Plex is asking for money now when you want to stream media remotely

Plex has been a fan-favorite solution for streaming media for years. It is relatively easy to set up, especially if a remote media server is added to the setup. Up until now, accessing a Plex media server remotely was free. This was a great option for users who were travelling and wanted to access their home server while abroad, or for sharing a server.

Plex announced today that the free ride will be over, at least for users of the service who want to access media remotely.

This changes: From next week onward, Plex requires either a Remote Watch Pass or a Plex Pass to stream remotely to the company's Roku app. Starting in 2026, the change will come to all Plex TV apps on all platforms and any third-party client that is using the Plex APIs for remote streaming.

Plex explains the two options in a post on the official forum:

Remote Watch Pass - Available for 20 Euros per year (about 23 Dollars), it is designed specifically for streaming media remotely using Plex.
Plex Pass - Customers may upgrade their account to a Plex Pass subscription, which is available for about 60 Euros per year (about 70 Dollars), but is discounted right now. It includes premium features, such as skip intro and credits, hardware transcoding and more.

In other words, Plex created a new subscription plan for users who -- very soon -- cannot use the application's remote streaming functionality anymore, because Plex turned it off for them.

Plex users who do not want to subscribe to the service just to retain access to a feature that they used for free before could check out alternatives to Plex.

Here is a short selection:

Jellyfin: free and open source, supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and does not limit remote access.
Kodi: another free and open source solution that also supports the desktop systems as well as Android, Fire TV and Raspberry Pie. However, getting remote media servers to work with the solution is complicated.

Have another alternative that you suggest others may replace Plex with? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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