About Jellyfin
Jellyfin is a free, open-source media server that organises your movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks and photos, then streams them to a browser, a TV, a phone or a tablet. It is a community fork of Emby, with no premium tier, no mandatory third-party account and no locked features.
On a VPS it becomes an always-on service, so you no longer need to leave a machine running at home. It suits individuals who want to reach their library while travelling, families who share a single collection, and small organisations that publish their own content (training videos, recordings, audio archives).
On delivery, the Debian or Ubuntu VPS you ordered (Paris or Frankfurt) has Jellyfin installed automatically by our cloud-init recipe. All that is left is to connect, create your administrator account and add your media. Only host content that you have the right to distribute.
What you can do with Jellyfin
Movie, TV and music libraries
Jellyfin sorts your files by type and automatically fetches posters, synopses, cast lists and album art from public metadata sources.
Multiple accounts and profiles
Each user has their own account, playback history and access restrictions. You decide who sees which libraries.
Clients for every screen
The web interface, Android and iOS apps, Android TV, Kodi and other community clients all play the same library from your server.
On-the-fly transcoding
When a device cannot play a format, Jellyfin converts the stream in real time with FFmpeg. On a VPS, this transcoding runs on the CPU.
Free software, no subscription
The code is published under the GPL, with no paid features. Your playback data and your files stay on your server.
Plugins and subtitles
A plugin catalogue extends the server, for example for subtitles, metadata or external authentication.
Get started with Jellyfin
From order to production in a few minutes.
- 1
Order the VPS with Jellyfin
Choose a Linux VPS in Paris or Frankfurt, running Debian or Ubuntu, then tick Jellyfin in the "Applications" tab of the order form. Plan for at least 2 GB of RAM and enough disk space for your library.
- 2
Connect to the server
Once the VPS is delivered, open an SSH session with the IP address and credentials you received. You can check from the terminal that the server responds before opening the Jellyfin web interface in your browser.
Bashssh root@SERVER_IP - 3
Set up your library
In the first-run wizard, create the administrator account, choose your language, then add your media folders. Copy your files to the VPS with rsync or scp, then start a library scan.
Bashrsync -avP ./Films/ root@SERVER_IP:/chemin/vers/medias/films/ - 4
Secure access for production
Point a domain name at the VPS, put Jellyfin behind a reverse proxy that serves HTTPS (Caddy, or Nginx with Let's Encrypt), and restrict the firewall to SSH, 80 and 443. Also schedule a backup of the Jellyfin configuration.
Bashapt install -y ufw ufw allow OpenSSH ufw allow 80,443/tcp ufw enable
Jellyfin use cases
Personal library, available anywhere
You keep movies, shows and music on a single server and reach them from the living room, your phone or a laptop while travelling.
Sharing with family or friends
Each person gets their own account with their own resume points. You stay in control of which libraries each one can see.
Publishing internal content
A club or small company makes recordings, training material or audio archives it owns the rights to available, without relying on a third-party platform.
Music and audiobook server
You stream your music collection and audiobooks, with resume points and playlists kept in sync across devices.
Jellyfin FAQ
Plan for 2 GB of RAM for comfortable use by one or two users, with files that clients can play directly. If you transcode video, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, so allow for more vCPUs. Disk space depends only on the size of your library.
More about Jellyfin
Transcoding and resources
A VPS has no graphics card, so all transcoding runs on the CPU, which is costly for high-definition video. Favour files in formats your devices can play directly (H.264 in MP4, for example), and limit the number of simultaneous transcoding streams in the Jellyfin settings. For several concurrent users, plan for more vCPUs and RAM, or consider a dedicated server.
Storage
The size of your library determines the disk you need. A 1080p movie often weighs between 2 and 10 GB, so be generous from the start. Keep free space for metadata, thumbnails and temporary transcoding files.
Backups and updates
Back up Jellyfin's configuration and data directory regularly (its location is described in the project documentation): it holds your users, your settings and your playback history. Your media files are backed up separately. Update Jellyfin with the system package manager, after taking a snapshot or a backup.
Remote access
Exposing a media server to the Internet takes discipline: long, unique passwords, mandatory HTTPS and an up-to-date system. For SSH, prefer keys over passwords. Our tutorials cover setting up a reverse proxy and a firewall.
