Best Self-Hosted Media Servers in 2026

Quick Picks

Use Case	Best Choice	Why
Best overall	Jellyfin	Fully free, open-source, handles video, music, and books with zero licensing headaches
Most polished experience	Plex	Best client apps, slickest UI, widest device support
Best for music only	Navidrome	Lightweight, Subsonic API compatible, purpose-built for music libraries
Best for audiobooks	Audiobookshelf	Tracks progress, handles podcasts, mobile apps included
Best middle ground	Emby	Jellyfin’s upstream codebase with a more traditional licensing model
Best media organizer	Stash	Powerful metadata scraping and tagging for large unstructured libraries

The Full Ranking

1. Jellyfin — Best Overall

Jellyfin is the clear winner for most self-hosters. It is 100% free and open-source with no premium tier, no paywalls, and no telemetry. It handles movies, TV shows, music, books, photos, and live TV in a single server. Hardware transcoding works out of the box with Intel QSV, NVIDIA NVENC, and VA-API — no license key required.

The project forked from Emby in 2018 when Emby went proprietary, and has since surpassed it in community momentum. The plugin ecosystem is active, the web UI is clean, and the Android, iOS, and TV clients have improved significantly.

Pros:

• Completely free — no premium tier, no feature gating
• Hardware transcoding included at no cost
• Active development with frequent releases
• Handles all media types in one server
• Large plugin ecosystem (Intro Skipper, OpenSubtitles, LDAP)
• No account creation or phone-home required

Cons:

• Client apps are less polished than Plex
• No centralized streaming to friends without manual setup
• Music experience is functional but not specialized
• Occasional UI rough edges compared to Plex

Best for: Anyone who wants a single, free media server for their entire library without licensing concerns.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Jellyfin]

2. Plex — Most Polished Experience

Plex has the most refined client experience of any media server. The apps on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and game consoles are consistently excellent. If you care about sharing your library with family and friends who are not technical, Plex makes it effortless with managed users and remote streaming built in.

The catch: Plex is freemium. Core playback is free, but hardware transcoding, skip intro, lyrics, and several other features require Plex Pass ($5/month, $40/year, or $120 lifetime). Plex also phones home to its servers for authentication, which means a Plex outage can lock you out of your own media.

Pros:

• Best client apps across the widest range of devices
• Managed user accounts with parental controls
• Remote streaming works with zero configuration
• Mature, stable, and backed by a funded company
• Excellent metadata matching and artwork
• Skip intro and credits (Plex Pass)

Cons:

• Freemium model — key features locked behind Plex Pass
• Requires Plex account and phones home for authentication
• Not fully open-source — server source is proprietary
• Ad-supported free content mixed into the UI
• Hardware transcoding requires Plex Pass

Best for: Users who want the smoothest multi-device experience and share their library with non-technical family members.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Plex]

3. Emby — The Middle Ground

Emby occupies the space between Jellyfin and Plex. It is the original codebase that Jellyfin forked from, and it continues active development with a proprietary premium tier. The free version covers basic playback and library management. Emby Premiere ($5/month or $119 lifetime) unlocks hardware transcoding, offline sync, live TV DVR, and backup/restore.

Emby has a loyal user base, but the community is smaller than both Jellyfin and Plex. If you used Emby before the Jellyfin fork and have a workflow built around it, there is no urgent reason to switch. For new users, Jellyfin offers the same core experience without the paywall.

Pros:

• Mature codebase with years of stability
• Plugin system and DLNA support
• Clean web interface
• Good mobile apps
• Live TV and DVR support (Premiere)

Cons:

• Hardware transcoding locked behind Emby Premiere
• Smaller community than Jellyfin or Plex
• Proprietary premium features reduce trust
• Fewer third-party integrations than competitors
• Less active open-source contribution

Best for: Existing Emby users who are happy with their setup. New users should choose Jellyfin instead.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Emby]

4. Navidrome — Best for Music

Navidrome is a lightweight, purpose-built music server. If your primary goal is replacing Spotify with your own music library, Navidrome is the right tool. It implements the Subsonic API, which means dozens of mature music clients (Symfonium on Android, play:Sub on iOS, Sonixd on desktop) work out of the box.

Navidrome is written in Go, compiles to a single binary, and uses under 50 MB of RAM. It indexes a 50,000-track library in minutes. It handles multi-user access, scrobbling to Last.fm/ListenBrainz, smart playlists, and ReplayGain — everything you need for a music server and nothing you do not.

Pros:

• Purpose-built for music — does one thing exceptionally well
• Subsonic API gives access to dozens of polished client apps
• Extremely lightweight (~50 MB RAM, single Go binary)
• Fast library scanning even for massive collections
• Multi-user support with per-user playlists and favorites
• Last.fm and ListenBrainz scrobbling

Cons:

• Music only — no video, audiobooks, or photos
• Web UI is functional but basic
• No native podcast support
• No lyrics display without third-party plugin

Best for: Anyone who wants a dedicated music server with wide client support and minimal resource usage.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Navidrome]

5. Audiobookshelf — Best for Audiobooks and Podcasts

Audiobookshelf is the definitive self-hosted audiobook server. It tracks listening progress across devices, handles series and collections, scrapes metadata from Audible and other sources, and includes a built-in podcast manager. The Android and iOS apps are solid, and the web player works well for desktop listening.

If you have a large audiobook collection and are tired of using a general-purpose media server that treats audiobooks as an afterthought, Audiobookshelf is the obvious choice. It also handles podcasts with automatic downloading and progress tracking.

Pros:

• Purpose-built for audiobooks with progress tracking per chapter
• Native podcast support with automatic episode downloading
• Metadata scraping from Audible, iTunes, and OpenLibrary
• Series and collection management
• Dedicated mobile apps (Android and iOS)
• Multi-user with per-user progress and libraries

Cons:

• Audiobooks and podcasts only — no music or video
• Smaller community than Jellyfin or Plex
• Metadata matching can struggle with obscure titles
• No Subsonic or DLNA compatibility

Best for: Audiobook listeners who want dedicated progress tracking, series management, and podcast support in one app.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Audiobookshelf]

6. Stash — Best Media Organizer

Stash is a media organizer focused on metadata scraping, tagging, and browsing large unstructured video collections. It automatically identifies content, downloads metadata, and builds a searchable, filterable library. It is useful for anyone with a large collection of video files that lack consistent naming or metadata.

Stash uses a scene-based model rather than the movie/TV show model that Jellyfin and Plex use. This makes it better suited for short-form content, clips, and collections that do not fit neatly into traditional media server categories.

Pros:

• Powerful automated metadata scraping
• Scene-based organization model
• Extensive tagging and filtering system
• Generates thumbnails, sprites, and preview clips
• Plugin and scraper ecosystem
• GraphQL API for automation

Cons:

• Not a streaming server — focused on organizing and browsing
• Resource-intensive during scanning and thumbnail generation
• Niche use case compared to general media servers
• Steeper learning curve for scraper configuration

Best for: Users with large unstructured video collections who need automated metadata matching and organization.

[Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Stash]

7. Kavita — Best for Manga and Comics

Kavita is a self-hosted reading server for manga, comics, and ebooks. It supports CBZ, CBR, ZIP, RAR, EPUB, and PDF formats with a responsive web reader. Kavita tracks reading progress, supports series grouping, and has an OPDS feed for external reader apps.

Kavita is not a general-purpose media server, but if you have a manga or comic collection, it is the best dedicated option. Jellyfin can display books and comics, but Kavita’s reading experience is purpose-built and significantly better.

Pros:

• Dedicated reading UI optimized for manga and comics
• Supports all common comic and ebook formats
• Reading progress tracking and bookmarks
• OPDS feed for external reader apps
• Series and collection management
• Active development

Cons:

• Reading only — no video, music, or audio
• Smaller community than general media servers
• No audiobook playback
• Mobile experience relies on web UI or OPDS readers

Best for: Manga and comic readers who want a dedicated, polished reading server.

Full Comparison Table

Feature	Jellyfin	Plex	Emby	Navidrome	Audiobookshelf	Stash
License	GPL-2.0 (fully free)	Proprietary (freemium)	Proprietary (freemium)	GPL-3.0 (fully free)	GPL-3.0 (fully free)	AGPL-3.0 (fully free)
Video support	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes (organizer)
Music support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (primary)	No	No
Audiobook support	Basic	Basic	Basic	No	Yes (primary)	No
Hardware transcoding	Free	Plex Pass required	Premiere required	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mobile apps	Community (decent)	Official (excellent)	Official (good)	Via Subsonic clients	Official (good)	Web only
Multi-user	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live TV/DVR	Yes (free)	Yes (Plex Pass)	Yes (Premiere)	No	No	No
Remote streaming	Manual setup	Built-in	Manual setup	Manual setup	Manual setup	No
RAM usage (idle)	~300 MB	~200 MB	~300 MB	~50 MB	~100 MB	~200 MB
Docker support	Official image	LSIO image	Official image	Official image	Official image	Official image
Plugin ecosystem	Large	Large	Medium	Small	Small	Medium (scrapers)
Phone-home required	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Client device support	Good (20+ platforms)	Excellent (50+ platforms)	Good (20+ platforms)	Excellent via Subsonic	Android, iOS, web	Web only

How We Evaluated

We evaluated each media server based on criteria that matter most to self-hosters:

• Licensing and cost. Is it fully free, or are critical features locked behind a paywall? Open-source projects score higher because you control the software.
• Media type coverage. Does it handle your library? Video, music, audiobooks, comics — or is it specialized?
• Docker setup complexity. How many services does the Compose file need? How many environment variables? Can a moderately technical user get it running in under 30 minutes?
• Client experience. What devices can you watch or listen on? How good are the apps?
• Resource usage. How much RAM and CPU does it consume idle and under load? This matters when running on a mini PC or Raspberry Pi alongside other services.
• Community health. Is the project actively maintained? How responsive are developers to issues? How large is the user community?
• Transcoding performance. For video servers: does hardware transcoding work? Is it free or paywalled?

Jellyfin wins because it scores highest across the board when you factor in that it is completely free. Plex beats it on client polish and remote streaming convenience, but those advantages come with a proprietary server, account requirement, and paywall.

Related

• How to Self-Host Jellyfin
• How to Self-Host Plex
• How to Self-Host Emby
• How to Self-Host Navidrome
• How to Self-Host Audiobookshelf
• How to Self-Host Stash
• Jellyfin vs Plex
• Jellyfin vs Emby
• Plex vs Emby
• Self-Hosted Alternatives to Netflix
• Self-Hosted Alternatives to Spotify
• Docker Compose Basics
• Reverse Proxy Setup
• Backup Strategy