Best open-source alternatives to Plex

Jellyfin is a free software media server aimed at people who want to manage and stream their own media without depending on proprietary platforms. The README positions it as an alternative to Emby and Plex, with a backend server that serves media to end-user devices through multiple apps. The project is designed for self-hosted use and development on major operating systems, and it provides guidance for running from source, using the command line, or launching through IDEs. It also includes a hosted web client option, API documentation, and links to installation, quick start, contributing, and community resources, making it suitable both for end users setting up a personal media server and developers working on the codebase.

Kodi is a free and open source home theater and media center application aimed at people who want a polished, couch-friendly way to browse and play their digital media. It runs as a native app on major desktop, mobile, and TV platforms, and is positioned both as a general media player and as an HTPC-focused entertainment hub. The project emphasizes local media management and network playback. It can play many audio and video formats, stream from home networks or the internet, and automatically build a media library with metadata such as covers, descriptions, and fanart. Kodi also supports a skinning engine, playlists, slideshows, weather information, visualizations, and a large add-on ecosystem for extending functionality.

Stash is a self-hosted web application written in Go for managing personal media libraries. It is aimed at users who want to organize and browse diverse video and image collections, including collections with adult content, from a browser-based interface. The application scans user-selected media directories, then lets users curate, edit, tag, and search items after indexing. It also pulls metadata from external sites using scrapers and community-built plugins, and can connect to metadata sources such as StashDB and other stash-box instances to enrich collections with performers, studios, descriptions, and related information.

Kyoo is a self-hosted media server aimed at streaming movies, TV series, and anime. It positions itself as an alternative to Jellyfin and Plex, with a focus on reducing maintenance for server operators by avoiding strict folder structures and manual metadata editing. The project emphasizes built-in functionality rather than plugins, and its feature set centers on media playback and discovery improvements such as dynamic transcoding, subtitle handling, preview thumbnails, and robust parsing of oddly named anime files. It also offers a web client, an Android client in progress, and a live demo for viewers to try before deploying it themselves.

Gerbera is a UPnP media server designed to make locally stored digital media available across a home network. It is intended for users who want to stream audio, video, and images to UPnP-compatible renderers and devices without relying on a dedicated cloud service. The project includes a web-based user interface for browsing and managing the media database and file system, along with support for metadata extraction, thumbnail generation, and flexible transcoding through plugins or scripts. It also supports automated rescanning of media directories, metadata-driven server layout, Last.fm scrobbling, and serving external URLs as UPnP content. The README positions it as a cross-platform server that runs on Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and multiple CPU architectures.

UPnP AV MediaServer that allows you to easily share audio, video, and pictures. Media player software may use Rygel to become a MediaRenderer that may be controlled remotely by a UPnP or DLNA Controller.

Flexible server providing a whole home self hosted DVR experience for [Channels](https://getchannels.com).

Home media server supporting both DLNA and DIAL (Chromecast) devices out-of-the-box.