"ElfReport" for June 2025
During June, we laid the groundwork for improvements in user experience, migrating all Aarr users to Decypharr, improving our Plex Transcode killer, adding some new trickery to prevent Plex "over-scanning" your RD library and wasting bandwidth.
Behind the scenes, we did some "growing up" on several infrastructure components, in anticipation of the PA cluster build in July 2025.
Where's the technical resource summary?
This is the first monthly report in our 2-year history without a summary of CPU, memory, network, or pod resource. These have been removed because they only cover the .com DE datacenter, so the .cc US metrics are missing, and with the PA datacenter coming online later this month, having one datacenter's worth of reports is useless at best, and misleading at worst. So, we've dropped the summary entirely in favor of reporting on the past month's progress.
Here's summary of some of the user-facing changes announced this month in the blog...
Retrospective
Focus on sponsorships
A key value for ElfHosted is contributing back to the developers of the open source applications which we host. Wherever possible, we like to "Elf-illiate" with developers, providing a Discord channel and a consolidated and easy way our users to engage, but we still want to support the tools and platforms which don't engage that way, or have their own, separate communities.
Our sponsorship page has been significantly updated, highlighting our various efforts to engage and thank the developers whose work underpin our platforms.
Aars now exclusively on Decypharr
During a quiet period, we carefully upgraded several key storage components in our two clusters. The primary user impact was a migration of all remaining Aarr users to Decypharr over Zurg for their RD storage mount.
For details, see this blog post
Transcoder Killer UX improvements
Plex has the unhelpful feature (for us) of happily trying to "transcode" your video streams, to be as compatible as possible with every playback device, based on what it detects about your Plex client, and how fast it thinks your connection is. Some Plex apps also have conservative defaults, like limiting any remote playback to 720P!
This means, if you have a 80GB 4K HDR media file, and you try to watch it on a 720P, 2-channel chromecast, by default Plex will expend huge resources "transcoding" that beautiful, high-fidelity 🖼️ content to make it look like a soggy potato 🥔.
Transcodes can be extremely "expensive" in terms of CPU and GPU resources, and the end result is never as good as "DirectPlaying" the content. We strongly encourage users to store media at resolutions / qualities which they know their playback devices can play without transcoding. (the Radarr/Sonarr bundles have dual-aars for the purpose of managing multiple resolutions in a library, in case you're sharing with less-equipped friends). While we do enable hardware transcoding on Hobbits and larger packages, this is limited to 1080P and worse, since even 4K hardware transcodes are still far too resource-intensive.
So, we employ a "transcode-killer", a script which watches our nodes for resource-expensive transcodes, and.. kills them. From the user perspective, this looks like you're starting a stream, and then Plex stops with an error about "conversion failed", or "transcoder failed", depending on your particular client.
As a UX improvement, we moved the "killing" process from our underlying nodes to the individual Plex pods, so that 
users can "see" the killed transcode details via ElfBot logs, and 
users receive an email with those same details.
More details in this blog post
Plex Scanner Trickery
During the Zurg-to-Decypharr transition, we discovered that Plex relies on the filesystem's modtime value to identify whether or not media in the library has changed, and if it has changed, Plex happily re-analyzes/re-probes any changed media.. which is hugely wasteful of RD bandwidth, since the files are not going to have changed. Ever.
We augmented our Plex pods with a "shim" (we do love our shims!) which will convince Plex to skip scanning any media it's already scanned, but will re-scan media if new content appears (due to a repair, another resolution being added, etc)
Mooar Apps
PlexyTrack
PlexyTrack synchronizes your Plex library with Trakt. Besides watched history it can optionally add items to your Trakt collection, sync ratings and watchlists, and now mirrors Trakt lists you like as Plex collections.
Collections created in Plex will in turn appear as Trakt lists. A small Flask web interface lets you choose which features to enable and configure the sync interval. Items that are manually marked as watched in Plex are detected as well. The interface also includes a tool for creating backups of your history, watchlist and ratings.
Features
- Bidirectional sync of watched history between Plex and Trakt or Simkl
- Optional synchronization of ratings, collections, liked lists and watchlists
- Live Sync mode to trigger updates immediately from Plex webhooks
- Simple backup and restore of all your Trakt data from the web interface
- Intuitive UI for configuration and user selection
PeerTube
PeerTube is an open-source, federate-able video hosting platform. We use it for https://video.elfhosted.com. A hosted PeerTube would get you your "own" YouTube, with content stored in your own external (S3-compatible) cloud storage, and the resources of a dedicated ElfHosted node for transcoding.
Coming up
US East Coast DC (July 2025)
Due to a combination of confused freight operators, and the 4th July long weekend, our PA infrastructure was delayed again. The go-live date for the new infrastructure is now targetted as the 17/18th July, meaning with a testing / bedding-in period, elfhosted.party should be ready for partying from Aug 2025! (our 2-year prod-aversary) 
!
Didn't you say this month was our birthday?
Yes. I was confused. Aug 2023 was our first month "in prod", but we spent the two prior months "building in public".
Birthday treats
Next month (Aug 2025) is our second production birthday! (To see how far we've come, check out our 2023 and 2024 reports).
All going well, we hope to:
- Have our US DC ready for users to migrate to
- Announce a new loyalty program (ElfPoints) which we're currently trialing
- Announce a new sponsored community resource
Stay tuned!
Even mooar apps
Apps currently requested can be found (and submitted!) here
Notable suggestions:
- TitleCardMaker (CLI version for now)
Dispatcharr (July 2025)
Dispatcharr is described as:
..an open-source powerhouse for managing IPTV streams and EPG data with elegance and control. Born from necessity and built with passion
Or..
Think of Dispatcharr as the *arr family’s IPTV cousin — simple, smart, and designed for streamers who want reliability and flexibility.
We're still at the proof-of-concept stage, and we've not had much success with Plex/Jellyfin/Emby-integrated IPTV (ChannelsDVR works great though!), but if you're interested in helping to beta-test, then shout out!
Zurgling 2.0 (one day)
Hot-off-the-press, the latest Zurg/DMM Patreon update indicates:
What's Coming
DMM Integration
Subscribe to content on DMM website
Subscribed content automatically added to your Zurg server
Similar to how Sonarr/Radarr monitor and grab releases
We're excited about this because it would be a significant quality-of-life improvement for Zurgling users, retaining the intended simplicity of their stacks, but automating away some of the human "clickops" required to add new content to their libraries.
Your ideas?
Got ideas for improvements? Send us an EEP (ElfHosted Enhancement Proposal) here!
How to help
Another effective way to help is to drive traffic / organic discovery, by mentioning ElfHosted in appropriate forums such as Reddit's r/plex, r/realdebrid, and r/StremioAddons, which is where much of our target audience is to be found!
Join us!
Want to get involved?
Want to get involved? Join us in Discord!
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!
I self host and share a fully automated ‘arr stack with Plex. Been doing so for around 4 years. Also recently got into real debrid and hosting a Comet and Annatar for Stremio. The amount of time and head banging I’ve put into it is in the hundreds to thousands of hours. From setting it up to keeping it running smoothly. Let’s not forget the cost of my server and how much it cost to keep it running.
Anyway I wanted to see what ElfHosted was about to compare. Yeah I had the whole thing setup in just a few hours. It also passes the headache of maintaining it to ElfHosted. Will I keep it no because nerdy things and maintaining my server are my hobby and quirky passion project. Will I recommend it to my friends who don’t have the money up front to buy a server, the knowledge to maintain it or desire.
Just my server alone was $2k. Power cost to keep it on yearly is $250ish, annual memberships to RD, Usenet and indexers are around $100. Then whatever a value my free time at. Which is currently at minimum my hourly pay at work or more. Yeah so take the monthly cost of all that and compare to ElfHosted Ultimate Stream package at $39 monthly, add RD to the cost and get nearly all your time back is incredibly cheap.
Lastly it seems like a lot of people forget how quickly an ultimate cable package used to cost. Or how quick paying for every stream service would add up to. Which when using ElfHosted with RD is essentially and more what you get. Quick hint it’s far above the asking price.
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 recently found ElfHosted and decided to start out with the Infinite Starter Kit. Within a week I realized that this was for me and upgraded to the Hobbit plan. Give it another week and I was up to the Ranger plan.
I just love the simplicity and the fact that things just work. For years I've ran a home server and between the constant maintenance and always upgrading harddrives, it became apparent I wanted to make it easier on my self. Enter ElfHosted.
Setup was super easy with the guided documentation and the discord community. It seems that somebody is available at all hours of the day to help with questions. I started with the Aars, which I knew from my prior hosting... but saw a newer product called Riven. I decided to jump in feet first. I enjoy being on the front end of an up and coming replacement for the Aars and will soon be upgrading to the annual plan!
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 Reddit thread 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 just have to say, I am an incredibly satisfied customer. I had been collecting my own content for nearly 20 years. Starting off with just a simple external HD before eventually graduating to a seedbox with 100TB of cloud storage attached and fully automated processes with Sonarr and Radarr . However, the time came when the glory days of unlimited Google Drive storage ended. I thought my days of having my full collection at my fingertips via :plex: were behind me, until I found Real-Debrid and ElfHosted.
Now I essentially have the exact same access to content as I had before, but even better. Superior support and community involvement. Content is available almost immediately after being identified. A plethora of tools at my fingertips that give me more control and automation than ever before. Wonderfully well done and impressive! I am looking forward to being a customer for a very long time! Massive kudos to @funkypenguin 🤟
"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."
"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!"
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Active membership dropped due to regular purges as part of our anti-spam / privacy measures. ↩