely heartless.
They then put out a canned public message about how hard the decision was, and how every employee is a member of the family.
Hopefully that doesn’t mean we are going to see a slowdown in personal media features.
It will. As someone who only uses Plex, I’m sure the company will have to strive so hard after monetization that they’ll ruin the product and force us onto an open source alternative. I like Plex, but I don’t expect it to last after seeing all the other tech companies fail at this.
If Plex were to go down, how easy is it to transfer my setup to jellyfin?
You can try jellyfin alongside plex, just install it and point it to your media. Then you can see if it works for you
Literally just did this on Saturday. It was easy to do and I'm not seeing any significant changes in resource utilization. I am enjoying being able to directly download media onto my phone with Infuse, however.
The jellyfin community is probably best for that question.
You can try jellyfin alongside plex, just install it and point it to your media. Then you can see if it works for you
I too cancelled my Plex pass about 6mo ago after a colleague introduced me to JellyFin. I imagine the huge hit ISPs have had on tracking torrent downloads is also curtailing their customer base. (Along with many people abandoning pirating and just paying for the convenience of various streaming services).
Plex has been crap for at least 5 years now. Switched to Emby a few years ago and couldn't be happier.
Honestly have no idea why Plex still has such a huge fanbase. It's so commercialized and gross.
Can I just ask, why not JellyFin?
Been thinking about migrating off Plex for a bit with performance hits, apps shoving their channels my way and their seeming decline from personal media. After propping up Audiobookshelf for audiobooks, now I’m considering Funkwhale for music and Jellyfin for video but I’ll have to test a bit more.
Jellyfin works ok for music with finamp, but it might not meet your requirements.
Hmm! I’ll have to goof around with this. Thanks!
I don't have anything bad to say of Plex as a company, and I wish them luck on their endeavor, but if they ever fall, I just hope they open source their software...
This a 1/1000 likely outcome. Bankrupted companies will typically sell assets including IP and software to other companies to pay creditors (which excludes open sourcing them). And well before bankruptcy, any financial issues will cause Plex to be modified to support shitty monetization to the point that you won't want the source code amyway.
Sorry for the bad outlook, better that you be ready than to hope for a unicorn.
No, they couldn't do that. They'd have to sell every asset to pay the employees or give their ceo a golden parachute or any number of things aside from actually open sourcing. Anyway, Jellyfin is open source and just needs to work to reach feature parity.
If they saw the writing on the wall they could open-source before they went into bankruptcy. However, that could open them up to lawsuits if it was deemed they were "destroying" their assets before they could be claimed by investors and/or creditors, but that's a big legal gray area depending on what you can show in court. And venture capitalists have better lawyers than bankrupt companies typically do.
Plex is dead
Why are they even a company in the first place? They make an app that should objectively not be tied to profit-seeking.
Dear venture capitalist shitbags: get your money grubbing fingers off of technologies (like Reddit) that are objectively worse when tied to profit-seeking motives.
How is it making double digit millions? Through deals with companies and plex passes?
