As a free and open-source (FOSS) alternative to Plex, Jellyfin is an excellent product. It makes it easy to set up a personal media server without having to jump through hurdles, and it does so without costing any money or necessitating proprietary code.
That being said, Jellyfin is also a bit rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. It’s less polished than alternatives like Plex, owing to its FOSS nature and its lack of major corporate backing.
Thankfully, there are a plethora of third-party client applications available for Jellyfin, each of which improves upon the base experience while maintaining the software’s ethos of openness. Here are three of my personal favorite clients that refine the Jellyfin experience from top to bottom.
Note that the following applications don’t supply any media content out of the box, and they require an active Jellyfin server as a prerequisite in order to function.
Wholphin
The ideal big-screen Jellyfin experience
- Cost: Free
- Open-source: Yes
- Platforms: Android, Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV
Wholphin is designed primarily with smart televisions in mind, offering a gorgeous user interface that scales well onto large flat panels. The client supports movies, TV shows, music, and photos, in addition to live TV and even digital video recorder (DVR). Wholphin is capable of playing back media using ExoPlayer and MPV, making for a flexible experience on the whole. As a FOSS alternative to Plex, Wholphin is both user-friendly and welcoming to newcomers.
Fladder
- Cost: Free
- Open-source: Yes
- Platforms: Android, Android TV, Google TV, Windows, macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Linux, web
Fladder is a cross-platform Jellyfin Media Server client that offers a variety of useful features, including the ability to stream and sync local files onto your devices, to manage and edit the metadata of your files, to set up multiple profiles, and to switch between different servers. The client is robust and visually pleasing, with a Plex-style user interface that organizes your media logically right out of the gate.
Findroid
- Cost: Free
- Open-source: Yes
- Platforms: Android, Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV
Findroid is a full-featured Jellyfin client for Android that offers an attractive and native-feeling user interface, with tons of customization options to traverse through. The client makes managing and playing back local files an effortless process. Major features include the ability to play media back directly without transcoding, broad support for video, audio, and subtitle codecs, as well as picture-in-picture mode.
