How to Build a Self-Hosted Netflix with Jellyfin

Why Build Your Own Netflix?

Let’s be clear: this replaces Netflix for your personal media library — movies, TV shows, and music you already own. You won’t be streaming the latest Netflix originals. But for your own media collection:

No monthly fee. Netflix costs $15-23/month ($180-276/year). Jellyfin is free forever.
Your library, your rules. No content disappearing because a licensing deal expired.
Stream anywhere. Watch on your TV, phone, tablet, or laptop — at home or remotely.
Family sharing. Create accounts for family members with their own watch lists and progress.

Your Options

App	Difficulty	Cost	Best For
Jellyfin	Easy	Free	Most people (fully open-source)
Plex	Easy	$120 lifetime	Best client apps, Plexamp
Emby	Easy	$119 lifetime	Middle ground

Our Recommendation

Use Jellyfin. It’s completely free, open-source, and includes hardware transcoding without a subscription. The client apps cover all major platforms.

Setup Guide

Step 1: Get Your Hardware

You need a server that can transcode video. An Intel N100 mini PC ($200) handles this perfectly with Quick Sync hardware acceleration. See our hardware guide.

Step 2: Organize Your Media

Jellyfin works best with organized files:

Movies/
  Movie Name (2024)/
    Movie Name (2024).mkv
TV Shows/
  Show Name/
    Season 01/
      Show Name S01E01.mkv
Music/
  Artist/
    Album/
      01 - Track.flac

Step 3: Install Jellyfin

Follow our Jellyfin setup guide for the complete Docker Compose config and setup walkthrough.

Step 4: Set Up Remote Access

To stream outside your home:

WireGuard VPN — most secure
Tailscale — easiest
Reverse proxy with HTTPS — see our reverse proxy guide

Step 5: Install Client Apps

Jellyfin has apps for Android, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and web browsers.

What You’ll Miss

Netflix original content (obviously)
Netflix’s recommendation algorithm
The “it just works” simplicity — self-hosted requires some setup

What You’ll Gain

No monthly fee
Content never disappears
Full quality control (no compression)
Multiple user profiles with parental controls
Your own music streaming (no Spotify needed)