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 loads of them are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to VLC Media Player are SMPlayer, Kodi, MPlayer and DeaDBeeF.
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VLC Media Player alternatives are mainly Audio Players but may also be Media Players or Internet Radio Services. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of VLC Media Player.- Audio Player
- Free • Open Source
498 likes104 MPV alternativesMPV 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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- BSD
- Xfce
MPV VS VLC Media Player
Is MPV a good alternative to VLC Media Player?
448 likes123 SMPlayer alternativesLike 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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- mpv
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- MPlayer
SMPlayer VS VLC Media Player
Is SMPlayer a good alternative to VLC Media Player?Comments about SMPlayer as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
Comment summary: Comments highlight SMPlayer's advantages over VLC Media Player, emphasizing ease of use, customization, and versatility. Users appreciate its ability to sync settings across devices, intuitive GUI, and handling of subtitles and incomplete files better than VLC. While generally viewed as superior, a concern over stability on Windows is noted. SMPlayer is praised for being resource-efficient, supporting diverse video files, and providing enhanced playback quality.ArminIt has beautiful skins and is suitable for weak systems.
2Mayank-AroraI have stopped using VLC, since I came across SMPlayer. It works seamlessly on all my devices. I once made keyboard shortcuts, and saved it on cloud. Now, it is very easy to copy that file and have same settings and same shortcuts across all devices. For me, this is better than VLC media player and it is so easy to set aspect ratio, increase and decrease volume, manage video speeds and sync audio/subtitles.
0It is the best mpv frontend in my opinion. having such powerful media player engine such as mpv + a user friendly ui. built-in subtitle search engine makes you like a lot easier too.
3
1496 likes76 Kodi alternativesThough Kodi can function as an alternative to VLC, its strengths lie in its robust cataloging of media and robust sorting and organization options for TV shows, movies, and music. Its media server capabilities are front and center, its playback functionality is nothing to sneeze at, and it can be used for th...
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- BSD
- iPad
- Flathub
- Flatpak
- Raspberry Pi
- Fire TV
Top Kodi Features
Kodi VS VLC Media Player
Is Kodi a good alternative to VLC Media Player?Comments about Kodi as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
Kody is more oriented to being a fullscreen video/music cataloguing application, but it has an internal video/audio/iptv playing system with very good decoding capabilities like VLC and can be windowed as well
6Lester CovaxKodi is a media server first and foremost. It's like comparing Google Docs to Microsoft Office.
5Too Bloated. Not really meant for playing local video files
0
340 likes130 MPlayer alternativesMPlayer 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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- AmigaOS
- Xfce
- MorphOS
MPlayer VS VLC Media Player
Is MPlayer a good alternative to VLC Media Player?Comments about MPlayer as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
Sam LanderVery lightweight, glitchless. MPlayer is probably the best media player currently on the market.
0It read and play most media without any constraints.
1
192 likes172 DeaDBeeF alternativesDeaDBeeF is a lightweight graphical music player created for easy playback of music and management of playlists. It supports major audio codecs and tags, global hotkeys, gapless playback, streaming audio, command line control, and has an 18-band equalizer.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- KDE
- Cinnamon
- GNOME
- MATE
- Xfce
DeaDBeeF VS VLC Media Player
Is DeaDBeeF a good alternative to VLC Media Player?Comments about DeaDBeeF as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
Richard ElmsworthThe only music player that can loop an audio file perfectly. Not for video though.
0Only plays music, not video.
0
38 likes50 Celluloid alternativesCelluloid (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.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Linux
- mpv
- Flathub
- Flatpak
- Snapcraft
Celluloid VS VLC Media Player
Is Celluloid a good alternative to VLC Media Player?Comments about Celluloid as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
PaulGood alternative to VLC, it's basically MPS with a nice GTK interface. Pretty lightweight, easy to use, with enough settings for 99% of the use cases.
1In Linux, VLC sometime struggles playing MP4 videos & navigating within those MP4 videos. Celluloid (MPV frontend) works better in these regards.
0
165 likes160 Quod Libet alternativesA extensible Music player with Podcast support, web radio, playlists and many more. As it is written in Python, writing new plug-ins is really easy.
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Debian
- Xfce
Quod Libet VS VLC Media Player
Is Quod Libet a good alternative to VLC Media Player?
Comments about MPV as an Alternative to VLC Media Player
I tried to play a movie encoded to 1080p av1 but vlc was struggling on my device. I used this website to find an alternative MPV plays av1 encoded movies smoothly.
In Linux, VLC sometime struggles playing MP4 videos & navigating within those MP4 videos. Celluloid (MPV frontend) works better in these regards.
VLC was having stuttering problems for whatever reason. Installed MPV and bam! Also love the UI, really well integrated for playing movies which is great.