GoKawiilRobert Triggs / Android Authority
Plex will soon charge you even more to stream your own media over the internet. While I’m not a fan of schadenfreude, decisions like this do make me feel vindicated about my choice to adopt Jellyfin instead of Plex several years ago.
The very concept of being charged a subscription fee to access your own media rubs me the wrong way. It’s an anathema to the whole self-hosted ethos and a bid to escape the spiraling costs of music and video subscription services. If Netflix isn’t getting my money for original programming, I’m certainly not handing Plex cash to rewatch my old Spaced DVDs.
Let me be clear: I’m all for paying for a service that offers fair value. If Plex were storing and serving your data — like Google One or a hosted VPS — that would be one thing. I’m also more than willing to accept that Plex Pass represents solid value for the features it has accumulated over the years. But what does Plex’s Remote Watch Pass actually do? It simply allows you to view content on any number of servers you have access to, no matter where you are.
Do you pay for Plex? 2 votes I have a lifetime Plex Pass 100 % I subscribe to Plex Pass 0 % I pay for Remote Watch Pass 0 % I use Plex but would never pay 0 %
In that sense, it’s little more than a glorified relay gateway — albeit one that’s now required even if you set up port forwarding. Granted, it handles authentication and basic routing, but everything else depends on your server, such as available bandwidth and transcoding capabilities. Paying $29.99 a year or $2.99 per month for that feels steep, especially when you’re hosting the media yourself.
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
There’s one good caveat here: you don’t need a Remote Watch Pass if the server owner has a Plex Pass. This also gives the owner extra features like transcoding, downloads, and Plex Dash, which they’ll no doubt find very useful if they’re serving data to a larger number of viewers. However, priced at $69.99 for the whole year or $249.99 for a lifetime, this again doesn’t represent very good value for money for those self-hosters simply looking to take their own media outside their home.
Plex prices are expensive just to access your own media. Tailscale can do it for free.
The Plex Pass convenience might be worth it for individuals who are sharing their media collection far and wide. However, I’d highly encourage casual users looking to dial into their own media library to explore at least two viable free methods that don’t require paying a penny to Plex. I use Tailscale to securely access my NAS outside my home, and it’s perfectly suited to serving up your media on the go, too.
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