Plex has announced a massive price increase on the service’s Lifetime Plex Pass. On July 1, the lifetime subscription option will go from $249.99 to $749.99, an increase of 200%. The price hike will only apply to new subscribers, with no changes to monthly or annual subscription pricing.
Wait wait wait so… you pay THEM to let YOU share YOUR media? Wha?
Laugh while you can monkey boy! But in 2037 when its $75000 for a lifetime pass, I’ll be the one laughing then!
If you just live long enough this is an amazing deal! A steal I tell you!
If you don’t see it that way you are timid and weak and don’t have the confidence to survive another 6 or 7 decades!
Plex announces that it is tired of having all of these customers buying their software
Pro-tip: If the company hasn’t already been around for over 100 years, NEVER buy a lifetime pass for ANYTHING.
RIP HBC
I bought a lifetime membership for $99 about 20 years ago. Never had one regret.
You got lucky. Companies can, and frequently do, either completely go under after a few years, or revamp their service, shutting down the old one, and saying “This is a NEW service. It requires a NEW lifetime membership.”
Unless it’s protected by a legal definition, the only thing between your lifetime membership and getting nothing at all is the good will of a company that does not care after they already have your money.
Even if they ARE an “honorable” company, and I use that term loosely, the moment someone buys them, they have absolutely no obligation to honor lifetime memberships. Most EULAs for lifetime memberships give the company total discretion to shut it down at any time for any reason.
Beyond that, $750 seems a LOT like a “kill the golden goose to get the eggs” move. Would look GREAT on a quarterly report of revenue, coming with huge executive bonuses, before selling and getting out, and letting someone else manage running the infrastructure on reduced revenue.
Bottom line? The lifetime membership MIGHT work out, but it’s a GAMBLE. It’s a gamble that you get in early enough to get your value out before the marks in a ledger indicate it’s not worth providing anything for you anymore. Meanwhile, doing the Open Source solution is free now, free forever, and has NO gambling component.
Why it was $80 and I haven’t paid a dime more, lol. If I get 2-3 years out of it that’s extremely cheap compared to a $20/mo netflix subscription.
If a company has been around for 5 years and offers a lifetime warranty with a good product and another company has been around for 50, but offers only a year warranty I’m going with the newer company.
Even 2 years of warranty is better than 1.
I don’t know why anyone would pay that instead of using Jellyfin. I’ve had my server up for years now and it works great.
I haven’t checked in on Jellyfin for a while now, but don’t they still have issues with hardware transcoding support?
Not to mention the lack of software clients on other platforms for just playback that Plex has been established on for years and even multiple device generations like with PlayStation, Roku, Fire Stick, etc.?
Also you have to configure your own reverse proxy / Tailscale set up to securely access a content library remotely, right - as opposed Plex’s relatively simpler remote access configuration?
I have not personally experienced any issues with hardware transcoding. My server is an old Dell Optiplex and I use clients on Linux, Android, Roku and Shield.
Yes you are correct about remote access and if that was a priority for me, I would happily learn that part instead of paying for Plex.
Massive price hike causes massive customer hike to Jellyfin lol
At this point, I think we all can see the critical tipping point of enshittification writing on the wall for Plex.
I know everyone says Jellyfin, but given how easy Plex still handles hardware transcoding on many common current standard NAS configurations as well as the somewhat non-standard network configurations needed to otherwise easily yet securely access content remotely from external locations, not to mention the decent UX and deep integration across all client platforms whether web, iOS, Android, Smart TV, and even things like PlayStation and Xbox hardware, but do others here have some any thoughts on how to jump ship to get 1:1 features here at some point?
Many people have been on Plex for more than a decade and have seen it slowly try to reposition its business model to one that is leaning toward something more akin to a streaming subscription rather than a simple personal content library software… but I still have yet to feel the need to switch… at least not yet.
What is plex?
Sounds like an expensive immitation of Jellyfin
It was the first one around. Very mature, very solid piece of software. Has clients for everything.
Just ask for the customer’s first born at this stage…
