MPC-HC's biggest advantage is arguably just how lightweight it is. Not only is it small in terms of hard drive space, but its CPU and overall system resource use is incredibly small compared to other video players, VLC included.
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+5
VLC Media Player AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Audio Players
The best Audio Player alternative to VLC Media Player is MPC-HC, 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 Audio Players so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Audio Player alternatives to VLC Media Player are MPV, PotPlayer, SMPlayer and MX Player.
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VLC Media Player alternatives are mainly Audio Players, but if you're looking for Media Players or Internet Radio Services you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac, Free and MS-DOS + Free. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to VLC Media Player.
Alternatives list
142 MPC-HC alternatives
117 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.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- BSD
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- F-Droid
- Haiku
- Xfce
- Chocolatey
133 PotPlayer alternativesPotPlayer is a modular video player that also works with most video file formats by default. Many of our users also find that it starts up faster and performs better than VLC, while also including small quality of life features that can be useful in specific contexts (such as support for two subtitle tracks on the same video file in order to help learn a new language).
128 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.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- mpv
- Snapcraft
- PortableApps.com
- Haiku
- MPlayer
- Flathub
- Homebrew
+4
133 MX Player alternativesThough MX Player only supports Android devices, it is often cited as one of the platform's best video players. Featuring extensive customization options, an Android-optimized design, and plenty of supported video formats, MX Player is worth checking out on your Android phone or tablet if you're looking for a simple, optimized video player.
Cost / License
- Freemium
- Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Android
- Android Tablet
- Chrome OS
+5
49 IINA alternativesThough it's exclusive to macOS, IINA's users swear by it for being lightweight, efficient, and performative. Minor annoyances such as performance-based audio-video-subtitle desyncs that can be found on VLC are not a problem when using IINA. Additionally, its interface is neat clean, with clearly labelled settings. This ease of use combined with its excellent performance makes it an easy recommendation for macOS users looking for a media player.
159 KMPlayer alternativesKMPlayer is often praised for its interface, which has been described as more functional and user-friendly than VLC or Media Player Classic Home Cinema. Its playlist manager is more akin to WinAmp's than it is to VLC or other video players, which makes it desirable for those with vast multimedia catalogs. It also includes very granular customization options.
Cost / License
- Free
- Proprietary
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
MPC-BE is another fork of Media Player Classic (specifically of the Home Cinema fork) with a focus on bug fixes and for automatically mounting ISO images. It is actively updated and performs really well for video playback. Users do not recommend it for music playback, as it lacks support for playlist looping and includes odd behaviors for shuffling media playback.
+2
131 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.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Alerts
- Discontinued
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- AmigaOS
- Xfce
- MorphOS
- Haiku
62 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.
+1
216 Windows Media Player alternativesWindows Media Player is a video and audio player developed by Microsoft for Windows 11 and Windows 10. It is the successor to Groove Music (previously Xbox Music), Microsoft Movies & TV and the original Windows Media...
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
- Free
- Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- Linux
- KDE Plasma
- mpv
- Snapcraft
- Flathub
- Flatpak
+1
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Very light-weight. With super easy interface and without any bugs.