Jellyfin
Compare VPS plans to self-host Jellyfin. Best providers with 4GB+ RAM from $5/mo. Jellyfin server hosting comparison.
Find the best and cheapest VPS plans to self-host Jellyfin.
Minimum Requirements
These VPS plans meet the minimum requirements to run Jellyfin. Suitable for testing or light usage.
Recommended Requirements
For optimal performance, we recommend these VPS plans that exceed the minimum requirements.
What is Jellyfin?
Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that lets you stream your personal movie, TV show, music, and book collection to any device. It's a complete alternative to Plex without any premium features locked behind a paywall. Jellyfin supports hardware-accelerated transcoding, multiple user profiles with parental controls, live TV and DVR, audiobook support, and native apps for virtually every platform including smart TVs, game consoles, and mobile devices.
Why Server Specs Matter
Jellyfin's resource requirements depend heavily on your usage pattern. Direct play (streaming without conversion) requires minimal resources. However, transcoding - converting video on-the-fly to match client capabilities - is extremely CPU-intensive. Each active transcode can consume 1-2 CPU cores. RAM is needed for buffering streams, maintaining the media database, and running the web interface. Disk I/O must be fast enough to serve multiple simultaneous streams.
Problems with Undersized Servers
With insufficient resources, Jellyfin users experience constant buffering, playback failures, and poor video quality. Transcoding jobs fail partway through, interrupting viewing. The library scanning process takes excessively long or fails completely. Multiple users streaming simultaneously cause everyone's playback to degrade. Live TV and DVR features become unreliable. The web interface becomes slow to browse large libraries.
Our Recommendation
For 1-2 users with primarily direct play, 2GB RAM and 2 CPU cores work adequately. For transcoding support, plan for 4GB RAM and 4 CPU cores minimum. Each simultaneous transcode needs roughly 2000 CPU passmark points. Enable hardware acceleration (Intel QuickSync, NVIDIA NVENC, or AMD VCE/VCN) to dramatically reduce CPU load for transcoding. Storage should be fast enough to serve multiple streams - SSDs for metadata and HDDs for media files work well. Network bandwidth is equally important as server specs.
Minimum Requirements - VPS Plans
These VPS plans meet the minimum requirements to run Jellyfin. Suitable for testing or light usage.
| Provider | Plan | CPU | RAM | Storage | Features | Price/mo | Actions |
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Recommended Requirements - VPS Plans
For optimal performance, we recommend these VPS plans that exceed the minimum requirements.
| Provider | Plan | CPU | RAM | Storage | Features | Price/mo | Actions |
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