Which media server shows no ads? Quven and Plex

Quven doesn’t show advertising on any plan, the free one included, and its plans page lists “no ads” among the nine capabilities that stay free whatever else changes. Quven is a self-hosted media server by Quven Technologies S.R.L., free for personal use. Plex works another way, although your own files play without ads there too, because its apps also carry a catalogue of free films and live TV that does play with them, and a paid Plex Pass doesn’t take those ads away.

Where do the ads in Plex come from?

Plex’s own pages, read on 9 October 2026, say so:

• “All Plex users are able to access free, ad-supported content”, and the Movies & Shows source appears in the sidebar by default.
• The ads run “before and during playback”, and “it is not possible to opt-out of these ads”.
• Plex Pass “is not related to our free, ad-supported streaming services” and doesn’t remove ads from them. It buys server features such as hardware-accelerated streaming and remote playback of your own video.

Your own films play without an ad, although the same app sells the catalogue beside them, and that neighbour is what you should weigh when you compare servers, and it decides what the home screen shows.

Can you switch the free catalogue off in Plex?

You can hide it, one account at a time, and every person you share the server with may do the same:

1. Open the Plex web app and go to Account.
2. Choose Online Media Sources.
3. Set Movies & Shows to Disabled, or to Disabled for Managed Users.

Discover, the activity feed, is a separate source on the same list, and the same page asks for consent to sell hashed emails and advertising identifiers to third parties, which you may decline even though the ads themselves stay.

What does a Quven home screen show?

What would a home screen without a partner catalogue hold? Only what is on your server:

• A film from your own collection that you haven’t started yet.
• A rail that follows the hour (Good Morning Cinema, Tonight’s Selection, Weekend Vibes, Late Night Picks), ranked per profile.
• Continue watching, then the titles you added last to each kind of library.

Every card comes from a folder you chose, so there’s nothing to switch off before the children open the app.

How does Quven pay for itself without ads?

Through its paid plans, and nothing else, since the security page says Quven “does not sell data, run advertising networks or build advertising profiles”. Product analytics stays off until you switch it on, and the privacy guide shows where each piece of data sits.

• Free for good: direct play, hardware transcoding, native apps, simultaneous streams, updates, remote access you set up yourself.
• Pro adds the managed relay and the web client; Max adds subtitle translation. Lifetime is Max for one payment.

How do Quven and Plex compare on advertising?

What you’ll meet	Quven	Plex, read 9 October 2026
Advertising in the app	None, on any plan	Free films and live TV, with ads before and during playback
A paid plan that removes the ads	Nothing to remove	Plex Pass leaves them in
Home screen	Rails built from your own libraries	Movies & Shows in the sidebar, which an account can disable
Your data and advertisers	Kept from advertisers	Consent asked to sell and share advertising data

Can I bring my Plex history across?

Yes, and Plex doesn’t have to change:

1. Download Quven and sign in.
2. Add the folders Plex already reads as libraries.
3. Start the import from Plex or Jellyfin. It reads the Plex database in read-only mode or asks the Plex server over its own interface, so the old server stays untouched.

History and playlists come across on every plan, and the guide to leaving Plex goes through each step, while the article on free remote streaming covers the other thing that usually pushes people to look. The app comparison shows which screens each app reaches.

Why choose Lifetime now?

The free plan has no clock, and once Quven is the server you’ll keep, Lifetime gives you every Max capability for one payment, at a price that rises at each step of the published schedule.

Frequently asked questions