Is Emby free?
The server is free. Emby Premiere costs $4.99 a month, $54 a year or $119 once, and adds offline downloads, DVR, hardware-accelerated transcoding and full access to the Android, Fire TV, iOS, Xbox One and PS4 apps.
Emby: Personal media server for every screen
Emby, a media server you host yourself, builds the movie, TV and music folders on your homelab server into a library with artwork, user accounts and parental controls.
Compare with similar apps
How Emby stacks up against other media servers apps. Add or remove apps to change the comparison.
| Requirement | Emby | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free + Paid | Free + Paid | Free | Free | Free |
| Web UI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Architecture | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | Worth checking: x86 only |
| Containers | 1The app alone | 1The app alone | 1The app alone | 3Plus PostgreSQL, Redis | 1The app alone |
| Database | SQLite | SQLite | SQLite | PostgreSQL | Postgres |
| Runtime | .NET | C++ | .NET | Go | Go |
| Docker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux package | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| macOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Unraid | – | – | – | – | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | – | – |
| Full comparison | This app | Emby vs Plex Media Server | Emby vs Jellyfin | Emby vs Silo | Emby vs Norri |
Client apps
Official clients for phone, TV and desktop.
Official
Emby for Android TV
The living-room client for Android TV
Emby for Apple TV
Browsing and playback on Apple TV, installed from the tvOS App Store
Emby for Roku
Living-room client for Roku players and Roku TVs
Common questions
Is Emby open source?
No. The server has been closed source since 2018, which is why the community forked it into Jellyfin.
Can I run Emby in Docker?
Yes. The official emby/embyserver image on Docker Hub is built for amd64, arm64 and 32-bit ARM, so it runs on a mini PC or a Raspberry Pi.
Similar apps to Emby
More apps in Media Servers.
Plex Media Server
Turn the movies, TV shows and music on your own server into a library you can stream to any device.
Free + Paidx86 + ARMC++
Norri
Stream movies, TV and music from your own server to native Apple TV and iPhone apps, with no cloud account or usage telemetry.
Freex86 onlyGo
Jellyfin
Host your movies, TV and music on your own server and stream them anywhere, without a subscription, a cloud service or Plex Pass.
Freex86 + ARM.NETOur pick
Silo
Silo serves films, series, audiobooks, ebooks, podcasts and manga from your own server. This self-hosted media server speaks the Jellyfin and Emby API.
Freex86 + ARMGo
Plekt
Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Trakt each keep their own watch history. Plekt is a watch history sync hub on your own server that keeps watched status and resume points in step across them.
Freex86 + ARMNode.js
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