It sounds like you are ready to learn about self-hosting your own media and using services like Jellyfin and Navidrome to access your media.

You’re right, but my low-tech family and friends will not be able to figure that out. lol

No, Plex is not self-hosting. Once they tried to get me to purchase a Plex Pass for remote access, I knew I needed something else that didn’t have a paywall.

That said, many people find their way to better services like Jellyfin by first using Plex and coming to this same conclusion, so I am not going to write off the Plex people yet. They will figure it out one day 🙂

It’s written in Go. Very fast and lightweight. Go + ntfy = Gotify

+1 Gotify. I have been using it for years with no issues.

https://gotify.net/