For many years, Plex has been one of the go-to options for anyone looking to curate a server for all their downloaded media. Unfortunately, it's about to become much more expensive to guarantee lifetime access to its best features.
Plex announced in a blog post on Tuesday that its Lifetime Pass subscription (a one-time payment that locks you into its highest premium service tier for life) will increase from $249.99 to $749.99 on July 1. As Android Authority pointed out, this comes only about a year after Plex had previously more than doubled the price from $119.99 to $249.99. In a little over 12 months, the service has increased in price by 525 percent.
That's pretty staggering, but one tiny silver lining is that the change doesn't go into effect for several weeks, so you have some time to decide if you want to lock into a lifetime of Plex premium service for $250 or invest in an alternative. Plex is one of the most popular services for storing downloaded media like movies and TV shows, and the paid tier offers more flexibility for downloads, remote streaming for all users, and other bonuses that might make it worth $250, if not necessarily $750.
If that cost is too high for you, it might be worth looking into something like Jellyfin. I know my friends who care a lot about media server curation have some fondness for that one, and it definitely won't cost as much as a decent smartphone to set up.
