Plex began as afreeware hobby project in December 2007 when developer Elan Feingold created a media center application for hisMac computer byporting the media playerXBMC (since renamed Kodi) toMac OS X.[3] Around the same time, Cayce Ullman and Scott Olechowski—software executives who had recently sold their previous company toCisco—were also looking to port XBMC to Mac OS X, and noticed Feingold's progress in the XBMConline forums. They contacted him and offered support and funding, and they formed a three-person team in January 2008.[4][5]
The team released early versions of the port, called OSXBMC,[6] intended for eventual full integration into Mac OS X.[3] The developers continued collaborating with the Linux-based XBMC project until May 21, 2008. Due to different goals from the XBMC team, they forked the code that became Plex, and published it onGitHub. The OSXBMC code was kept roughly in sync with the upstream XBMC code.[7] In July 2008, the project was renamed Plex, which the developers said was chosen because "it evokes 'cineplex' and the suffix means 'comprising a number of parts'".[8]
In December 2009, Plex, Inc. was incorporated with Ullman asCEO (chief executive officer) and Feingold as chief technology officer (CTO).[9][10][11][12] At that time, Plex had 130 apps, the most popular of which were viewers foriTunes movies trailers,YouTube,Hulu,Netflix,MTV music videos, theBBC iPlayer andVimeo. Feingold said Plex apps had been downloaded about one million times.[6][13] Keith Valory became president and CEO in 2013.[14]
Plex Media Server (PMS) is software that enables users to create aclient–server for movies, television shows, and music. Free Plex accounts can share personal media libraries among a user's own collection of devices or with other users. Plex Media Server organizes movie and television content and adds posters, plot summaries, cast and crew lists, technical details, critical reviews, andsubtitles. Plex Media Server is also capable oftranscoding files if thecodec is incompatible with the device playing the media.[29] Plex does not support DVD and Blu-raydisk images and menus.[30] Plex Media Server can run onWindows,macOS,Linux,FreeBSD,Docker, someNAS devices, someNetgear routers and theNvidia Shield TV.[31][32][33] For music content, it can automatically organize files by metadata tags such as title, artist, album, genre, year, and popularity.[34][35][36] It can also acquire content fromiTunes,iPhoto,Aperture and the Internet.[37][38][39]
Plex Web App is a browser-based interface for users to manage libraries, server settings, and watch content.
A Plex Media Server can function as ahome theater PC and can stream content to Plex'sfront-endmedia player client applications that run on a myriad of devices and web browsers.[40][41][42] The media player applications are Plex, Plex Web App, Plexamp and Plex Dash, which provide a way for the user to manage and play content from a Plex server.[43]
Plex also offers Plex Pass, an optional paid-subscription service that adds additional features to its server software and player apps such as hardware accelerated video encoding, mobilesynchronization,metadata fetching for music,multi-user support,parental controls,over-the-top live TV and DVR, trailers, extras, andcross-selling offers.[44] Remote streaming was a feature for free accounts until it was made exclusive to Plex Pass and Remote Watch Pass subscribers beginning April 2025.[45]
In 2016, Plex launched Plex Cloud for Plex Pass subscribers, which supportedcloud-based servers. Plex's launch partner wasAmazon, and the service was compatible withAmazon Cloud Drive.[46] Users were critical of the service, noting that Amazon seemed to impose upload limits.[47] The service also supportedOneDrive,Dropbox andGoogle Drive. The service was discontinued in November 2018 amid technical problems and concerns of copyright infringement.[48]
Plex Media Server has often been associated withcopyright infringement. In 2019,The Verge headlined that Plex "makes piracy just another streaming service".[9]
Plex'sfront-endmedia player client applications run on multiple platforms includingAndroid,Android TV,Apple TV,Chromecast,Fire TV,Roku,iOS,iPadOS,macOS,PlayStation,Sonos,webOS,Windows andXbox. Player applications on computers andsmart TV platforms are free of charge, while the apps oniPhone,iPad andAndroid phones and tablets require a one-time $5 activation fee to stream from a server.[49] Plex's apps largely rely on the native video player and supported codecs of the streaming device's operating system. In 2018, Plex began rolling out the Enhanced Media Player based onmpv to support additional codecs on select devices.[50]
Screenshot of Plexamp being used on a Linux desktop
Plexamp is anaudio codec player that allows users to play music files on their Plex Media Server. Plexamp supportsWindows,Android,iOS,iPadOS,Linux andApple CarPlay. The core player is free to download and use with any Plex Media Server with music content. Features such as automatically generated recommendations, lyrics, autoplay and downloads are only available to Plex Pass subscribers. Plexamp does not support other music streaming services.[51]
In 2020, Plex announced that it would introduce a movie and television show rental marketplace.[59] Its movie rental service launched in February 2024.[60] The rental service was criticized for its inability to purchase rentals directly on Apple TV and Fire TV devices, limited selection, and video and audio quality limited to1080p and5.1 surround sound.[61][62]
