Emby vs Jellyfin Mobile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Emby
Unite your personal videos, music, and photos into a single, accessible library. Stream your media to any device with automatic on-the-fly conversion and elegant organization. Share with friends and family, and manage access with robust parental controls.
- Personal media aggregation
- On-the-fly media conversion
- Elegant media organization
- Media sharing with friends/family
- Parental controls
- Cloud-synced media streaming
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Bringing all of your personal media together into one place has never been easier! Emby unites your personal videos, music, and photos and streams them to your devices. Get the free Emby Media Server from the Emby website (required as part of your Emby install). • Emby automatically converts your media on-the-fly to play on any device. • Emby organizes your media into an elegant display with artwork, rich metadata and related content. • Easily share your media with friends and family. • Rich parental control and management features allow the Emby Server administrator to easily control access for your entire family. • Stream your cloud-synced media (with installed cloud sync providers) The app is free to browse your media collection, and free to cast media to other devices. Playback requires a small one-time in-app purchase, or an active Emby Premiere subscription, also available in-app. Emby Premiere is available in-app as a monthly subscription for $6.99 USD per month. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account upon confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and the renewal cost is $6.99 USD. Subscriptions may be managed and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. Our privacy policy can be found at https://emby.media/privacy. Please also see our terms of use at https://emby.media/terms. All content displayed here is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. The videos displayed are available on the Open Movie Project, found at http://www.blender.org/
Jellyfin Mobile
Access and stream your entire media collection from your own server. Enjoy your audio, video, and photos on your device with a user-friendly interface. This app requires a Jellyfin server to be set up and running.
- Stream personal media collections
- Access audio, video, and photos
- User-friendly interface
- Watch Live TV and recorded shows
- Official companion app
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The Jellyfin project is an open source, free software media server. No fees, no tracking, no hidden agenda. Get our free server to collect all your audio, video, photos, and more in one place. To use the app, you must have a Jellyfin server set up and running. Find out more at https://jellyfin.org With a Jellyfin server, you can: - Watch Live TV and recorded shows from your Jellyfin server (additional hardware/services required) - Stream your media to your iOS/iPadOS device - View your collection in an easy to use interface This is the official Jellyfin companion app. Thank you for using Jellyfin!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Jellyfin Mobile at 4.0 against Emby's 3.1. Jellyfin Mobile also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (49% vs 31%). Emby's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and device support (5 vs 3). On price, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Emby sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Jellyfin Mobile asks for nothing beyond the download.
Jellyfin Mobile holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 660 and 502 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Emby's written reviews are positive against 49% of Jellyfin Mobile's.
Emby ships an update every 3 weeks, Jellyfin Mobile every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Emby | Jellyfin Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (660 ratings) | 4.0 (502 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.6% of reviews | 49.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 660 — better | 502 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 126 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Emby Media | Anthony Lavado |
Customer experience
Emby
Jellyfin Mobile
User reviews
Emby
From 660 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great app
- 👍 Awesome interface
- 🚀 Flawless performance
- 🚀 Smooth playback
- 👍 Customizable home screen
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🐛 Buggy app
- 🐛 Unreliable Chromecast support
- 🔒 Paywall for basic functionality
- 🐛 Playback issues
Jellyfin Mobile
From 502 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Wonderful FOSS app
- 🚀 Light weight and effective
- 🚀 Getting close to Plex
- 👍 Amazing!
- 👍 Works great
Room to improve
- 🐛 Audio problems with background playback
- 🐛 Download on iPad not working
- 🐛 Background play does not work
- 🐛 Slow on RasPi
- 🐛 Clunky but functional
Bugs and requests
Emby
Reported bugs
7 issues- Playback errors
- Inability to play certain file formats
- Disconnection issues
- Syncing problems
- Crashes on launch
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Orientation issues
- Transcoding problems
Requested features
7 requests- Picture-in-picture mode
- Swipe gestures for navigation
- Improved music management
- Offline playback enhancements
- Chromecast improvements
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Faster server scanning/indexing
- Better codec/format support
Jellyfin Mobile
Reported bugs
12 issues- Audio problems with background playback
- Download on iPad not working
- Background play does not work
- Slow on RasPi
- Won't connect
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Couldn't connect to server
- Subtitle scaling issues
- Buggy client state
- Transcoding issues
- Chromecast connection failure
- Stops playing after 30 seconds
- Buggy and feature limited
Requested features
8 requests- Add background playback
- Add Chromecast support
- Add offline downloads
- Add shuffle functionality
- Add Apple TV support
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Add external subtitle support
- Add lockscreen controls for music
- Add download offline functionality
In-app purchases
Emby
- Emby Premiere$6.991 Month
- Unlock Playback2 variants$4.99
Jellyfin Mobile
No in-app purchases








