Basement vs Jellyfin
Both are free and run on your own hardware. Jellyfin is the more mature of the two; here's where they differ, checked against Jellyfin's own site and docs.
| Feature | Basement | Jellyfin |
|---|---|---|
| Price and tracking | Free, no ads, no tracking. | Free, "now and always", with no tracking, phone-home or central servers. source |
| Hardware transcoding | Included. | Included, with Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, Apple and Rockchip backends and no paid requirement. source |
| Books, comics and magazines | Readers built into the web, phone and TV apps, with offline saving on phones. | Jellyfin lists books, comics and magazines among its features. source |
| Live TV and recording | Live TV from a tuner or IPTV playlist. It can't record yet. | Live TV and DVR with automatic recordings. source |
| Watching together | A watch party with phone companion, chat and spoiler filter. | SyncPlay, for watching together remotely. source |
| Official apps | Web and Chromecast today, iPhone and Apple TV in beta. Android, Android TV and Roku aren't out yet. | Official apps for Roku, Android TV, iOS and Android. Jellyfin's apps also work with Basement. source |
| Plugins | No plugin system. | A catalog of optional plugins you can install from settings. source |
Last checked November 9, 2026.
Also compare: Basement vs Emby, Basement vs Plex