fre:ac icon
fre:ac icon

fre:ac

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various formats and codecs. It will convert between MP3, MP4/M4A, FLAC, Vorbis, Opus, AAC, WAV, WMA and other formats.

Main window converting FLAC files to MP3

Cost / License

Application type

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • PortableApps.com
  • Wine
  • Haiku
Dark mode is supported since fre:ac 1.1
The integrated tag editor
+1
fre:ac's configuration dialog
fre:ac alternatives  
253likes
117alternatives
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fre:ac News & Activities

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Recent activities

  • Guest thinks ALAC support is a important feature of fre:ac
  • Ricly icon
    Samir_Ricly added fre:ac as alternative to Ricly
  • AudioRoo icon
    Charles added fre:ac as alternative to AudioRoo
  • matt g replied to a comment / review on fre:ac
  • matt g reviewed fre:ac  

    i've been using fre:ac for years && can't think of any complaints. it's quite simple, intuitive && gets the job done while being lightweight. i suppose if you're looking for lots of customization options you may find it lacking but it's solid, imho. thank you fre:ac creators/maintainers for offering a free, opensource, reliable tool

  • Laser icon
    3F1 added fre:ac as alternative to Laser
  • it's 404, yo! icon
    JarlLyng added fre:ac as alternative to it's 404, yo!
  • fabien98 liked fre:ac
  • Creative_joe liked fre:ac
  • gibeonapologist liked fre:ac

Comments and Reviews

   
Comment summary: fre:ac earns praise as a fast, reliable, free and open-source audio converter and CD ripper. Users report successful FLAC, MP3, OGG, Opus and Apple Lossless conversions, CDDB metadata retrieval, batch processing, and flexible folder organization for NAS or Plex libraries. Its straightforward operation and broad format support appeal to beginners and experienced users alike. Criticisms include a dated or clumsy interface, folder-creation quirks, limited VBR AAC support, Linux packaging restricted to Snap or Flatpak, and concerns about infrequent updates and CDDB/GNUdb reliability.
Top Positive Comment
tabakis
4

While I use Foobar or the commandline for encoding/converting, I always suggest BonkEnc to the uninitiated due to its ease-of-use & the underlying KISS (keep it simple, stupid) attitude.

Top Negative Comment
Alex
-4

For GNU+Linux, only available as Snap or Flatpak images

matt g
0

i've been using fre:ac for years && can't think of any complaints. it's quite simple, intuitive && gets the job done while being lightweight. i suppose if you're looking for lots of customization options you may find it lacking but it's solid, imho. thank you fre:ac creators/maintainers for offering a free, opensource, reliable tool

ChristianBlackburn
1

This does what I need it to do. I like to take multiple tracks, put them in the right order, and then combine them into one large track. I then export as Opus or Ogg Vorbis.

Reactorcore
1

My go to for all my audio convertions. Straightforward, reliable and works good.

br
1

It doesn't do VBR AAC.

matt g
Replying to @br

manually entering bitrate using FDK-AAC causes MediaInfo to consider such files to be VBR

dszalkowski
1

The best Open Source audio converter and extractor software !

7 of 21 comments

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Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

Download from Microsoft Store

Install from the command line

  • winget install -e --id enzo1982.freac
  • brew install --cask freac
  • flatpak install flathub org.freac.freac

Be careful what you paste into a terminal. Check what a command installs before running it.

What is fre:ac?

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various formats and codecs. It will convert between MP3, MP4/M4A, FLAC icon FLAC, Vorbis icon Vorbis, Opus, AAC, WAV, WMA and other formats.

With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to FLAC or MP3 files for use with your mobile player or convert files that do not play with other audio software. You can even convert whole music libraries retaining the folder and filename structure.

The integrated CD ripper supports the freedb icon freedb online CD database. It will automatically query song information and write it to ID3v2 or other title information tags.

Portable version: https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/freac_portable

fre:ac information

  • Developed by

    DE flagRobert Kausch

  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.

  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.4 (19 ratings)

  • Alternatives

    117 alternatives listed

  • Badge

    Get an embeddable badge for fre:ac

  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Audio & Music, CD/DVD Tools, Video & Movies

GitHub repository

  •  1,979 Stars
  •  97 Forks
  •  225 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
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Our users have written 21 comments and reviews about fre:ac, and it has gotten 253 likes

fre:ac was added to AlternativeTo by Kahlil88 on and this page was last updated . fre:ac is sometimes referred to as BonkEnc, freac.