ShareBox

A lightweight, self-hosted alternative to Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby.

Stream your media library instantly -- no library scan, no database server, no plugins. Just point at your files and share.

Looking for a Plex alternative that runs on a Raspberry Pi? A Jellyfin alternative with zero setup? A self-hosted media server you can deploy in 30 seconds? That's ShareBox.

Why I built this

I wanted to send a movie link to someone. That's it.

Plex wanted me to set up a media library, scan my files, create user accounts, install plugins. Jellyfin was lighter but still required a database server and metadata agents. Emby wanted a subscription. All I needed was: point at a file, get a link, let them watch.

So I built ShareBox -- a single PHP app with zero external dependencies. No framework, no accounts to create, no media library to pre-scan. You share a link, they click play, ffmpeg transcodes on the fly. It runs on a $5 VPS with 256 MB of RAM, a Raspberry Pi 4, or a Synology NAS.

Live Demo

Try the demo -- no install needed. Netflix-style grid with TMDB posters, series, movies, and anime.

Admin panel -- admin / demo2026

How it compares

	ShareBox	Plex	Jellyfin	Emby
Setup time	30 seconds	15-30 min	10-20 min	10-20 min
Setup	docker compose up	Database + agents + accounts	Database + metadata	Database + metadata
Dependencies	PHP + ffmpeg + SQLite	Java, database, plugins	.NET, database	.NET, database
Media library scan	None -- your filesystem	Required (hours for large libraries)	Required	Required
Browse UI	Netflix-style poster grid	Library grid	Library grid	Library grid
File sharing	Built-in: link + password + expiry	Not built-in	Not built-in	Not built-in
RAM usage	~25 MB idle, ~50 MB streaming	500 MB - 2 GB+	300 MB - 1 GB+	300 MB - 1 GB+
Runs on Raspberry Pi	Yes (Pi 4, 2 GB)	Barely	Yes (Pi 4, 4 GB)	Yes (Pi 4, 4 GB)
Cost	Free (MIT)	Freemium ($5/mo)	Free (GPL)	Freemium ($5/mo)
User accounts required	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

TL;DR: If you just want to share files and stream videos without maintaining a media library, ShareBox is the simplest option. If you need multi-device sync, live TV, or music management, Jellyfin or Plex are better fits.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/ohugonnot/sharebox.git && cd sharebox
# Demo content included — edit docker-compose.yml to add your own media
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080/share -- done. See Installation for other methods.

Features

Grid View -- Netflix-style poster grid powered by TMDB. Series display with season posters, movies as individual cards. AI-powered title matching (Claude Haiku) for messy filenames. Manual poster picker for corrections. Hover for plot synopsis.

Streaming -- 3 modes selected automatically via ffprobe:

• Native for H.264/MP4 (zero CPU)
• Remux for H.264/MKV (video copy, audio transcode to AAC)
• Transcode for HEVC/AV1 (libx264 ultrafast on the fly)

GPU Transcoding -- auto-detected. Intel VAAPI, NVIDIA NVENC, Raspberry Pi V4L2M2M. Falls back to software if no GPU. See docs/GPU.md.

Player -- custom JS video player with keyboard shortcuts, subtitle overlay (SRT/ASS -> WebVTT), PGS/VOBSUB burn-in, multi-audio track selection, quality picker (480p-1080p), episode navigation with auto-next, resume playback, Picture-in-Picture, iOS Safari HLS support.

Sharing -- human-readable URLs (/dl/batman-begins-2005-x7k2), optional password (bcrypt), expiration, folder browsing with ZIP download, QR codes, email sharing.

Admin -- file browser, link management, system dashboard (CPU, RAM, disk, network, temperatures, torrent activity via rtorrent SCGI).

Under the hood -- flock-based concurrency control for ffmpeg processes, SQLite probe/subtitle caching, stall watchdog with exponential backoff, keyframe-accurate seek correction, vmtouch page-cache warming.

Contributing

ShareBox works, but there's room to improve. If you're into PHP, ffmpeg, or browser video -- here's where help would be useful:

Known issue -- Remux mode has A/V desync. The remux path (H.264 MKV -> MP4 without re-encoding video) produces audio drift on files with DTS/AC3 audio. It's disabled by default (STREAM_REMUX_ENABLED = false). Transcode works fine but costs more CPU. If you've dealt with ffmpeg aresample / PTS alignment, this is the one to look at -- see handlers/stream_remux.php.

Other areas where PRs are welcome:

• Feature toggles -- ability to disable streaming, subtitles, or the dashboard from config.php
• Extract hardcoded values (CRF, quality presets, timeouts) into configuration
• HLS improvements -- seek within an existing HLS session instead of restarting ffmpeg
• WebVTT subtitle styling (font size, position, colors)

No CONTRIBUTING.md, no issue templates. Just open a PR or an issue, keep it simple.

Installation

Detailed guides for Raspberry Pi, Synology NAS, Unraid, and more: see docs/INSTALL.md

Docker (recommended)

Edit docker-compose.yml:

volumes:
  - /path/to/your/media:/media:ro
environment:
  - SHAREBOX_ADMIN_USER=admin
  - SHAREBOX_ADMIN_PASS=changeme
  - SHAREBOX_TMDB_API_KEY=your_tmdb_api_key  # optional, for poster grid

docker compose up -d

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
SHAREBOX_ADMIN_USER	admin	Admin panel username
SHAREBOX_ADMIN_PASS	sharebox	Admin panel password
SHAREBOX_MEDIA_DIR	/media/	Media path inside the container
SHAREBOX_TMDB_API_KEY	(none)	TMDB API key for poster grid
SHAREBOX_DEMO_DATA	false	Create rich sample media (10s clips, dual audio/subtitles, TMDB posters)
SHAREBOX_STREAM_MAX_CONCURRENT	4	Max simultaneous ffmpeg processes
SHAREBOX_STREAM_REMUX_ENABLED	false	Enable remux for H.264 MKV
SHAREBOX_BANDWIDTH_QUOTA_TB	100	Monthly bandwidth quota (TB)

One-line installer (Debian/Ubuntu)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohugonnot/sharebox/main/install.sh | sudo bash

Installs PHP, ffmpeg, configures nginx or Apache, sets up HTTP basic auth.

Manual installation

git clone https://github.com/ohugonnot/sharebox.git /var/www/sharebox
cd /var/www/sharebox
cp config.example.php config.php    # edit BASE_PATH
mkdir -p data && chown www-data:www-data data
htpasswd -c /etc/sharebox.htpasswd admin
# Copy nginx.conf.example to your nginx config, reload

Requires: PHP 8.1+ (pdo_sqlite), ffmpeg, nginx or Apache.

Web server configuration

Nginx

Copy nginx.conf.example and adapt paths. Key points:

• /share is protected by HTTP basic auth
• /dl/... is public (no auth)
• X-Accel-Redirect serves files efficiently via sendfile
• data/ is blocked from direct access

Apache

The .htaccess handles rewriting. Enable mod_rewrite, set AllowOverride All, and set XACCEL_PREFIX to '' in config.php (Apache doesn't support X-Accel-Redirect).

Security

• All database queries use prepared statements (zero SQL injection surface)
• Path traversal prevented via realpath() + base path validation
• Bcrypt password hashing with brute-force rate limiting
• CSRF tokens on all POST actions (hash_equals comparison)
• Session regeneration after authentication
• Content-Disposition header injection prevention
• Shell commands escaped with escapeshellarg() everywhere
• 159 tests including security-specific test cases
• PHPStan level 5 static analysis in CI

Testing

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit          # 159 tests, 267 assertions
vendor/bin/phpstan analyse  # Level 5

CI runs on GitHub Actions across PHP 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

MIT