Jellyfin

Jellyfin is the media server that respects your freedom in a way Plex and Emby never will. Unlike its competitors, everything is genuinely free — no premium tier, no paywalled features, no remote server dependency. The media organization is excellent: automatic metadata fetching, poster art, episode grouping, and a beautiful interface across every platform. The apps for Roku, Fire TV, Android, iOS, and web are all well-maintained and feature-complete. Live TV and DVR support with compatible tuners rounds out the full media center experience. What makes Jellyfin special is the community: development is driven by contributors who care about the software, not shareholders. The project moves fast and listens to users. The main trade-off is that some features like mobile apps might lag slightly behind Plex in polish. But if you want a media server that's free forever and fully open source, Jellyfin is the only serious choice.

Good first choice if you want a practical tool without spending the afternoon reading developer docs.