Emby is a personal media server that organizes a user's own movies, TV shows, music, and photos and streams them to nearly any device, evolving out of the open-source Media Browser project for Windows Media Center before rebranding as Emby in 2015.
In 2018 Emby moved from an open-source model to a closed-source, proprietary one, a change that directly led to the creation of the fully open-source Jellyfin fork; Emby's core server remains free to use today even though its codebase is no longer fully open source.
Key Features
The Emby server indexes and organizes a personal media library with metadata and artwork, and transcodes video on the fly for playback across an unusually wide range of client platforms, including smart TVs, game consoles, and mobile devices.
Emby Premiere, the paid tier, adds Live TV and DVR recording, hardware-accelerated transcoding, offline mobile sync, cloud backup, and smart home integrations on top of the free base experience.
Pricing
Emby's core server and streaming functionality are free to use indefinitely, with no time limit or forced trial expiration.
Emby Premiere is available for $4.99/month, $54/year, or a $119 one-time lifetime purchase, unlocking Live TV/DVR, hardware transcoding, and other advanced features.
Key Features
Personal media library organization — Automatically indexes movies, TV shows, music, and photos, pulling in metadata and artwork for a polished browsing experience.
Wide client platform support — Native apps span Apple TV, iOS, Android, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Xbox, smart TVs, and web browsers.
On-the-fly transcoding — Converts video in real time to match the format and bandwidth needs of the destination device or network.
Live TV and DVR (Premiere) — Records and streams over-the-air or IPTV live television content, available with an Emby Premiere subscription.
Hardware-accelerated transcoding (Premiere) — Uses GPU hardware acceleration for smoother, more efficient transcoding on Premiere subscriptions.
Offline mobile sync (Premiere) — Downloads media to mobile devices for offline playback without an active server connection.
Cross-platform server deployment — Server software runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and many NAS devices.
Cloud sync and smart home integration (Premiere) — Backs up server configuration to the cloud and connects with smart home platforms for Premiere subscribers.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Core server and streaming functionality are free to use indefinitely with no forced trial expiration
Extremely wide client app support across smart TVs, consoles, mobile, and web
Flexible Premiere pricing, including a one-time lifetime purchase option not offered by most competitors
Long-standing, mature feature set including Live TV/DVR support
Cons
Moved from open-source to closed-source licensing in 2018, a point of concern for self-hosting purists
Advanced features like Live TV/DVR and hardware transcoding require a paid Premiere subscription
Smaller active development community than its fully open-source fork, Jellyfin
Requires self-hosting on owned hardware or a NAS, unlike commercial streaming services
Yes, Emby's core media server and streaming functionality are free to use indefinitely. An optional Emby Premiere subscription unlocks advanced features like Live TV, DVR, and hardware transcoding.
How much does Emby Premiere cost?
Emby Premiere is priced at $4.99/month, $54/year, or a $119 one-time lifetime purchase.
Is Emby open source?
Emby began as the open-source Media Browser project, but in 2018 it moved to a closed-source, proprietary model. This change led to the creation of Jellyfin, a fully open-source fork of Emby.
What is the difference between Emby and Jellyfin?
Jellyfin is a free, fully open-source fork of Emby created after Emby moved to closed-source licensing in 2018. Emby remains free for core use but is closed-source and offers an optional paid Premiere tier, while Jellyfin is entirely open source with no paid tier.
What platforms does Emby support?
Emby server runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and various NAS devices, while client apps are available on Apple TV, iOS, Android, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Xbox, smart TVs, and web browsers.
Who created Emby?
Emby was created by developer Luke Pulverenti, evolving out of his earlier open-source Media Browser project for Windows Media Center before being rebranded as Emby in 2015.