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The three big media servers used to differ mainly in polish. After Plex's 2025–2026 pricing changes (remote streaming behind a paywall, the lifetime pass at $749.99) the differences are now philosophical: fully free and open, freemium-with-account, or quietly commercial. This comparison lays out what's actually paywalled where, the remote-access and privacy models, honest transcoding hardware guidance for server deployments, and a verdict by user type.