Comparison

Kodi vs Emby

Kodi and Emby both land on Depends.

Kodi

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you want a free, powerful player for your own media files and don't mind tinkering.

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy it if you're a hobbyist self-hosting a personal library and will keep it patched . users say setup is easy and it just works.

Kodi versus Emby
Compare	Kodi	Emby
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	Local media library owners	Self-hosters streaming personal libraries
Who it's not for	Non-technical users wanting plug-and-play	People who won't patch promptly . exposed servers got hacked
Privacy	Open-source project with a CVE history and a forum breach exposing ~400,000 accounts; official guidance warns against exposing remote access.^⁹	Weak recent record: critical 2025 admin-takeover CVE, hacked servers force-shut down, and a disclosed May 2023 incident.
Support quality	Volunteer community forums only, no official SLA	Very active community forums; official support unverified
Public sentiment	Fans love it as a free local-media powerhouse, but many describe ongoing tinkering, setup friction, and weak Live TV without paid services.^³	Users widely call Emby easy to set up, reliable, and better than Plex for their needs, while some self-hosters avoid it over closed source and security incidents.
Biggest gotcha	Forum data breach exposed ~400,000 accounts, including private messages^⁹	Exposed servers were hacked and force-shut by Emby . use VPN or strict firewalling