I am beginning to remember what made me think Jellyfin wasn’t user friendly.

Maybe it wasn’t the user interface after all.

Tl;dr:

• PhotoPrism: Local AI with strong privacy but heavier setup.
• LibrePhotos: Same, but less polished, more community-built.
• Immich: Best self-hosted Google Photos alternative.
• Ente Photos: E2E encrypted, low-maintenance, most “plug and play”

Yep. What’s considered intuitive UI changes depending on what you’re used to.

It’s why Google fought so hard to put Chromebooks in American classrooms.

I believe you. I feel that way about iTunes (trauma intensifies).

But Jellyfin doesn’t have that reputation.

I set up Plex on my mum’s TV and she can just push play. The UI is intuitive (read: familiar) to her.

Jellyfin has a reputation for giving users more control and customizability, but the other side of that coin is that it’s more “fiddly”.

My users don’t want to fiddle.

I read that. (I literally mentioned features not being paywalled in the original comment.)

If the key doesn’t unlock features, what does it unlock?

Do you get a little thank you message from the devs when you enter it in? Does it add a “Supporter” tag next to your name on the app settings?

The practice exists in both software and games of adding paid cosmetics (e.g. Discord or Deep Rock Galactic) that don’t change the core featureset but allow users to pay more to support the developers, so I think it’s a valid question.

What does the $100 server key unlock (besides “supporter status”), since features aren’t paywalled?