Lifetime Plex Pass A$390 @ Plex

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Lifetime Plex Pass A$390 @ Plex
Go to Deal
noname657 on 20/05/2026 - 10:55 plex.tv (1269 clicks)
Last edited 22/05/2026 - 11:49 by 1 other user

Believe or not. Plex is going to increase the retail price again.
Thus, to obtain current price, you need to make your purchase before 01/July/2026

The price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass will increase to $749.99 USD* on July 1, 2026, at 12:01 AM UTC.

I have prepared popcorn to enjoy the comments from Jellyfin or Emby users.

Somehow I still think A$390 worth the cost, but not $750USD.

I think they are moving from lifetime to subscription business mode, which is sustainable. It should "in theory" provide better support and product for the subscribers and people who have paid the lifetime pass earlier.

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      • ddeeaallss on 20/05/2026 - 11:34

        Really, what's missing?

        • 14
        • SarcasticEmu on 20/05/2026 - 19:07

          Weren't you listening? Features!

          • 6
      • zoner on 20/05/2026 - 11:34

        USD $750 vs USD$0?

        • 38
        • chingy213 on 20/05/2026 - 11:44

          USD $750 vs USD$0? - cant argue with that but its free for me because its local media only.

          Really, what's missing? - its movie matching is not great, especially tv shows, yes I know you can manually assign

          Look - eventually I will go to Jellyfin just not in yet. In a few years.

          • 0
          • GUYANDSON on 20/05/2026 - 11:50

            @chingy213: The matching is only as good as your file naming/folder structure. Once you get used to what it expects there's no dramas at all. Or use the *arr stack to do it for you.

            • 18
            • Adam22 on 20/05/2026 - 11:55

              @GUYANDSON: +1

              Literally never had to manually assign anything in jellyfin.

              • 2
            • cramblamwich on 20/05/2026 - 14:40

              @GUYANDSON: That's plainly not true re: matching. Even if your file naming and folder structure follows convention to a T, Jellyfin misses far more matches than Plex. I've done side by side tests on identical libraries (no editions or versions, curly brackets replaced with square for Jellyfin) and Jellyfin missed or misidentified items three times more often than Plex. It's simply not as robust.

              • 0
              • GUYANDSON on 20/05/2026 - 15:16

                @cramblamwich: I had to spin up a new instance of jellyfin a few months ago (ssd died), which meant redoing the metadata for my entire library. Between 1.5k movies, 800 shows/21k eps, the only thing it misidentified that weren't my fault was 'Allo 'Allo. The ones that were my fault were poorly named files - particularly movie files with junk names or missing year.

                I'd agree on it not being anywhere near as good if this was 4-5 years ago, that was when I really struggled with it and preffered Plex. They've improved leaps and bounds since, they really did close the game on the release of version 10.9 from memory, moved over to Jellyfin full time after that.

                I have way more dramas now with sonarr doing its own thing with anime than I do with jellyfin itself. And that should be fixed soon by the sounds of things.

                • 0
                • cramblamwich on 20/05/2026 - 15:59

                  @GUYANDSON: This was only six months ago but I guess my library is bigger with more obscure stuff. I wouldn’t call it an edge case though. Thank god I don’t do much anime, I’d probably have a stroke

                  • 0
          • witheredcouch on 20/05/2026 - 12:45

            @chingy213: Maybe I have just had my file naming well setup due to using XBMC/Kodi since the early 2000's, but I can recall on one hand the naming mismatches I have had with Jellyfin, and most of those have been due to confusingly named special episodes of TV Shows etc that sit outside of a standard season structure.

            • 0
          • reidy76 on 20/05/2026 - 12:47

            @chingy213: Just use Sonarr for media managment, problem solved

            • 3
          • Frackingiscool on 20/05/2026 - 13:03

            @chingy213: ~2.5k movies and 350-ish tv series imported with maybe 50 movies needing manual intervention (missing dates, poorly named, etc) and 30 or so series needing to be cleaned up (again, my own poor housekeeping caused the issues).

            I don't add dozens of movies or tv shows daily so after the initial scrape, things add without issue as long as its dumped in the right spot. I'm making an effort to avoid an *arr stack because I still want to pick and choose what is added.

            Using DDNS and port forwarding gives access outside the house for family.

            • 0
            • cski on 20/05/2026 - 19:56

              @Frackingiscool: port forwarding only works if you have external facing IP,
              many ISPs now have shifted to double NAT unless you pay $10 extra a month to ISP,
              or have a reverse proxy intermediary tunnel like Plex offers

              so any option seems to cost these days

              • 0
              • diddydiddy on 29/05/2026 - 22:09

                @cski: Tailscale / Cloudflare Tunnels / VPN etc so many ways to bypass double NAT these days.

                • 0
          • cramblamwich on 20/05/2026 - 13:58

            @chingy213: You shouldn't be being downvoted because you're right. Plex has been around for nearly 20 years at this point, Jellyfin about 8. Even though Plex keeps removing features and changing UIs and switching focus and this and that, it's still a far more advanced product. Jellyfin is really great but unpolished, and it's nowhere near the point where I'd consider switching yet.

            • 0
            • chingy213 on 20/05/2026 - 14:27

              @cramblamwich: Thank you. Well said. Also Plex decoding is much more advance.

              • 1
              • ashanrath on 20/05/2026 - 16:19

                @chingy213: Can you elaborate on that? Last time I checked jellyfin had caught up and actually overtaken Plex by most metrics, including hardware transcoding support and official client decoding.

                • 2
                • chingy213 on 21/05/2026 - 16:51

                  @ashanrath: I just installed Jellyfin again over docker/container

                  It couldn't even certain movies in my collection LOL

                  Is there any way to manually add them?

                  • 0
                  • ashanrath on 21/05/2026 - 20:15

                    @chingy213: Are you following something similar to the doco? Jellyfin and Plex share pretty much the same recommended naming conventions.

                    https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/movies/

                    https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-…

                    Are you using something like this?

                    Movies
                    ├── Best_Movie_Ever (2019)
                    │ ├── Best_Movie_Ever (2019).mp4
                    │ ├── Best_Movie_Ever (2019).nfo
                    │ ├── Best_Movie_Ever (2019).en_us.srt
                    │ ├── cover.png
                    │ └── theme.mp3

                    • 0
                    • chingy213 on 22/05/2026 - 15:05

                      @ashanrath: Nope. They are mixed, some have folders, some dont. So they need folders?

                      • 0
                      • Mikael on 22/05/2026 - 15:48

                        @chingy213: Haven't tried jellyfin. Got Plex. I got media folder at top. Inside TV shows, movies, photos (and so on). It is quite good to rename and find what it is. But guess cannot mix tv shows with movies. Perhaps need to point in jellyfin where (what folder) movies are and it probably pick them up.
                        Previously i used renamer i believe it called. It renamed all media files to what I wanted to get easier to be picked up. Haven't really had any issues with Plex. Got the arr installed. Put a movie/tv show in watchlist (Plex) and it downloads it. I have rule no screeners but good quality. When available it does automatic and no need to muck around. Same for people I share with.

                        • 0
                      • ashanrath on 23/05/2026 - 07:28

                        @chingy213: Yep, it's the preferred way for Plex too. Both of them expect more than a single file. Subtitles, deleted scenes, trailers, theme music etc. Look into radarr and sonarr.

                        • 1
    • Mingles on 20/05/2026 - 11:43

      love Jellyfin!

      • 2
    • Kanjus on 20/05/2026 - 11:58

      Will jellyfin start charging? That's my concern

      • 1
      • blaze on 20/05/2026 - 12:07

        nah its open source

        • 4
        • joedante on 20/05/2026 - 13:19

          Wasn't Plex open source back when it was based on Xbox Media Center?

          I'm not expecting Jellyfin to go commercial any time soon but if they did they wouldn't be the first nor thousandth open source software to do so.

          • 7
          • ashanrath on 20/05/2026 - 16:16

            @joedante: It was a fork of an open source software, but the new stuff was all closed source.

            Nobody "owns" Jellyfin, it's all open source. Even if the repo maintainers did try to close it in future, anyone could just open a new fork and pick up where it left off.

            • 0
          • greater mimic on 20/05/2026 - 16:18

            @joedante: If they do it will just be forked and a new version kept open source. Isn't that how Jellyfin came out of Emby?

            • 1
      • SuiCid3 on 20/05/2026 - 15:34

        Something will come along to replace it even if it does

        • 0
    • Devastator0 on 20/05/2026 - 13:00

      Does Jellyfin allow easy, remote access of a library like Plex does? As an example, I share my library with some family and friends and all they need is the Plex app, whether that be on their PC, smartphone, console or Smart TV. I have a lifetime Plex account and as the server holder/admin, allows streaming to remote users with no other faffing around. Would very much like to know if Jellyfin does the same thing without any 3rd party bolt ons or config that my remote users would have to do.

      • 2
      • JPerez on 20/05/2026 - 13:04

        Answers are all here: https://jellyfin.org/docs/

        • -3
        • railspider on 20/05/2026 - 13:16

          Tldr: the answer is yes. I'd argue jellyfin is an even better experience for users than Plex these days.

          • 4
          • drillvoice on 20/05/2026 - 13:33

            @railspider: Can you say more? I do this using Tailscale, is there an easier option?

            • 2
            • Devastator0 on 20/05/2026 - 13:46

              @drillvoice: Yeah, see, I have heard people mention Tailscale A LOT in regards to Jellyfin remote use and that's put me off because I am sharing my library with non-techy people too and I don't want to add another layer in between for either something to break or for them to manage.

              • 1
              • zoner on 20/05/2026 - 14:24

                @Devastator0: Yep, tailscale or a domain name. But tailscale is a great idea no matter what.

                And yes, tailscale can be a pita especially with its dns behaviour

                • 0
              • railspider on 20/05/2026 - 14:34

                @Devastator0: See my other comment but buying a custom domain and using cloudflare tunnels (there are other similar alternatives, that's just what I chose) is absolutely painfree for non techy people.

                • 0
            • railspider on 20/05/2026 - 14:33

              @drillvoice: I use tailscale for myself when out of the house (at home of course everyone accesses via wifi).

              But for my non-technical friends/family, I bought a domain and use Cloudflare tunnels (caching disabled to not violate their ToS) so the access is seamless. They just go to my website in a browser and login, or use a subdomain (https://watch.fakenetflix.com/) in their TV jellyfin apps and it works perfectly.

              • 0
              • Devastator0 on 22/05/2026 - 10:31

                @railspider: Got any details on getting that set up? Consider I don't own a domain nor have I ever heard of Cloudflare tunnels lol.

                • 0
                • railspider on 22/05/2026 - 12:23

                  @Devastator0: I'd recommend asking Gemini or Claude to walk you through the setup process, that's what I did! Its all a lot easier than it sounds to get setup, I promise.

                  • 1
      • bohn on 21/05/2026 - 08:31

        the apps avail are far better for plex and emby than jellyfin.

        so for remote access via apps, emby and plex are superior.

        I have lifetime plex, premiere emby and jellyfin but at the moment am using plex.
        didn't pay much for the plex though https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/784260

        • 0
      • beardelune on 21/05/2026 - 11:47

        I put my Jellyfin instance behind a free cloudflare tunnel on a domain that costs me pennies

        I tell users the sever is watch.[my].[domain] give them their username and password and it's good to go.

        If you're capable of setting up Plex, you're capable of setting up Jellyfin Remote, it's slightly more involved, but not really

        • 0
    • kungfuman on 20/05/2026 - 15:25

      why woudl you want a lifetime of plex?

      • 0
    • SickDmith on 20/05/2026 - 18:38

      Serious question: is there a "native" Jellyfin client for
      * AppleTV
      * LG TV (WebOS)
      * Samsung TV

      • 0
      • cski on 20/05/2026 - 20:02

        https://jellyfin.org/downloads/clients/

        Apple TV needs Infuse a 3rd party port

        Samsung newer Tizen a release was added this year

        • 2
        • SickDmith on 20/05/2026 - 20:17

          Noice. Way to go!

          • 0
      • mearkat7 on 01/06/2026 - 20:37

        Not an official client but apple tv has a native client called swiftfin.

        • 0
  • SirNed on 20/05/2026 - 11:00

    So $126 was a deal last year for Lifetime and this year it is $390. Am I missing something?

    • 36
    • Zythyx on 20/05/2026 - 11:10

      You will never see it at $126, and after July 1st you'll never see it again at $390. So yeah, this is the "bargain" price until it shoots up to ~$1000AUD

      • 14
      • cydia9k on 20/05/2026 - 19:17

        It wasn't worth $126, and it's definitely not worth 9x that

        • 3
        • Doly on 22/05/2026 - 19:41

          You can dislike plex but 126 is not a whole lot for A lifetime service.

          • 1
          • cydia9k on 22/05/2026 - 20:35

            @Doly: No, it's pretty reasonably price in today dollars in fact, but it wasn't worth it at the time, Jellyfin covered my needs.

            • -2
    • Nillionaire on 20/05/2026 - 11:12

      It's the same as passports; they count as deals every year since the price will be increased the next year.

      • -6
    • noisymime on 20/05/2026 - 11:15

      They don't want lifetime passes to be a thing so they're pricing them at crazy levels so no one buys them.

      • 23
      • TrivagoTeeth on 20/05/2026 - 15:57

        ?
        They could just stop offering them

        • 0
        • LeifAlbor on 20/05/2026 - 19:20

          Everyone has their price…

          • 0
  • Elephant on 20/05/2026 - 11:02

    You'd have to be pretty confident that Plex will be around for the long term, and that the product they give to lifetime members won't lose functions, to pay even $390, let alone over $1k.

    • 34
    • 0jay on 20/05/2026 - 11:16

      i'm confident they'll be around and hitting the proles for double what they're charging today for a service that's otherwise free in other guises

      • 0
      • cski on 20/05/2026 - 20:06

        they might be around, but i bought lifetime licences for Office 2007, but by 2010 it lack many functionality that appeared in 2010 and 2013.

        Sometimes subscription is simply better
        Plex so far has followed a single version 1 forever, but in 2027/2028 its just as likely Plex will become Version 2 and the lifetime Version 1 starts to fall behind

        • 1
        • 0jay on 20/05/2026 - 22:13

          its just as likely Plex will become Version 2

          the squeeze’ll come, i agree

          • 0
        • BlasterBoy on 21/05/2026 - 08:18

          At least you can still use Office '07, I bought CS5.5 and can't use it because it won't scale for high res displays :( all the tool icons are so tiny!

          • 0
          • cski on 24/05/2026 - 15:01

            @BlasterBoy: using office 2007 is all relative, because it doesnt really work, 2007 2010 2013 dont support the newer certificates for Outlook wont sync, files lose formatting if they were sent to you by others that used newer

            So technically it works, but not very functional

            • 1
    • The Hobo on 20/05/2026 - 11:22

      Yeah - but they may limit certain functionality, which is what makes it so good.

      • 0
    • Madrical on 20/05/2026 - 14:50

      I was worried about exactly this when I paid $150 for it a few years ago. I cannot imagine paying $1k+ for it now. Love Plex & Plexamp but sheesh, that price is wild.

      • 0
    • 16k-zx81 on 20/05/2026 - 16:01

      And based on recent history, the thing about losing functions, does not hold up. It's a big no from me. Jellyfin all the way.

      • 0
  • Unbreakable on 20/05/2026 - 11:05

    Or just too lazy to use open source alternatives?

    • -1
    • Stuj on 20/05/2026 - 11:41

      So how can i get open source alternative to work through CarPlay exactly ?

      • 1
      • moar bargains on 20/05/2026 - 12:01

        For music? What about https://discrete.app/?

        • 2
        • Diplomats on 20/05/2026 - 12:27

          Can also do https://www.navidrome.org/

          and for the player for CarPlay

          https://apps.apple.com/au/app/amperfy-music/id1530145038

          • 5
          • Stuj on 20/05/2026 - 16:30

            @Diplomats: Hmm I might look into this. Do you need to download offline for it to work or does it just use the app to connect to the library at home like pleaxamp does

            • 0
            • Diplomats on 20/05/2026 - 17:18

              @Stuj: Don’t need to download offline, the app connects to the library at home.

              • 1
          • bonechiller on 20/05/2026 - 16:36

            @Diplomats: Highly recommend navidrome over plexamp. I made the swich recent and the simple fact that you dont lose songs from your playlist when the metadata or file name changes is massive.

            • 1
            • mertn on 20/05/2026 - 22:28

              @bonechiller: Navidrome all the way. Listening to a 1972 concert using it right now.

              • 0
        • cramblamwich on 20/05/2026 - 14:23

          My favourite thing about this app is how it will just straight up not work half the time.

          • 1
          • moar bargains on 20/05/2026 - 15:01

            @cramblamwich: Fair enough. I imagine that's useful feedback for both Stuj and the developer. I don't have an iPhone so have no idea. Was literally a 2 minute google to try and help Stuj.

            • 0
      • Tambani on 20/05/2026 - 12:53

        How do you currently get Plex to work on Android? Their app is kaput.

        • 0
        • Charmoffensive on 20/05/2026 - 13:15

          I don't have any problems with it on android or android tv.

          • 5
  • the-fuzz on 20/05/2026 - 11:05

    "I have prepared popcorn to enjoy the comments from Jellyfin or Emby users."

    Did you prepare it yourself? Or did you need an app to buy it, cook it and spoon feed it to you for $795?

    • 42
    • Charmoffensive on 20/05/2026 - 13:15

      At least we know who's bringing the salt.

      • 23
    • Lanushi on 20/05/2026 - 20:39

      Who eats popcorn with a spoon?

      • 2
      • the-fuzz on 21/05/2026 - 08:36

        Plex users?

        • 0
  • Detrimental on 20/05/2026 - 11:07

    Long time Plex user, yearly for a long time but bought lifetime about 18 months ago just ahead of another big price jump. I’ve played around with Jellyfin and prefer Plex overall, but there isn’t that much of a difference (to me anyway). Over $1000 AUD for a Plex lifetime pass is highway robbery, while I will keep using Plex myself I would not recommend it for a new setup any more.

    • 38
    • Carrera1963 on 20/05/2026 - 11:17

      I've been running a Plex media server for about 15 years, still using the "free" version and have no issues with it (though only use for local streaming).

      Yeah I should have bought a lifetime plex pass a long time ago when it was cheap, but I feel no need to spend $400 getting it now.

      • 9
      • denserham on 20/05/2026 - 11:29

        It is worth saying at least for now, you can use most of Plex for free, I have a plexpass but also use tailscale so I haven't used any of the pass's streaming features which just leaves me with hardware decoding/skipping intros/outros, neither would I pay $400 for.

        • 4
    • noisymime on 20/05/2026 - 11:18

      I still prefer Plex just because it makes things so much easier when getting non-techy friends/family set up, but you're absolutely right. There's no way it will be a good solution in the future if you don't already have a lifetime pass.

      Plex had better start actually developing the system if they want to charge these prices because it's really stagnated the last few years.

      • 8
    • 0jay on 20/05/2026 - 11:19

      i use plex, agree jellyfin's not comparable in terms of fit and finish and general usability but paying for a pass is just a sad alternative to throwing it in a collection box for folks who might benefit from your excess in ways these opportunistic devs cannot

      • 0
    • TrivagoTeeth on 20/05/2026 - 16:00

      My family and friends use the hell out of my Plex lifetime pass & NAS. Really enjoy it. But this current price can absolutely suck it. They're off their heads.

      • 1
  • USER DC on 20/05/2026 - 11:08

    plex is so overrated

    jellyfin is just as good.

    • 3
    • 0jay on 20/05/2026 - 11:20

      orly..?

      • -3
    • Farticus on 20/05/2026 - 12:00

      Hell no

      • -3
    • cramblamwich on 20/05/2026 - 14:24

      Not even close.

      • -4
    • Madrical on 20/05/2026 - 14:50

      I think Jellyfin is fine for self hosting & local usage but if you want to share your library with family & friends it's very frustrating compared to Plex.

      • 5
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