Why is Jellyfin so much more popular than Emby?

[scb99 250]

On 31/05/2026 at 14:51, ebr said:

Hi.  That's because no one in development or testing is able to reproduce it and only a very few users have reported this happening.  So, whatever it is, is very specific to some sort of environment.

Unfortunately, we cannot fix what we cannot find - but we'll keep trying.

I can say that this happens when you try to resume a movie and it craps out for whatever reason, then it will reset itself to the beginning. (This happens to me quite often because I have one particular array which is slow to restart from hibernation and Emby often times out before it has spun up) Whether this is the same problem or not I cannot say. I never bothered to report it.

[unisoft 363]

On 31/05/2026 at 19:12, RanmaCanada said:

As EBR mentioned, some of these bugs can't be replicated, and therefore can't be solved. As for the crApple TV issues, it's a horrible device to program for to the point even Jellyfin abandoned their app for it. Network detection speed does work, but if your ISP are a$$sholes and throttle the every loving hell out of your connection, like Shaw/Rogers does here in Canada, it won't matter as all you're going to get is 3-4mbit even if you have it set to wide open.

No throttling in UK. GIG1 connection (actually around 1170mbps as over provisioned) with 107mbps on average upload using DocSIS 3.1.

Client devices using full fibre from 3 other ISP's (symmetric on those) and these have superb ping and jitter times. Not ISP crap routers either.

It has never detected WAN speed correctly in any Emby version for years. Always have to set a static value and then everything direct plays (media is compatible on all devices without transcoding).  Without setting fixed speed of say 30mbps, an 11mbps TV Show will try at transcode at 4mbps (with nothing else using the upload).

[ebr 16465]

On 6/6/2026 at 8:19 AM, unisoft said:

Without setting fixed speed of say 30mbps, an 11mbps TV Show will try at transcode at 4mbps (with nothing else using the upload).

There is now a setting that the admin can use to take care of that.

[SikSlayer 254]

On 5/24/2026 at 12:21 PM, RanmaCanada said:

Jellyfin is more popular as pirates hate to pay for stuff. Period. The fact it's open source means nothing. Jellyfin is extremely fragmented and still based on Luke's ancient code.

Remember, Jellyfin was created because someone didn't like the fact there was a nag screen to pay for an open source product. They created Emby Unlocked and went forward and forked what is now Jellyfin. 

It's an inferior product that works well enough that people are willing to put up with its issues as it costs them zero dollars, yet costs them time and frustration.

Case in point, one of those Jellyfin leeches wanted the WMC UI source for the express purpose of adding Jellyfin compatibility.

There would be a million articles about "Jellyfin's NEW WMC interface", and Jellyfin would get all the credit for it

[RanmaCanada 553]

It has also just been announced that Jellyfin had a serious RCE vulnerability in ALL their previous FFMPEG builds..

https://www.sentinelone.com/vulnerability-database/cve-2026-35033/

More proof that they don't know what they are doing..

[Deihmos 174]

I’m certain many people try Jellyfin and then realize how unpolished it is, leading them to switch to Emby instead. 

[arrbee99 1842]

Saw some article about the Plex $250 for 5 years thing. First page of comments, Jellyfin mentioned 14 times, Emby.....Zero.

[Nabukodonosor 17]

Exactly what I was saying. Generally people don't know about Emby, and most of them know about Jellyfin. That's why there is so many different plugins made by the community for Jellyfin, and not so much for Emby.

[yocker 1702]

1 hour ago, Nabukodonosor said:

Exactly what I was saying. Generally people don't know about Emby, and most of them know about Jellyfin. That's why there is so many different plugins made by the community for Jellyfin, and not so much for Emby.

As said, i'm pretty sure it's because it's free.

When people look for a media server, let's say they switch from Plex, they just google "Plex alternative".
When doing that both Emby and Jellyfin are plastered all over the results.
When they see Jellyfin is free they will quickly download that, at least to see if it is any good as they won't loose any money just trying it.

Being a free product it automatically attracts A LOT more people.
Made a little extreme for the sake of understanding, what would you choose if you had the choice between two almost identical cars, one being free and the other costing money?
 

[scb99 250]

I think the free aspect definitely reinforces a network effect on social media etc.

A serious comparison review of Jellyfin / Plex / Emby would require a lot of work which no reviewer has the time for.

I do have Jellyfin (and Plex) running and browse Jellyfin from time to time on Github though not in detail and they got a couple of decent developers pretty active on the project in the last year or two. For a long time it was just floating along but I think it got a bit of momentum going recently.

PS IF Emby disappeared tomorrow, I could use Plex but JF is nowhere near usable for me. Emby is still the best of the 3, in my case.
 

Edited 1 hour ago by scb99