jellyfin/jellyfin

Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that lets you organize and stream your personal collection of movies, TV shows, music, and photos to any device. It solves the problem of wanting a Netflix-like experience for media you already own, without paying a monthly subscription or sending your data to a company's servers. You host Jellyfin yourself on a computer or home server, and it then streams your content to phones, tablets, smart TVs, and computers through dedicated apps. The server works by scanning your media library, fetching metadata (titles, cover art, descriptions, ratings) from online databases, and then transcoding, converting, video and audio files into formats that any device can play. Transcoding is handled using FFmpeg, a widely used open-source media processing tool. The server exposes a REST API (a web interface that apps can talk to), and separate client applications connect to this API to present your library with a clean browsing interface. Everything runs on your own hardware, so your viewing habits stay private. You would use Jellyfin if you have a large collection of downloaded or ripped media and want to access it from anywhere in your home or over the internet, without paying for Plex Premium or Emby Premiere. It is a direct free alternative to both. It is also popular with home lab enthusiasts who want full control over their media setup. Jellyfin originated as a fork of Emby (a similar proprietary product) when Emby moved to a closed-source model. The project is community-run with no paid tiers. The tech stack is C# running on the .NET platform (currently .NET 9), which gives it cross-platform support on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Docker is the most common deployment method, and the server also depends on FFmpeg for media processing.