To find a good alternative to Plex, we must find an application that, in addition to serving as a multimedia file manager, allows us to remotely play the movies or series that we have downloaded to our hard drive. Those two functionalities, the archiver and the server for remote playback, are essential to change Plex for an alternative. We will also have to look at which devices allow the reproduction of the file from our server, on which platforms it is available and if it offers us its services for free or for a fee.
- Plex wants to combine the contents of Netflix, Amazon, Disney and others
- Plex announced a Netflix like feature: Watch Together
- What is Plex and how does it work?
Best alternatives to Plex media center
These are some of the best alternatives to Plex that you can find if you are looking for a multimedia content manager that allows you to categorize your own file and access it remotely, to view its content on your Smart TV, on another computer or from your smartphone or any tablet that is compatible.
KODI
Kodi is commonly named as an alternative to Plex. It was created to serve as a multimedia player for the XBOX console, with the name XBOX Media Center, although in 2014 it changed its name and began to be called Kodi, as we know it today. Kodi is a multimedia center, in the style of Plex, in which we can organize all our stored multimedia content, since it accepts a wide variety of video and audio formats. Kodi retrieves metadata from the web to provide us with additional information about archived content and helps us give that Netflix look to our personal library of movies and series.
The advantage of Kodi is that it does not focus solely on the content stored on your computer and allows you to enjoy content available on the Internet, through a handful of addons that can be downloaded. It is more configurable, although its interface may be less simple than that of Plex.
STREMIO
Stremio was launched in 2015 to serve as an alternative to Plex, although its functionality does not focus so much on the multimedia file that we have downloaded to the computer as on the content that we can watch in streaming. Stremio will help us to combine our different subscriptions to multimedia content platforms such as Netflix or HBO in a single application, in addition to being able to enjoy some free content.
Its application is simple and easy to understand and will allow us to view the content quickly on our mobile, so that we can see all the series of all the platforms to which we are subscribed without having to switch from one application to another.
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- Disney announces new streaming platform: Star
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EMBY
Another of the best-known alternatives to Plex is Emby, another multimedia center that will allow us to categorize and centralize our entire audiovisual library , making our team work as a server to be able to access that content from another device, as is the case with Plex . Emby has a disadvantage compared to Plex and that is that its content is available within a local network, what it does is create a DLNA server to share the multimedia content of your computer with other compatible devices in your house, within a local network.
Among its advantages we find a very neat and simple interface, the possibility of watching live video channels and implementing parental controls in case we do not want the smallest of the house to access some of the content that we have stored on our server. It is compatible with Chromecast and offers the option of multiplying its possibilities thanks to the addons and plugins it has.
MEZZMO
Mezzmo is an alternative to Plex that is only available on Android, although it is interesting because some of its characteristics may be useful to us. It is a multimedia manager, like Plex, which is used as a remote application to access content stored on a server, our computer, to enjoy series and movies wherever we are. It is very easy to install and configure, since when we install it it will find all the multimedia files that we have stored and it will organize them automatically. Its advantage is that, when we access it from another device, it transcodes the multimedia content in real time and guarantees us a high transmission quality. It also has the advantage of having several users access the server at the same time.
You can download and use the free version, although in a basic way. The Pro version has many more possibilities and, if you want to make the most of the options that Mezzmo offers, it may be worth paying for it . The Android application is only available in a paid version.
MEDIAPORTAL
The last alternative to Plex that we are going to analyze is MediaPortal, which goes one step further and offers a feature that Plex does not have and that can be very useful. With MediaPortal we can watch and record television through the multimedia center. That is, in addition to the options for categorizing the content and acting as a server, as with Plex, we will be able to watch television and record the programs that interest us to watch them later. At present, the consumption of series or movies on television has decreased, due to the great offer that we find on online platforms, but there is still exclusive content from some television networks that may interest us. With MediaPortal we can record, save and watch it later as if it were part of the Netflix package or some similar platform.
It is one of the best alternatives to Plex but not only has advantages, but also disadvantages: it is only available for Windows and there are no applications for mobile phones or Smart TVs, but we can find some extensions on its official website that allow remote access to the MediaPortal library.
