I wanted to send a movie link to a friend. Plex wanted me to scan a library, create an account, configure metadata agents. Jellyfin was lighter but still required a database server. Emby wanted a subscription.
All I needed: point at a file, get a link, let the other person click play. So I built ShareBox — a self-hosted media server in pure PHP, no framework, no dependencies. Version 5 just shipped.
25 MB of RAM, no scan, no plugins
ShareBox is a lightweight self-hosted alternative to Plex and Jellyfin. Point at a folder, launch Docker, it's online. No library scan (the filesystem is the library), no external database, no plugins. PHP 8 + SQLite + ffmpeg, that's it.
The grid view pulls TMDB posters automatically, with season navigation for TV shows. The built-in player handles subtitles (SRT, ASS, PGS), multiple audio tracks, and Picture-in-Picture. I covered the zero-dependency philosophy in the v1 article — that hasn't changed.
