I don't want to defend plex too hard, but I was super confused by what you were talking about:

> But suddenly one day your free mobile viewer app updates and requires payment to stream your own mp4 files

I have a plex server that a dozen of my friends and family use and none of them have to pay a cent to access it.

Then after thinking about it a bit longer, I remembered that plex was making some kind of distinction about "members of a household", apparently called Plex Home [1].

I'm not sure what benefits you get from using it, since I haven't bothered trying to see what it needs to work.

Long story short, however, is if you just have your family members sign up for their own plex account, then add them to your plex server as a separate user, things will continue to Just Work and do so for free.

I haven't found this to be the case. I use the free plex server on Windows and MacOS, and connect to my home boxes from my phone. Prior to April 2025, I could stream on my phone from my Plex servers anytime. Since the last update, attempting to stream from any device that's not on the same LAN as the server pops up a window asking you to subscribe if you want to stream "remotely". This is even in cases where nothing is being sent through Plex's servers except for signaling data. It is only possible to stream over the internet for free now if you tunnel to that server, make it your tailscale exit node, and use the web app, not the mobile app.

I'm not sure what the deal is with Plex Home but maybe they grandfathered in some kinds of older accounts. At this point though, it no longer appears to be a free option to easily stream from your home server if you're setting it up fresh or have a regular account.