Today we’re announcing an important pricing update. Starting July 1, 2026, the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass will increase to $749.99 USD.
When Plex first started, we were movie and TV fans who wanted to make something great for people like us. We chose to offer a Lifetime subscription early on because we knew many of our customers would rather pay a higher one-time fee for software that they can depend on every day.
We’ve considered eliminating the Lifetime Plex Pass in the past, given that recurring subscriptions help us sustain long-term development, but we know it’s still a valuable option for many in our community. So instead of retiring it, we’re keeping it available at a price that reflects the real, ongoing value of the software we’re committed to building and maintaining for years to come.
I’m sorry, are there Plex users who didn’t see this coming?
2015-2025 $120
2025-2026 $250
2026-? $750
Plex can fuck all the way off.
Calling it now:
2028-? Plex Pass Plus (subscription only)
Got my lifetime for $75 in 2013. Started testing Jellyfin anyway once Plex started offering streaming media to compete with local libraries.
Anyone with $750 to spend on this either:
A) Doesn’t have the skills/resources to set up and server, so they’ll just put the money towards streaming
B) Has the skills/resources to set up Jellyfin and will just put the towards server and media costsAny bets when older lifetime passes get un-grandfathered (for at least some “new” features) at some point?
Some companies seem to be able to change the contract whenever they want and bar access if you dont accept. Cell providers in my area seemingly aren’t allowed to do that but it feels like everyone else can, especially regarding digital media.
We’ve considered eliminating the Lifetime Plex Pass in the past, given that recurring subscriptions help us sustain long-term development, but we know it’s still a valuable option for many in our community. So instead of retiring it, we’re keeping it available at a price that reflects the real, ongoing value of the software we’re committed to building and maintaining for years to come.
Translation: We fucked up by creating a lifetime pass but now we can’t get rid of it without being sued by everyone who did what we said they should and bought one. If we honour existing passes and stop selling new ones, we’ll be reviled by everyone else, so we’ll just pick a ridiculous figure out of the air so nobody can say we killed them.
…reflects the real, ongoing value of the software…
If people are mostly buying the lifetime pass at the old price, that’s the real value of the software. It’s too bad they don’t think it’s enough to keep their company going. I don’t think this new price will save them. Not all companies need to exist.
This is apeshit stupid. I don’t expose my media to the Internet, so I’m not affected but I know what’s coming: no free users allowed at all.
Glad to see Jellyfin is more than up to the task. I only hang around on Plex for lazy reasons, but I can tell that soon enough I’m gonna have to jump ship.
How do I give others access to my Jellyfin library?
Tailscale, Netbird, or Wireguard, depending on how many people you want to share with and the technical comfort of all parties
My technical comfort is high. Everyone else’s is low
Expose it to the internet in a way you’re comfortable then tell them login details including what to write for the domain.
Or just do what I do and set it up on their TV for them 🤷
Everyone else can learn.
You’re the one with the goods.
Dude, do you have a mom? Have you met a boomer?
Yep.
Ghosted her, and the rest of my family, after they became MAGA nutjobs.
… Are they paying you for this valuable IT service you provide them?
They can always go back to Netflix or Hulu or whatever.
… unless you just do full stack, frontend+backend, custom software deployments… for free…?
I don’t do shit for Boomers, for free.
Tell em to go buy a lawn mower and mow lawns to afford another enterprising local IT expert’s services, or maybe they can introduce themselves to the president of internet piracy with a firm handshake or something, I’m sure that’ll work.
If they throw a temper tantrum, remind them the full term is Baby Boomer.
I assume, you are askink how to allow remote (as in outside of your network) access. There are multiple options to achieve this goal:
- Local reverse proxy and port forwarding: You essentially poke a hole through your firewall to expose your Jellyfin to the internet. Only works if you got a static IP and your router allows it.
- VPN: Sometimes your router has a VPN option built in. Otherwise Tailscale is a simple option. Requires some setup on the playback device. Not recommended if your users are using a lot of non-Android smart TVs
- Tunneling to remote reverse proxy: generally the recommended option. Pangolin and netbird are two providers of such services. Your users connect to their servers and then they are automatically redirected to your server. Both services are also open source, so you can selfhost that part of the setup as well, if you want (that’s what I do)
Duckdns & nginx proxy manager. I don’t know what you’re using to run your server, but look up those two services; they’re not difficult to set up and they work well.
Make them a user, give them the login.
Exposing your jellyfin on the Internet is much more difficult and requires knowledge of networking and security best practices. It is not as easy as “just giving someone a login” though for those with the know how I would easily recommend it over Plex.
I mean I’ve done it, it required buying a cheap domain and I found out most people don’t give a crap about my server even if I offer them access 🥲
Do we know if Plex has been audited? Or is just that it is so much easier to do and Plex says it is secure so people think it is secure? That is often the case with closed source software.
Not the point. When setting up remote access Plex is easy, Jellyfin is not.
Yes that is true, but the commenter I replied to specifically mentioned security and it always comes up when people compare the two that Jellyfin security isn’t great.
You’re thinking of Plex
Paying 70 bucks paying off in the long term.
I did that just a week ago. It’s pretty simple and everything works. No money necessary.
Wild. 💰
Once I max out Subnautica 2 this is my weekend project
And an oil change.
