Plex changes requiring a pass for all remote play

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nzkc

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#319077 20-Mar-2025 09:24

Their blog post on the changes here: https://www.plex.tv/blog/important-2025-plex-updates

Unsurprisingly comes with a price increase. Possibly softened by a new pass type.

However it looks to me as if you have to have one of those passes for remote play. It's unclear if it includes direct play though I assume so.

Hope my interpretation is wrong but I guess I'm off to Emby or another alternative.

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#3355484 20-Mar-2025 09:33

That's a pretty decent jump in pricing for a lifetime pass. I picked one up a few years ago when on special, I think it was only $69 or $79 USD and at that price it was the best subscription purchase I've made.

toejam316

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#3355485 20-Mar-2025 09:37

Remote play now is dependent on at least one involved parties holding a current Plex Pass.

If the server has Plex Pass, remote play is available.

If the client has Plex Pass, remote play is available.

I can kinda understand it, I'm sure there's a lot of people using their service for free, and they are providing a much more streamlined and accessible service than Emby, Jellyfin, etc.

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#3355487 20-Mar-2025 09:43

Yeah price increases are always frustrating, but I kinda feel like these guys haven't raised it for ages, and this really isn't unreasonable.

Now if they forced a subscription - that's a deal breaker for me, but as long as the lifetime pass remains, all good.

I own a plex lifetime from a few years ago, and while I have played with Jellyfin the ease of plex makes changing not worth it.

The only thing I wish was being able to remotely change client streaming settings so I don't get some weird transcodes popping up.

And TBH - downloads to work properly.

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#3355489 20-Mar-2025 09:50

I just found this in the FAQs section, which is great news because I was worried my parents would have to start paying Plex a fee:

To stream remotely starting on April 29, 2025, you will need a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription on your account or the admin of the Plex Media Server from which you stream will need a Plex Pass subscription on their account.

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Shindig

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#3355549 20-Mar-2025 10:54

To the JellyFin.

The little things make the biggest difference.

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#3355691 20-Mar-2025 16:11

Senecio:

That's a pretty decent jump in pricing for a lifetime pass. I picked one up a few years ago when on special, I think it was only $69 or $79 USD and at that price it was the best subscription purchase I've made.

I guess they have at least given pretty good warning that it's coming, the increase is still over a month away. I've also had plex lifetime for around 5 years I think. I also can't recall what I paid, but I will say that not only was it the best subscription purchase I've made, it still is :)

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#3355694 20-Mar-2025 16:27

Shindig: To the JellyFin.

I run both Plex and Jellyfin side by side and find the Jellyfin end user experience for people like my parents is severely lacking plus Plex has excellent app support.

Like others, I bought a Plex Lifetime subscription years ago for around $50US and it was by far one of the best investments I ever made.

Jellyfin just has awful apps unless if you're one to use Kodi or third party apps like Infuse but this doesn't offer a great end user experience for those less technical. Plex, you invite somebody and it'll walk them through the full journey.

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CYaBro

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#3355800 20-Mar-2025 23:04

Another plex pass lifetime user here.
Think it was US$79 a few years ago on special.

I bought it for the Live TV integration mainly but also to be able to use the mobile apps.

Thats a big jump in the price for a lifetime pass, more than double, but they haven’t had a price increase for 10 years I read.

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#3355813 21-Mar-2025 06:44

I have pplt pass but wonder if they stayed in their lane, they might not need so much cash. There is a lot of weird stuff they do.

networkn

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#3355851 21-Mar-2025 09:40

jonherries:

I have pplt pass but wonder if they stayed in their lane, they might not need so much cash. There is a lot of weird stuff they do.

This feels like a strange take in many ways, though I sort of see your point.

Growth is acheived by increasing sales. You can do that by increasing your market share or by increasing the range of products you offer. If you only have one product, then I guess adding features (value) is another way to encourage sales to wider audience.

Would you feel better if they didn't add as many new features but in turn just said 'our prices are increasing because our stakeholders want bigger profits'?

reven

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#3355907 21-Mar-2025 09:56

The backlash on reddit is extreme on this one.

People saying they will jump to jellyfin. But these are the people who have been using this software for many many years, and still think its not worth paying for.

So many people tend to think software should be free, and moan if the free software isn't as good as paid software.

I bought Plex Pass lifetime 14 years ago, totally worth it. I bought Emby lifteime about 1.5 years ago, totally worth it. I prefer the UI of emby, so I use that in home, but sharing is so much easier/more secure outside the home with Plex, so use that for family/friends.

If youre going to be using the software, pretty mmuch every day for years, then whats so wrong with paying for it?

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networkn

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#3355953 21-Mar-2025 11:59

reven:

The backlash on reddit is extreme on this one.

People saying they will jump to jellyfin. But these are the people who have been using this software for many many years, and still think its not worth paying for.

So many people tend to think software should be free, and moan if the free software isn't as good as paid software.

I bought Plex Pass lifetime 14 years ago, totally worth it. I bought Emby lifteime about 1.5 years ago, totally worth it. I prefer the UI of emby, so I use that in home, but sharing is so much easier/more secure outside the home with Plex, so use that for family/friends.

If youre going to be using the software, pretty mmuch every day for years, then whats so wrong with paying for it?

What I find galling is the people who complain about the cost of software they use all day every day, are often the same people who are loudest about ensuring they get a payrise regularly, and want the cost of living addressed, not realising it's all a consequence of the same circle of life.

It's like they don't understand that money doesn't grow on trees. It might be a big increase, but I imagine there would be an annual thread instead of one every decade of people complaining about an albiet likely smaller increase.

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#3355987 21-Mar-2025 12:32

networkn:

What I find galling is the people who complain about the cost of software they use all day every day, are often the same people who are loudest about ensuring they get a payrise regularly, and want the cost of living addressed, not realising it's all a consequence of the same circle of life.

It's like they don't understand that money doesn't grow on trees. It might be a big increase, but I imagine there would be an annual thread instead of one every decade of people complaining about an albiet likely smaller increase.

I would say the majority (not all) of Plex users are using it to watch pirated content, they already don't care about people getting paid so why would this be any different?

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allio

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#3356010 21-Mar-2025 14:15

The reaction on Reddit is overwhelmingly people relieved that they purchased their lifetime licence years ago when it was one third the price thinking that they're unaffected by this news. I think they're mistaken, because simultaneously doubling the price of entry while slashing a (probably the) core feature out of the free tier is going to seriously decrease the attractiveness of Plex to people who aren't already in the ecosystem. Many existing free users will no doubt buy a lifetime Plex Pass in the next month and Plex will get a big income spike, but I'd have to imagine there will be a tremendous drop in new subscribers after that. Who is going to pay $250 USD to buy into a service they're not already invested in, particularly when a pretty decent free alternative exists?

The result is that Plex is going to be used increasingly by a limited group of lifetime licence holders who aren't contributing anything further financially on an ongoing basis. That's not financially sustainable for Plex Inc. Inevitably the status of the lifetime Plex Pass as giving you access to everything Plex offers is going to end, and you will need to sign up to some kind of additional subscription to access the latest features. My prediction is that this is very bad news for the future of Plex, not something to be happy about because you bought in before this happened.

reven

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#3356013 21-Mar-2025 14:38

i wonder if they've kinda reached a point where they arent getting many more new users, since its super well known, the market is only so big. So theyre increasing hte price to keep up revenue numbers.

I admit, its a big price increase... but its a fair price for a life time of updates, theyve got a good track record so far, 14 years and counting for me.

So my average is about $5 a year.

Its similar to the unRAID price increase, I bought these around the same time, so yeah, happy with both of those.

And I always find it funny (I have patreon subbed app i write myself), how some people moan that one feature isnt free, and it should be free, yet, they have some crazy super expensive hardware. And i kinda laugh, cos the feature they moan should be free, wouldn't have even be implemented if ti was just free, cos I wouldnt have needed it.

It just goes back to the, "software should be free!" mentality, where it works if its a small app that doesnt need much work, or it can have enterprise customers who will spend a lot on enterprise support etc.

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