Open Source Playon AlternativesMedia Centers & Media Servers like Playon

The best open source alternative to Playon is OSMC. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Playon and 13 is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Playon are MediaPortal, Oblecto, Moovida and Kantaris.

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Playon alternatives are mainly Media Centers but may also be Media Players or Media Servers. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Playon.

Playon

Media Center
Paid • Proprietary

PlayOn is both browser and media server for your Windows PC which lets you magically stream your favorite shows, movies, even your personal media from your PC to your TV, smartphone or tablet. To display videos on your TV,...

More about Playon

Playon alternatives page was last updated Mar 4, 2024

OSMC
OSMC (Open Source Media Center) is a free and open source media player based on Linux and founded in 2014 that lets you play back media from your local network, attached storage and the Internet. OSMC is the leading media center in terms of feature set and community and is based...
44 OSMC alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Audio Player
Platforms
- Apple TV
- Raspberry Pi
OSMC Features
1. Lightweight
2. Designed for TVs
3. Momentjs integration
4. Auto-identifies vids
5. Based on Debian
6. Stream video to Apple TV
Show all NaN OSMC features ▾
OSMC VS Playon
Is OSMC a good alternative to Playon?
Comments about OSMC as an Alternative to Playon

Guest
Playon is a streaming recorder.
Negative comment •Apr 7, 2020
6
Guest
Doesn't record. Playon is mainly for recording streaming.
Negative comment •Oct 23, 2022
0
- OSMC is the most popular Open Source alternative to Playon.
- OSMC is Free and Open SourcePlayon is Paid and Proprietary
- OSMC is LightweightPlayon is not according to our users

MediaPortal
MediaPortal transforms your PC into a complete media solution. It runs on basic hardware, connects directly to your TV and displays your TV Series, Movies, Photos and Music in a much more dynamic way.
29 MediaPortal alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Media Player
Platforms
- Windows
+3
MediaPortal Features
1. Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
2. Dvb-t
3. Skinnable
4. DVB-C
5. TV Streaming
6. TV Tuner
Show all NaN MediaPortal features ▾
MediaPortal VS Playon
Is MediaPortal a good alternative to Playon?

Oblecto
Oblecto is a media server, similar to Plex, Emby, Netflix and others. It runs in the background on a home server to index your media such as movies and TV shows to make them searchable and streamable through a REST based interface.
55 Oblecto alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Media Player
Platforms
- Self-Hosted
+1
Oblecto Features
1. Local Storage
2. Local server
3. TV Streaming
4. Built-in Media converter
5. Media Streaming
Show all NaN Oblecto features ▾
Oblecto VS Playon
Is Oblecto a good alternative to Playon?
- Oblecto is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Playon.
- Oblecto is Free and Open SourcePlayon is Paid and Proprietary

Moovida
Moovida is transforming the way consumers experience digital entertainment media. In a world where the promise of on-demand media has yet to be realized, Moovida develops software and services to simplify and enhance media consumption, effectively filling the gap between the...
29 Moovida alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Media Player
Platforms
- Windows
Discontinued
The official website is no longer available. Last version, 2.1.1, released in October 2011, can be still downloaded from Wayback Machine.

Moovida VS Playon
Is Moovida a good alternative to Playon?

Kantaris
Kantaris is an all new media player based on code from Videolan client (http://alternativeto.net/software/vlc-media-player/) and Bass audio library. Kantaris has a graphical user interface similar to that of Windows Media Player.
131 Kantaris alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
- Media Player
Platforms
- Windows
Kantaris Features
Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
Support for subtitles
Show all NaN Kantaris features ▾
+1
Discontinued
Last Update: 2013-04-25. See https://sourceforge.net/projects/kantaris/

Warning
Sourceforge has detected malware in Kantaris builds.

Kantaris VS Playon
Is Kantaris a good alternative to Playon?

PseudoTV
PseudoTV Live is channel-surfing for your media center. Never again will you have to actually pick what you want to watch. Use an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) to view what's on or select a show to watch.
52 PseudoTV alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Media Player
Platforms
- Apple TV
- Kodi
- Fire TV
PseudoTV Features
Chromecast Support
Watch Live TV
Media Streaming
Show all NaN PseudoTV features ▾
PseudoTV VS Playon
Is PseudoTV a good alternative to Playon?

MythTV
MythTV is a free, open source media center and digital video recorder (DVR) distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL. With its plugin architecture, MythTV can be transformed into a home media center suite, capable of managing your personal photo, video, and music collections...
43 MythTV alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Media Server
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
MythTV Features
TV Tuner
DVR
TV Streaming
Show all NaN MythTV features ▾
+5
MythTV VS Playon
Is MythTV a good alternative to Playon?
Comments about MythTV as an Alternative to Playon

Guest
MythTV doesn't record streaming media, which is PlayOn's prime function.
Negative comment •Mar 30, 2017
3
- MythTV is the most popular Linux alternative to Playon.
- MythTV is Free and Open SourcePlayon is Paid and Proprietary

Ushare uPnP media server
uShare is a UPnP (TM) A/V & DLNA Media Server. It implements the server component that provides UPnP media devices with information on available multimedia files. uShare uses the built-in http server of libupnp to stream the files to clients.
32 Ushare uPnP media server alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
- Media Server
Platforms
- Linux
Ushare uPnP media server Features
Data transfer
Support for DLNA
Show all NaN Ushare uPnP media server features ▾
Ushare uPnP media server VS Playon
Is this a good alternative to Playon?

Freevo
Freevo is an open source HTPC media centre software integrating PVR / DVR funtionality along with music, video, gaming, home automation and more. It is written in python and uses existing popular software such as mplayer, xine and vlc.
18 Freevo alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
- Media Center
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
Freevo Features
DVR
Show all NaN Freevo features ▾
Discontinued
The project seems to be no longer maintained. Last stable version, 1.9.2 Beta, released in March 2011, can be still downloaded from GitHub.

Freevo VS Playon
Is Freevo a good alternative to Playon?

Enna
Enna is a Media Center application. Featuring a simple user interface, Enna is based on the powerful Enlightenment Foundations Libraries (EFL) as for its graphical user interface and GeeXboX libraries as for multimedia playback and information retrieval.
30 Enna alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
- Media Center
- Audio Player
Platforms
- Linux
Discontinued
The project seems to be no longer developed. Last version, v0.4.0, released in February 2010, can be still downloaded from the official website.

Enna VS Playon
Is Enna a good alternative to Playon?

OpenTheatre
It communicates with its own API written entirely using our custom built command-line web crawler designed to scrape information from trusted files, updated every day. The public web resources used are available on our open assets database, where anyone can contribute their open...
64 OpenTheatre alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Windows
+2
Discontinued
This app has been abandoned, but can still be downloaded from GitHub.

OpenTheatre VS Playon
Is OpenTheatre a good alternative to Playon?

DVBStreamer
DVBStreamer is an console based application to stream DVB/ATSC service(s) over UDP or to a file. It is more that just an app to stream AV though and feature a simple plugin architecture to allow more features to be added.
9 DVBStreamer alternatives
License model
- Free • Open Source
Platforms
- Linux
DVBStreamer Features
Streaming
TV Tuner
DVB-S
Show all NaN DVBStreamer features ▾
DVBStreamer VS Playon
Is DVBStreamer a good alternative to Playon?