Home Theater Software Duel: Kodi Vs Plex
Who Needs Netflix? With home theater apps like Plex and Kodi, you can roll your own sweet-looking library with all the TV shows and movies you love, with none of the junk. But which software should you use? Here’s how the two critical solutions fit together.
Applicants
Plex and Kodi ( formerly XBMC ) are home theater apps that allow you to manage your library of TV shows, movies, music and photos from one place with a user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate with your remote or even your phone. However, despite very similar goals, they have very different ways of achieving them. Here are the basics of each:
- Kodi : Formerly known as Xbox Media Center (or XBMC for short), Kodi is an open source project dedicated to creating powerful customizable home theater software. Over the years of development, there have been many add-ons and skins that can add new features beyond what’s already included.
- Plex : Plex began life as a fork of XBMC, but it has become so distinctive that you hardly notice. This project aims to make home theater software as easy as possible for everyone. It allows you to sync and stream all your media to any device, wherever you are.
Every time we talk about managing your personal media, an element of personal preference will be involved. Everyone enjoys their things in different ways, so we can’t say which is perfect for everyone. Even here at Lifehacker, some of us swear by Kodi, while others can’t live without Plex. Don’t forget which one you prefer while we break down the main differences between the two.
Tune
Setting up your home library for the first time is always the most exhausting part of the process. Kodi and Plex perform this step differently. Which one is best for you will depend on the type of equipment you plan to use. Plex is very useful for streaming media just about anywhere, but this feature requires that the computer storing your videos is always on and connected to the Internet (unless you pay for the Plex Pass, which we’ll talk about later). Kodi, on the other hand, deals primarily with files on the computer it runs on. Kodi can stream content from other devices, but you can only stream between computers on the same home network, it is a little more difficult to set up and cannot do transcoding (which means you may run into compatibility issues with certain files).
With Plex, you will be prompted to create an account and set up a “server” right off the bat . It will use this account to sync your library and stream between different devices. This means that if you have movies on your desktop that you want to watch on your phone, you only need to set up one device. Just log into Plex on your phone and whatever is available on your server is ready to go. You can also log into the Plex web interface from any device with a web browser, which means you already have access to your content pretty much anywhere. Plex will even recode your videos. This means it will automatically convert your videos to any type of file on the fly to play them anywhere. It’s an unsung hero feature that lets you play whatever you want on any device, and it’s by far Plex’s biggest advantage over Kodi.
Setting up Kodi for the first time can be simple or complex, depending on what you are doing. When installing Kodi, you will be prompted to add files or folders to your library. If you install Kodi on the same desktop where your files are stored, setup is simple. However, if your files are stored on another computer – say, your home server or your office desktop – you will need to go through a more complicated process orshare those files with Kodi over the network . If you want to start streaming to other platforms, it gets even more complicated . And even then, if you have multiple devices running Kodi, it won’t sync your library unless you do even more work . If you only need to watch your content on one device, the Kodi system is fine, but the more devices you add, the more difficult it gets.
Plex wins in this area because it is incredibly easy to set up multiple devices. Of course, you should be comfortable creating an account with a third party just to watch your own content, but for most of us this is not a problem. Kodi does not require any external servers, so there is no need to worry about the company going out of business in the future or anything like that. It’s just that much more effort is required on your part in exchange for this independence.
Platform availability
When it comes to platforms, Plex is everywhere. It has dedicated library apps for Windows, OS X , Android , iOS , Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, Xbox One and yes, even Windows Phone. There are so many platforms with ready-made Plex apps out there that no matter which one you have, you’re likely to be covered by at least one or two of your devices. Just log in and you will have immediate access to everything that is available on your Plex server. As we mentioned in the last section, thanks to Plex transcoding, you can relax in the knowledge that if your videos are played in one app, they will play in all of them. Of course, the downside is that you cannot use all Plex apps completely free of charge (see prices below).
Kodi is available for download for multiple platforms including Windows, OS X, Android, and jailbroken iOS devices. However, there is one catch: they are all basically the same application. It can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gives you the same customization options no matter what device you are using. On the other hand, the default interface is not very touch-friendly, and yet some tweaking may be required to get things working properly. And you won’t have access to popular TV boxes like Roku, Apple TV, or Xbox – just computers, phones, and tablets. On the other hand, Kodi is always free.
Interface customization
This is where Cody shines. If you want to customize the look and feel of your home library, Kodi offers you a lot more flexibility than Plex. There is also a huge library to choose from. We’ve featured a few of our favorite Kodi skins , but there are many more. If you don’t like the way Kodi looks, you will almost certainly find a skin that you like. You can also make small changes to the interface you like by organizing movies into categories, adding custom sections to your home screen, and more. Best of all, you can customize any version of Kodi. You can change skins in the Android version as easily as in the desktop version.
Plex, on the other hand, has little to offer in this regard. To begin with, you can only apply custom skins to the Plex Home Theater app, which is not even in development anymore. The company is currently focusing all its efforts on the new Plex Media Player , which has no custom skins. You can still download Plex Home Theater with Plex site, but it is clear that the skinning community shaken . All other Plex apps, including mobile apps, set-top boxes, and the web client, also cannot use custom skins. In short, if you want to use Plex, you really like orange better, because you will be stuck on it. You can create playlists with Plex to organize some of your stuff, but that’s about it.
Supplements
Since Kodi is an open source project with a history of community involvement, it should come as no surprise that it has a strong add-on community. In fact, perhaps the coolest thing you can do with Kodi is add-ons. You can add custom libraries for shows like South Park or the Daily Show, track your torrents , and there are even some sketchy services for things like live sports and new movies. You can even turn Kodi into an awesome video game emulator right on your TV, or record live broadcasts, for example, on a dash cam . It’s crazy (crazy?) What you can do with Kodi add-ons.
As with the other customization options, Plex lags a bit behind in this area. You can find additional content in the channel directory , but these are usually the same things that you already find on set-top boxes or special applications. For example, if you’re using Plex on Roku, why install Pandora on Plex when you can just add Pandora to your Roku? This is partly a holdover from the days when Plex was a variant of XBMC, and if you’ve put together a dedicated Plex box it’s a bit handy, but for the most part it’s not needed anymore. There may be multiple channels that are unique or simplify the interface, but in many cases this seems like an extra step. You can also add unsupported feeds to Plex, but there aren’t as many cool feeds out there as there are on Kodi.
Pricing
Cody is free. End of story. If you want to manage your library without spending a dime, Kodi will never ask you for money, no matter what apps you use and how much. It is very cute. Better yet, as an open source project, you can find several unofficial custom builds that are free as well . They are perfect for building your own media center on things like the Raspberry Pi . For a media mogul on a budget, this is a pretty sweet deal.
On the other hand, Plex is mostly free. If you stream your Plex library to your browser, Roku, Xbox, Apple TV, or Chromecast, you can do it for free. However, if you want to stream to iOS, Android, or multiple other platforms, you will need to pay a one-time fee for that platform (the app itself can usually be tried for free, but there is an in-app purchase to unlock its full functionality). It’s a little unclear what apps Plex charges for, and this has changed over the years, while Plex’s support pages are not . However, if you want to stream your content to every device you own, you will likely end up paying for something somewhere in the queue.
In addition, Plex also offers a service called the Plex Pass. This subscription gives you free access to all Plex apps as well as many other experimental or bonus features. Chief among them is Cloud Sync, which allows you to use your own cloud storage (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and others) to store your media, so you don’t have to keep your computer turned on all the time. Other current Plex Pass features include a song identification tool and music video matching to expand your music library, adding movie trailers to your movie library, and auto-uploading from your camera so you can send your photos straight to your Plex Media Server. Plex Pass users also get early access to new features before they become available to the general public. You can pay for the Plex Pass monthly ($ 5), annually ($ 40), or once for a lifetime ($ 150).
Verdict
We can’t pinpoint a clear winner here, but it’s pretty easy to split which app belongs to which camp of users. If you want an easy way to organize your entire media library, share it with just about any device you own, and don’t mind maybe paying some money, Plex is perfect for you. You will sacrifice some customization options, but as a paid service it tends to work more reliably with less upfront effort on your part.
On the other hand, if you’re a die-hard home theater PC user who wants to tweak your settings before it’s just fine, and you don’t mind investing some time in research, Cody is going to be more of your lane. Don’t expect it to be very simple, but you can usually make it work exactly the way you like it. Despite its complexity, you can also make it easier for all normal people in your home to use it . It also means that you can do a lot more with it if you put in the effort.