I've tried jellyfin, I put substantial time into trying to get it to work but it had substantial issues with subtitles which are mandatory for us unfortunately. I figure any new solution is going to also have substantial challenges in some way as there is no standardized or simple deployment of absolutely anything.

Yeah, I have Jellyfin running alongside Plex, (luckily, they happily run side-by-side with the same library), but I consistently find myself using Plex instead. I want to like Jellyfin. I want it to succeed. And Jellyfin is like 80% of the way there… But that remaining 20% is a real sticking point, and I almost always end up falling back to Plex after trying (and getting frustrated with) Jellyfin.

It’s an unpopular opinion on Lemmy because of the FOSS mentality, but Jellyfin simply isn’t mature enough to fully replace Plex in many peoples’ setups. Especially when you consider the whole “getting friends and family to convert” side of things, where Plex handily beats Jellyfin in regards to account and app setup; I can walk my mother-in-law through setting up Plex, but Jellyfin adds a whole new level to the equation when she would need to sideload the app onto her TV.

I use plex also because I have a lifetime sub. Totally agree.

Switch from VMS to docker. Use NAS to keep the media, and store your compose stacks somewhere backed up, then all you need is one host with docker/podman and a repeatable configuration driven deployment. Start adding apps with compose files, no new host setups, no significant resource needs.