Plex and Kodi both primarily give you a way to stream your own media files. Kodi has a very knowledgeable user community, though, so you’ll have no problems finding answers to your every Kodi-tweaking question. Expect to spend some time on forums making those changes work. Anything Plex can do, Kodi can too, but only if you are willing to take the time to find and configure an add-on. That’s a recurring theme when comparing the features of Plex and Kodi. However, streaming beyond your network may require additional configuration changes. Kodi can easily duplicate streaming on your home network with a universal plug-and-play (UPnP) add-on. Plex can stream content from your server to other devices on your network and - with a simple setting change - even over the internet. Even the features of Plex’s paid tier can generally be recreated in Kodi for free.

This includes the way Plex tags your library with metadata (genre, description, etc.) and automatically finds subtitles for your movies and TV shows.

Most, if not all, of Plex’s features can be duplicated with Kodi add-ons. The result is that Plex’s base app is more robust and full-featured than Kodi, but there isn’t as much freedom to further modify the app. In recent years, though, they have rolled most functionalities from the channels into the main app and deprecated the entire Plex channels infrastructure. Plex used to offer several channels (their name for plugins) for customizability. These add-ons can act as skins that modify how the app looks or works, introduce new features, or provide interfaces to popular paid and free streaming services. The base application offers few features, but there are hundreds of official and thousands of unofficial add-ons.

Kodi is built to be heavily customizable. Both Plex and Kodi also provide an interface to some other streaming services, but the main value comes in managing and streaming your own personal media library. They are media center applications that provide a way to import your own ripped DVDs, downloaded movies, and other media files. Kodi and Plex are not streaming services.

What's the Difference Between Plex and Kodi?

Unofficial add-ons can introduce legality or security concerns.

The app is complicated, with a steep learning curve.

Plex fire tv