Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Infuse Pro

Jellyfin is a free software media system for collecting, organizing, and streaming your personal media library from your own server to many types of clients. It provides a server backend and API along with a web interface, and is commonly used as an open alternative to proprietary media servers.

Key Features

• Library management for movies, TV shows, music, and photos with metadata fetching
• Web-based administration and playback interface, plus a broad ecosystem of official and third-party clients
• Streaming with on-the-fly transcoding support via FFmpeg
• User accounts and profiles for separating access and playback history
• Extensible architecture with plugins and integrations

Use Cases

• Host a private “Netflix-like” server for a household’s movie and TV collection
• Centralize and stream a music library to phones, desktops, and smart TVs
• Provide media access for friends or remote devices while keeping content on your own server

Limitations and Considerations

• Transcoding and high-bitrate streaming can require significant CPU/GPU resources depending on usage
• Some client capabilities and codecs may vary by platform, affecting direct play vs transcoding

Jellyfin focuses on giving you full control over your media, with no tracking or vendor-operated central services. It is well-suited for home labs and organizations that want a flexible, privacy-respecting media streaming stack.

Kodi is a free and open source home theater and media center application for playing and managing digital media. It is designed for a 10-foot, remote-friendly experience on TVs while also working well as a desktop media player.

Key Features

• Library management with media scanning, artwork, metadata, and collections
• Playback for a wide range of audio and video formats
• Network playback and streaming over common network protocols
• Add-on system for extending functionality (including official add-ons)
• Powerful theming and skinning engine for customizable UI
• Cross-platform support across major desktop and mobile operating systems

Use Cases

• Living-room HTPC media center for local and NAS-hosted libraries
• Unified playback app for video, music, photos, playlists, and slideshows
• Extensible media hub using add-ons and custom skins for tailored setups

Limitations and Considerations

• Add-on availability, quality, and maintenance can vary across the ecosystem
• Performance and hardware decoding capabilities depend on the platform and device

Kodi is a mature, community-driven media center focused on a polished TV experience and broad format support. Its add-on and skinning ecosystem makes it suitable for both simple playback and highly customized home theater setups.

Stash is a self-hosted web application for organizing and viewing a personal adult video and image collection. It indexes your local files, enriches them with metadata, and provides a fast browser-based interface for browsing and streaming.

Key Features

• Library scanning and indexing for video files, images, and image galleries (folders and zip files)
• Scene-centric organization with ratings, tags, performers, studios, and movies
• Video streaming to web browsers with broad codec/container support and FFmpeg-based processing
• Markers to bookmark and tag specific timestamps within scenes, shown on the video scrubber
• Metadata extraction from filenames plus scraping via community-maintained scrapers and metadata providers
• Statistics and insights across performers, tags, studios, and more
• Optional access protection (e.g., password protection) for private libraries

Use Cases

• Build a private “personal site” experience for browsing and streaming an adult media collection
• Curate and tag large libraries with performers, studios, and custom tags for quick retrieval
• Create highlight collections by marking favorite moments with timestamped markers

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires FFmpeg for key functionality such as video processing and broad playback compatibility
• Metadata scraping quality and coverage depends on the configured providers and community scrapers

Stash is well-suited for users who want a private, searchable, and streamable catalog of adult media with strong tagging and curation tools. Its extensibility through scrapers and plugins makes it flexible for many different library workflows.

Dim is a self-hosted media manager that scans your media directories, organizes them into a clean library, and provides a web interface to browse and play your content from anywhere. It focuses on minimal setup while offering a polished, modern UI.

Key Features

• Library management for local media folders with metadata-driven organization
• Web UI for browsing, searching, and viewing your media collection
• In-browser playback experience for supported media
• SQLite-backed local configuration and library data storage
• Optional hardware-accelerated video processing on Linux via VA-API
• Multiple deployment options, including standalone binaries and container images

Use Cases

• Personal media library management for movies and TV on a home server
• A lightweight alternative to heavier media server stacks for simple browsing and playback
• Centralized household media browsing across devices using a web browser

Limitations and Considerations

• Some features may be platform-dependent (for example, VA-API hardware acceleration on Linux)
• Requires external tools/libraries (such as FFmpeg) for media processing and compatibility

Dim is a strong fit for users who want a sleek, minimal-setup media manager with a modern web UI. It works well for organizing and accessing media libraries while remaining relatively lightweight in deployment and storage requirements.

Fladder is a cross-platform frontend client for Jellyfin that lets you browse and play your media library across mobile, desktop, web, and TV devices. It focuses on a clean UI, multi-profile support, and reliable playback including offline syncing.

Key Features

• Stream media with direct play or server transcoding
• Download and sync media for offline playback while keeping progress in sync
• Manage your library, including refresh actions and basic metadata edits
• Multiple profiles for quickly switching users or servers
• Skip media segments such as intros and credits
• Trickplay support for improved timeline scrubbing
• Adaptive layout for mobile, tablet, desktop, web, and TV
• Dark/light mode with multiple color style options
• Simple comic book reading support for CBZ/CBR
• Integrations with Seerr/Jellyseerr

Use Cases

• Daily Jellyfin viewing on phones, desktops, and Android TV with a consistent UI
• Offline playback for travel while keeping watch progress synchronized
• Households with multiple users or multiple Jellyfin servers

Limitations and Considerations

• Some features may depend on Jellyfin server capabilities (for example, transcoding and segment markers)
• The hosted web build may be restricted to secure connections depending on where it is served

Fladder is a practical option for users who want a modern Jellyfin experience across many platforms with both streaming and offline workflows. It is especially well-suited for mixed-device setups and multi-user environments.

Gaseous is a self-hosted server for managing game ROM libraries and associated titles. It scans and organizes ROMs, identifies games using multiple sources, enriches them with metadata, and provides basic in-browser emulation for supported platforms.

Key Features

• ROM and title management with library scanning and organization
• Game identification and metadata enrichment using external sources (e.g., IGDB) and signature-based matching
• Web UI for browsing a library, viewing game details, and launching gameplay
• Built-in browser emulation via a web-based emulator integration
• User authentication (available in v1.7.0 and later)
• Supports MariaDB (preferred) and MySQL as the backend database

Use Cases

• Build a centralized retro game library for a homelab or household
• Enrich and clean up ROM collections with consistent metadata and artwork
• Play supported retro titles directly from a browser without installing local emulators

Limitations and Considerations

• Internet exposure is discouraged by the project; if exposed, it should be protected (e.g., via VPN) and treated as higher risk
• Switching from older MySQL schemas to MariaDB may require rebuilding the database and re-importing via a library scan
• Metadata lookups may require an IGDB API key unless using an alternative proxy approach

Gaseous is a practical option for collectors who want a web-managed ROM library with light browser-based play. It focuses on library organization and metadata-driven browsing while keeping the deployment relatively straightforward with a SQL backend.

Mydia is a modern, self-hosted media management platform built with Elixir and Phoenix LiveView. It provides a real-time web UI to track, organize, and automate downloads for movies and TV shows, including metadata enrichment and library management.

Key Features

• Unified media library for movies and TV shows with TMDB and TVDB metadata enrichment.
• Automated download workflows with quality profiles, smart release scoring and ranking.
• Native integrations with common download clients (qBittorrent, Transmission, SABnzbd, NZBGet).
• Indexer support via Prowlarr and Jackett, plus experimental built-in Cardigann indexer library.
• Multi-user roles (admin/guest) and request-approval workflow for content requests.
• SSO support via OIDC/OpenID Connect alongside local authentication.
• Real-time interface powered by Phoenix LiveView for instant updates and responsive UI.
• Storage and import conveniences: relative library paths, hardlink support for efficient storage, and import/sync from TMDB lists.
• Multi-architecture Docker images and variants for SQLite (default) and PostgreSQL.
• Background job processing with Oban, migrations with automatic pre-migration backups, and CI-driven test coverage including end-to-end tests.

Use Cases

• Replace or complement desktop/cloud tools by managing a home movie and TV library with metadata and automated downloads.
• Run automated release searching and downloading for preferred quality profiles and codecs for a household media server.
• Provide multi-user access with role-based controls and SSO for families or small groups who share a media collection.

Limitations and Considerations

• Project is early-stage (0.x.x): expect breaking changes between releases and potential instability in experimental features.
• Several capabilities are marked experimental (built-in Cardigann indexers, playback/HLS streaming, subtitles) and may be incomplete or unreliable.
• PostgreSQL support requires using the PostgreSQL-specific image variant; image variants are not interchangeable at runtime.

Mydia focuses on library management and download automation rather than full-featured streaming server functionality. It is oriented toward users who want an extensible, real-time web UI for maintaining and automating a local movies/TV collection.

Frames is a subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) style streaming platform for self-hosted personal media collections. It organizes movies and TV shows, fetches rich metadata and artwork, and streams MP4 files from local storage or cloud providers while offering playlists and synchronized GroupWatch sessions.

Key Features

• Stream MP4 media from local storage and cloud providers (Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive and others)
• Modern React/Next.js UI with a visually focused dark theme and media discovery pages
• Backend built with NestJS and TypeScript, using PostgreSQL for storage and Redis for caching
• Automatic metadata and artwork ingestion from TMDB, Fanart and Apple artwork sources
• AI-powered recommendations using OpenAI embeddings (requires API key and vector storage)
• Advanced video player with subtitle support, AirPlay, picture-in-picture, download controls and seek thumbnails
• Playlists, public/private sharing, and admin controls for media metadata and permissions
• GroupWatch for synchronized viewing and in-session chat

Use Cases

• Host a private streaming library for personal or family use with centralized metadata and artwork
• Stream media stored across local drives and multiple cloud providers without copying files
• Run watch parties with synchronized playback and chat using GroupWatch

Limitations and Considerations

• Several integrations (TMDB, Fanart, OpenAI embeddings) require API keys for full functionality
• Transcoding is experimental (alpha) and currently only supports local media; feature is not production-stable
• Some casting functionality (Chromecast) is listed as coming soon and may be incomplete

Frames is suited for users who want a polished, self-hosted streaming UI with rich metadata and collaborative viewing features. It requires typical infrastructure components (PostgreSQL, Redis) and optionally API keys for enhanced metadata and AI recommendations.

Emby is a personal media server that brings your movies, TV shows, music, photos, and home videos into a single library and streams them to many devices. It includes a web interface and companion apps, with on-the-fly conversion to improve playback compatibility.

Key Features

• Centralized library with automatic organization and rich metadata
• Streaming to web clients and dedicated apps for mobile, TV, and desktop platforms
• On-the-fly transcoding for device and bandwidth compatibility
• Live TV streaming with DVR features and recordings management
• User management with parental controls, access schedules, and session monitoring
• DLNA/UPnP discovery and playback to compatible devices
• Activity-based notifications for key server events

Use Cases

• Build a home media hub for local streaming to TVs, phones, and browsers
• Stream your personal media remotely while traveling
• Manage family access to content with profiles and parental restrictions

Emby is a solid option for users who want a polished media library experience with broad device support, including Live TV/DVR and parental controls. It is suited for personal and family media collections that need reliable streaming and compatibility features.

Plex is a media server platform for organizing and streaming your personal collection of movies, TV shows, music, and photos to a wide range of devices. It provides library management with metadata, user-friendly clients, and remote access so your media is available beyond your home network.

Key Features

• Centralized media library management with automatic metadata, posters, and descriptions
• Streaming to many client devices (smart TVs, streaming sticks, mobile devices, and web)
• User accounts with shared libraries and per-user viewing progress
• On-the-fly transcoding to match client and bandwidth capabilities
• Search and discovery features, including a unified watchlist and title lookup

Use Cases

• Run a home media server on a PC or NAS to stream your personal video and music collection
• Share selected libraries with family members with separate profiles and watch history
• Access your media remotely while traveling from supported apps and web clients

Limitations and Considerations

• Plex Media Server is proprietary software and is not open source
• Some advanced features require a Plex Pass subscription, and some functionality relies on Plex account services

Plex is widely used for turning a personal media collection into a polished, Netflix-like experience across devices. It is best suited for users who want a feature-rich media server with broad client support and strong library organization.