Self-hosted media servers: Jellyfin, Plex alternatives, and what to actually run
Plex monetizes through Plex Pass and integrates ads in their app. Jellyfin is the fully free fork. These are the open-source media servers that stream your own library to any device, ranked by health and the cost to run them.
The 23 picks, ranked by health
Health score is a 6-dimension composite. See methodology.
The Restreamer is a complete streaming server solution for self-hosting. It has a visually appealing user interface and no ongoing license costs. Upload your live stream to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Vimeo, or other streaming solutions like Wowza. Receive video data from OBS and publish it with the RTMP and SRT server.
Open-source media request and discovery manager for Jellyfin, Plex, and Emby.
Kavita is a fast, feature rich, cross platform reading server. Built with the goal of being a full solution for all your reading needs. Setup your own server and share your reading collection with your friends and family.
HLS.js is a JavaScript library that plays HLS in browsers with support for MSE.
Want a Movie or TV Show on Plex/Emby/Jellyfin? Use Ombi!
Your Personal Streaming Service
Automatic Video Library Manager for TV Shows. It watches for new episodes of your favorite shows, and when they are posted it does its magic.
Ready-to-use SRT / WebRTC / RTSP / RTMP / LL-HLS / MPEG-TS / RTP media server and media proxy that allows to read, publish, proxy, record and playback video and audio streams.
A very fast, portable and hackable fuzzy finder.
Syncs YouTube channels and playlists to a locally hosted media server
Movie organizer/manager for usenet and torrent users.
SRS is a simple, high-efficiency, real-time media server supporting RTMP, WebRTC, HLS, HTTP-FLV, HTTP-TS, SRT, MPEG-DASH, and GB28181, with codec support for H.264, H.265, AV1, VP9, AAC, Opus, and G.711.
Your self hosted YouTube media server
A free and open source comics, manga and digital book server with OPDS support (WIP)
A High-performance cross-platform Video Processing Python framework powerpacked with unique trailblazing features
A self hosted virtual browser that runs in docker and uses WebRTC.
music streaming server / free-software subsonic server API implementation
UPnP Media Server for 2026: Stream your digital media through your home network and consume it on all kinds of UPnP supporting devices
A simple,high performance and secure live media server in pure Rust (RTMP[cluster]/RTSP/WebRTC[whip/whep]/HTTP-FLV/HLS).
Open source, self-hostable watched list for all your content (movies, tv series, anime, games) with user authentication, modern and clean UI and a very simple setup.
Build a full-featured home server or NAS replacement with an Ubuntu box and this playbook.
Audio and video casting system with support for custom applications.
Self-hosted torrent video streaming service compatible with Chromecast, AppleTV & Kodi deployable in the cloud
Specifically replacing
These categories on ossreplace cover the SaaS in this space.
Ready to self-host?
Most operators land on restreamer (top health) and run it on hetzner for around $4.13/mo.