Media Streaming - Multimedia Streaming
We track 5 open-source Plex Pass alternatives, of which 3 currently score 70 or above on Repoly's GitHub health scale and 2 ship a Docker image. Jellyfin leads on health at 99/100 with 601 commits in the last 90 days; across all 5 projects you are choosing between GPL-2.0, ⊘ Proprietary.
Showing 5 of 5 tools
Top pick · highest health
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.
UPnP Media Server, which allows you to stream your digital media throughout your home network and listen to/watch it on a variety of UPnP compatible devices.
Multimedia/Entertainment center, formerly known as XBMC. Runs on Android, BSD, Linux, macOS, iOS and Windows.
Home media server supporting both DLNA and DIAL (Chromecast) devices out-of-the-box.
Centralized home media playback system with a powerful central server.
Jellyfin edges Gerbera 99 to 93, and most of the difference is stars: 59k stars against 1.4k stars.
The most recent release is Jellyfin v12.4, published 4 days ago. None of the measured options scores under 40. By stack, C# (2) and C++ (2) are the most common. Jellyfin, Gerbera and Kodi are copyleft. Emby and Plex are source-available rather than open source, which limits commercial reuse. Emby and Plex are not hosted on a forge Repoly can read, so they have no measured score yet.
4 of these 5 also appear among the Netflix alternatives; Gerbera is specific to Plex Pass.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit | Docker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jellyfin Steady at 99 since 11 Sep | 99 | 59k | GPL-2.0 | yesterday | Yes |
| Gerbera Up 10 points since 11 Sep | 93 | 1.4k | GPL-2.0 | yesterday | Yes |
| Kodi Down 2 points since 11 Sep, no release for 11 months | 79 | 21k | GPL-2.0 | today | No |
| Emby | 10 | 0 | ⊘ Proprietary | unknown | No |
| Plex | 10 | 0 | ⊘ Proprietary | unknown | No |
Jellyfin scores highest at 99/100, with 601 commits in the last 90 days, 59k stars on GitHub and its latest release (v12.4) published 4 days ago. Kodi has the most raw commit activity at 2105 commits in 90 days.
None of the 5 tracked alternatives use a permissive licence; 3 are copyleft (GPL, AGPL or similar), which requires publishing changes to any modified version you distribute.
2 of 5 publish a Docker image or Compose file: Jellyfin, Gerbera. Docker support contributes 10 of the 100 available health points, because it is the clearest signal that self-hosting is a supported path rather than an afterthought.
On measured health Jellyfin leads, 99 to 93. Jellyfin has 601 commits in 90 days, 59k stars and v12.4 from 4 days ago; Gerbera has 155 commits in 90 days, 1.4k stars and v3.3.0 from 1 month ago. Jellyfin is ahead or level on every term Repoly measures.
3 of the 3 measured options score 70 or above. Every measured option had commits in the last 90 days. None scores under 40.
C#: Jellyfin and Emby. C++: Gerbera and Kodi. The stack matters if you plan to extend or patch the tool yourself.
