# Jellyfin Jellyfin is a free and open-source media server that lets you organize, stream, and share your personal media collection. It handles movies, TV shows, music, photos, and live TV/DVR. Think of it as a self-hosted alternative to Plex or Emby—in fact, Jellyfin was forked from Emby when Emby went closed-source in 2018. The server indexes your media files, fetches metadata (posters, descriptions, ratings) from online databases, and serves content to client apps on virtually any device: web browsers, mobile apps, smart TVs, Roku, Apple TV, and game consoles. Transcoding happens automatically when a client can't play the original format, though direct play is preferred for performance. Unlike Plex, Jellyfin has no premium tier or account requirements—everything is local and free. This makes it ideal for [[Self-hosting]] enthusiasts who want full control without subscription fees or external dependencies. The tradeoff is that some client apps are less polished, and features like hardware transcoding require manual configuration. ## Related - [[Self-hosting]] - [[Docker]] ## References - https://jellyfin.org/