Tofa
Tofa is a media server for your movies and shows, with its own apps for the web, Apple TV, iPhone and iPad, Android TV and Google TV, Android phones and tablets, Roku, Kodi, and a desktop player for Mac, Windows and Linux. You sign in to every app with a free Tofa account, and your server and libraries are already there.
On ElfHosted, Tofa runs beside the media server in your stack and reads the same library, so you can try it without moving anything.
Early Preview: Direct Play only, no background analysis
Tofa is in beta upstream, and we run it as an Early Preview. On ElfHosted it only plays the original file, exactly as it is: it never transcodes, and never repackages a file into another format either. Your app has to play the file as-is, video, audio and subtitles, so pick Original quality in the player and choose versions your devices can play (the desktop player and the TV apps play far more than a web browser).
Tofa also normally reads through every file in the background to make scrub previews, find intros and credits, and spot letterboxing. Your library lives on remote storage, so on ElfHosted those jobs are switched off, and so is anything that would delete media: Tofa sees your storage read-only.
Tofa is proprietary software, free to use during its beta, and we run it with its developers' permission.
What does it do for a household?
- Profiles for everyone. Up to six profiles per account, each with its own Continue Watching, watchlist, watched marks and recommendations.
- Parental controls the server enforces. Give a profile a rating limit and anything above it disappears everywhere: browse, search, home rows and playback. Kids mode strips the app back to Home, Browse and Search, and a PIN keeps little fingers out of your own profile.
- Share with family and friends. Invite people by email and pick which libraries each person sees. They sign in with their own Tofa account, so nobody resumes in the middle of someone else's episode.
- Household viewing. On Apple TV, several people with their own Tofa accounts can share one TV and each watch as themselves.
- Bring your history with you. Tofa can import watch history, watchlists and collections from Plex, Jellyfin or Emby, and keep following Plex if you're still using it.
- Discover. Lists to browse what's popular and what's new, alongside what's in your library.
Some Tofa features, such as offline downloads and household requests, need Tofa's own optional Supporter plan, which you buy from Tofa, not from us. On ElfHosted, offline downloads are offered at Original quality only, since smaller versions would need transcoding.
Common use cases
Tofa is designed for organizing and streaming your personal media collection, including:
- Personal home videos and photos: keep family memories playable on every screen in the house
- Content you own: media from Blu-rays, DVDs and digital purchases you've legally backed up
- Public domain media: classic films, educational content and historical recordings
- Creative Commons content: CC-licensed documentaries, podcasts and independent films
Users are solely responsible for ensuring all content in their Tofa library complies with applicable copyright laws, and Tofa's own terms apply to your Tofa account: it's for personal, non-commercial use with your household and family.
Get a 7-day trial of ElfHosted Tofa! 
How do I access Tofa?
Tofa is available:
- From your dashboard: https://your-username.elfhosted.com
- Directly: https://your-username-tofa.elfhosted.com
Signed-in users see their own URLs
The addresses above show the general pattern. Sign in and these become your personal, clickable links.
How do I use it?
Full setup guide
The step-by-step setup is available to logged-in customers. Sign in to continue →
What can't it do?
On ElfHosted, Tofa doesn't transcode, repackage files into another format, burn in subtitles or make smaller download versions; it doesn't build scrub previews, detect intros and credits, or measure letterboxing; and it can't change or delete anything in your storage. Hardware transcoding isn't available. Tofa's cloud handles accounts, sign-in, app connections and watch-state sync, so it's part of every session (see Tofa's privacy and network page for what it sends).
Tofa also works with
How do I get support for Tofa?
-
For general use of Tofa, refer to the official site or to one of the links in the resources section below.
-
For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the ElfHosted support options!
Tofa resources
Your content, your responsibility
ElfHosted provides Tofa as a hosted application — we do not supply content, accounts, or third-party credentials. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of this app complies with applicable laws and our Acceptable Use Policy. If you have questions about what is or isn't permitted, please reach out — we're happy to help.
What users say..
We're rocking some excellent 
TrustPilot Reviews, and here's what some of our usersfriends say..
I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.
You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!
As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.
I’ve been using this service for a while now, and honestly, it’s a game-changer compared to anything else I’ve tried for managing my media library. The support is fantastic—super quick, and if the staff aren’t around (which rarely happens), the community steps up right away. I can’t imagine going back to any other platform.
Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.
Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.
I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.
Best possible options for anyone looking for the do-it-all option along with the best customer service ive experienced in this space so far. Id rate it a 6 if I could but its limited to 5/5...
(responding to a discussion re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):
I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.
That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.
mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.
elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.
selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.
I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.
I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.
"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"
"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."
Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)
"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"
@tjelite (Discord)
"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me
I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"
"Very happy customer. Great service"
"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"
"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"
"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"
"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"
"really enjoying the service from elfhosted. The setup is really easy from the guides on the website. And the help on the discord channel is really quick."
"Support is amazing, and once you find a setup which works best for you it works perfectly, very happy 😊"
"great fast service, resolved my problem and really friendly"
"Great service and sorted out a billing issue super quick and easy."
"Very friendly support, resolved a problem with my account! I also appreciate the community that has been built around the service!"
"excellent customer service and very fast replies"
"Loved the simplicity, experience and support"
"Very friendly help as always, problem solved, one happy elf here!"
"Great Helpful and Fast support. Thanks!"