Emby went closed-source and added paywalls. Jellyfin continued as fully open media server.
Jellyfin is a free, open source media server that lets users manage and stream their personal media libraries (movies, TV shows, music, photos) to various client devices. It supports transcoding, metadata fetching, user management, and live TV/DVR functionality. Built primarily in C# on .NET, it runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, and in Docker containers.
Emby started life as Media Browser, an open source media server that let you organize and stream your personal media collection — think a self-hosted Netflix for your own movies, TV shows, and music. It was GPL-licensed and community-driven. Then, gradually, things started to change. Paywalls appeared for free users in the 3.x releases. Client app code started disappearing from public repositories. Server code was hidden or removed. The community noticed, and they weren't happy.
The breaking point came in late 2017 when community members discovered binary-only DLL files in the repository — proprietary blobs with no source code provided, which the project wouldn't build without. This was a textbook GPL violation. The Emby team's response was to double down: in December 2018, they announced that Emby 4.x would be fully closed-source.
Joshua Boniface and Andrew Rabert had been watching this slow-motion betrayal for months. When the closed-source announcement dropped on December 8, 2018, they moved fast. Within a day, Rabert had coined the name 'Jellyfin,' and the team began forking every repository they could legally grab. The first release shipped on December 30, 2018 — just 22 days after the fork was announced. It was one of the fastest community mobilizations in open source history.
Jellyfin has since grown into one of the most popular self-hosted media server projects, with active development, a thriving community, and support for virtually every platform. Boniface serves as Project Leader, and the project maintains a strict commitment to being fully free and open source — no premium tiers, no paywalls, no proprietary components. The contrast with Emby couldn't be starker.
GPL violations discovered in Emby: binary-only DLLs without source code
Emby announces version 4.x will be closed-source; Jellyfin fork initiated
Andrew Rabert proposes the name 'Jellyfin'
Jellyfin v10.0.0 released
Jellyfin gains rapid adoption as the primary open source media server alternative
Jellyfin became the definitive example of what happens when an open source project betrays its community's trust by going closed-source: the community takes the code and leaves. The project proved that for self-hosted software in particular, the community values transparency and control above all else — features and polish can come later.
Jellyfin also demonstrated that GPL-licensed projects have a built-in insurance policy against corporate capture. Because the last open source version was GPL-licensed, the community had every legal right to fork and continue development. The project's success has made 'going closed-source' a riskier proposition for any open source maintainer considering it, knowing that a Jellyfin-style fork could emerge overnight.