this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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Because you are hosting the server software on your own hardware. That's literally self-hosting. Plex provides a way to remotely access your server through their own network as well, which is optional.
The problem with Plex is it isn't fully hosted. Plex controls user passwords. You can't use it without logging into their servers.
You can access it through your local network without authentication. Add a vpn and you got the same setup Jellyfin fans will praise
Not really. The first local login to configure it requires a Plex account. And that account times out maybe monthly? It seems every few months when I remote to the Plex server it wants the plex account to login.
On a side note: you can remotely access any service running on home network via Tailscale[1] / Cloudflare Tunnel. Your services are never exposed on Internet. Moreover, you don't need to rely on Plex for that.
[1] https://tailscale.com/ [2] https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/connections/connect-networks/
Tailscale is going public, so I don't really trust them anymore. I used Cloudflare tunnels for a while, but I strongly dislike being dependent on them for accessing my own network, and I don't like how they recently clamped down on "anti-piracy". There are some legitimate sites I still can't access (dirtbike parts and whatnot) because Cloudflare straight up blocks access to them.
Even if the source code is open?
Android is open source and look what Google is trying to do with that.
Go with pangolin. You can easily host the control layer either on a cheap vps or your own internet exposed server. Same features as tailscale although with a bit more complexity.