VLC Media Player Alternatives for Linux

There are many alternatives to VLC Media Player for Linux if you are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is MPV, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to VLC Media Player and many of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to VLC Media Player are SMPlayer, MPlayer, Celluloid and Haruna.

filter to find the best alternatives

VLC Media Player alternatives are mainly Media Players, but if you're looking for Audio Players or Image Viewers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Android, Windows, Open Source, iPhone, Free and MS-DOS + Free. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to VLC Media Player.
Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
VLC Media Player alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. MPV icon
     569 likes

    MPV is an MPlayer-based video player that is available on all major desktop operating systems. Linux users in particular cite MPV as one of the best alternatives to VLC. Its interface is extremely minimal, though with that comes extraordinary stability.

    119 MPV alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • F-Droid
    • Haiku
    • Xfce
    • Chocolatey
     
    |
    27
  2. SMPlayer icon
     463 likes

    Like MPV, SMPlayer is based off of MPlayer, but unlike MPV, it's more focused on accessibility with its user interface. Out of the box, users cite SMPlayer as having the versatility and stability of MPV with the ease of use of players like VLC. It also supports add-ons such as a YouTube search.

    129 SMPlayer alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • mpv
    • Snapcraft
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • MPlayer
    • Flathub
    • Homebrew
     
    |
    18
  3. MPlayer icon
     341 likes

    MPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems (see the documentation). It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs.

    131 MPlayer alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • AmigaOS
    • Xfce
    • MorphOS
    • Haiku
     
    |
    2
  4. Celluloid icon
     50 likes

    Celluloid (formerly GNOME MPV) is a simple GTK+ frontend for mpv. Celluloid interacts with mpv via the client API exported by libmpv, allowing access to mpv's powerful playback capabilities.

    62 Celluloid alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • mpv
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
    |
    2
  5. Haruna icon
     26 likes

    Open source video player leveraging Qt/QML and libmpv, featuring dual subtitle support, customizable shortcuts, auto chapter skipping by keyword, YouTube and online video playback, integrated playlist overlay, dynamic navigation, and KDE ecosystem compatibility.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • KDE Plasma
    • mpv
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
    |
    1
  6. QMPlay2 icon
     13 likes

    QMPlay2 is a video and audio player. It can play all formats supported by FFmpeg, libmodplug (including J2B and SFX). It also supports Audio CD, raw files, Rayman 2 music and chiptunes. It contains YouTube and Prostopleer browser.

    152 QMPlay2 alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Haiku
     
  7. Clapper icon
     6 likes

    Clapper is a modern media player designed for simplicity and ease of use. Powered by GStreamer and built for the GNOME desktop environment using GTK4 toolkit, it has a clean and stylish interface that lets you focus on enjoying your favorite videos.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
     
  8. Play your favorite movies and video files without hassle. Showtime features simple playback controls that fade out of your way when you're watching, fullscreen, adjustable playback speed, multiple language and subtitle tracks, and screenshots — everything you need for a...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
    • Flatpak
     
  9. UMPlayer icon
     109 likes

    UMPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems. It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  10. bomi icon
     26 likes

    bomi is a multimedia player aiming for easy usage but also providing various powerful features and convenience functions

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • mpv
     
  11. Parole icon
     19 likes

    Parole is a media player for the Xfce desktop environment, written using the GStreamer framework.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Xfce
     
12 of 40 VLC Media Player alternatives