It is a streaming media center that people use to watch movies, TV shows, photos, and listen to music. Plex and Kodi are competing for streaming media centers. We decided to check out both to see how they compare and which is the best, even though they offer the same core functionality. The two most popular options for home streaming are worth learning about because they are both great. You can easily access and view your movies and music from your media center on your TV, or other devices via your network. Media centers centralize your private digital media files such as movies and music, so you can access them from anywhere.
Kodi Versus Plex: How Do They Differ?
There is no streaming service like Kodi or Plex. You can import ripped DVDs, downloaded movies, and other media files into these media center applications. In addition to integrating with some other streaming services, Plex and Kodi are also capable of managing and streaming your own media library as well. A large amount of customization is possible with Kodi. Many official and unofficial add-ons are available to the base application. In addition to adding new features, these add-ons can also provide interfaces for popular streaming services, such as paid or free subscriptions.
Plex offered a wide range of channels (required for adding plugins) as options for customization. Recently, they deprecated the entire Plex channels infrastructure and rolled most functions into the main app. Due to this, Plex’s base app is more comprehensive and full-featured, but its integration is less flexible.
Kodi vs Plex Features
Some features can be duplicated in Kodi as well as most of Plex’s features. You can also automatically obtain subtitles for your movies and TV shows using Plex’s metadata tags (genre, description, etc.). There are even features available in Plex that are free from Kodi that are more comparable to Plex’s paid tier.
In addition to displaying content over your network, Plex can also stream over the internet by changing several settings. With the help of a universal plug-and-play (UPnP) add-on, Kodi can easily duplicate streaming on the home network. The configuration may need to be adjusted if you want to stream over your network.
Whenever you compare Codi and Plex features, that’s the main theme you’ll find here. When you find an add-on and configure it, Kodi can perform everything Plex can, but taking the time to do so will be more valuable than you can with Plex. Make those changes work on forums, and you’ll likely spend some time doing so. You’ll find answers to your Kodi-tweaking questions easily thanks to Kodi’s very knowledgeable user community.
Kodi vs Plex: What Can You Watch?
Streaming media files is the primary function of both Plex and Kodi. The same movies and TV shows are available on both platforms: whatever you have on your computer. As well as free streaming services like Crackle, Plex partners with MGM, Lionsgate, and Legendary to offer 20,000+ movies and TV shows. The movies you’ll see there are not recent blockbusters, but they are mostly B movies and hit films from more than a decade ago. They also have live TV channels such as Stories by AMC and NHRA TV, among other titles, such as “Django Unchained” and “Van Wilder.”
Kodi vs Plex: Pricing and Plans
As an optional upgrade, Plex Pass offers a premium subscription service. Each one of these plans unlocks an impressive array of features (which we’ll cover below), and they all cost $4.99 per month, $39.99 per year, and $119.99 per lifetime. As opposed to Kodi, which runs on your computer, TV, mobile device, or streaming device, Kodi is a free media player. As a result, it won’t ever be behind a paywall, since it’s free. It’s open-source, so you can even add your features since you always have access to every feature.
Conclusion
It all boils down to whether you value ease of use or customizability more. Even though you may need to pay for Plex Pass, Plex provides a solution that handles 90% of your media server needs out of the box. If you’re willing to spend time configuring Kodi and finding add-ons, you can probably get almost everything you want for free.
Do you still haven’t decided? Check out our Kodi review and Plex review for more information. You can also check out some of our favorite Kodi addons free of charge using both apps. Additionally, you can determine whether your Plex media server needs can be met by the free tier. You might want to consider both Plex and Kodi as your next solution.
