Alternatives to Audacious
A lightweight open-source audio player descended from XMMS, with optional Winamp Classic skins. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Audacious
A lightweight open-source audio player descended from XMMS, with optional Winamp Classic skins.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Audacious.
Qmmp
A Qt-based audio player with a Winamp-style skinned interface, an alternative simple interface and plugins.
Qmmp keeps a Winamp-style skinned interface on Windows and Linux, is Qt-based under GPL-2.0, and adds a lyrics editor and an experimental batch tag editor.
Winamp
The long-running Windows music player, still available to download from its developer.
Winamp gives the original classic interface on Windows only, but it is proprietary software and its website now focuses mainly on artist services.
WACUP
A classic-style media player that extends the Winamp 5 player and stays compatible with its plug-ins.
WACUP extends the Winamp 5 player on Windows and keeps classic plug-ins working, but it is closed source and still a preview build.
Clementine
Cross-platform music player forked from Amarok with cloud and streaming support.
Clementine is an open-source music player for Windows, macOS and Linux with library, cloud and streaming support, though its development has slowed and its interface looks dated.
Quod Libet
Organize and play music with flexible metadata tools.
Quod Libet is a GPL-2.0 music player for Windows, macOS and Linux that focuses on library management with flexible metadata searches and plugins rather than skins.
Dopamine
A simple desktop audio player for playing and browsing a local music collection.
Dopamine is an open-source desktop player for Windows, macOS and Linux with a clean interface for local music, without Winamp skin support.
Museeks
A simple, cross-platform music player for playing a local music collection on the desktop.
Museeks is a simple open-source local music player for Windows, macOS and Linux, including ARM builds, with a clean interface and an intentionally limited feature set.
fooyin
Build a personalized music player around your local library.
fooyin is a GPL-3.0 music player for Windows and Linux built around a local library, with flexible layouts and a plugin system instead of Winamp skins.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Audacious as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
AIMP
A long-running Windows music player with an 18-band equaliser, internet radio and a built-in converter.
Audacious is an open source, lightweight player for Windows, macOS and Linux with Winamp Classic skin support, but no Android version.
Amarok
A KDE music player and collection manager for organising and playing a local music library.
Audacious is a lightweight open-source player with Winamp skin support on Windows, macOS and Linux, but it is not built around managing a large collection.
Amberol
A simple GNOME music player for local files that plays music and nothing else.
Audacious is a light open-source player with an equalizer, effects and optional Winamp Classic skins, available on Windows, macOS and Linux.
cmus
A small, fast console music player for Linux, macOS and other Unix-like systems.
Audacious is a lightweight graphical open-source player with Winamp Classic skin support on Windows, macOS and Linux, replacing the terminal interface.
Cog
A free and open source audio player for macOS that plays a very wide range of formats.
Audacious is a lightweight open source audio player that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with Winamp Classic skin support, an equalizer and bundled plugins.
DeaDBeeF
A light, plugin-driven music player for Linux, Windows and macOS that stays out of the way.
Audacious is a lightweight open-source player descended from XMMS that adds Winamp Classic skin support on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Decibels
A minimal GNOME audio player that opens and plays individual audio files without a music library.
Audacious is a lightweight open source audio player for Windows, macOS and Linux, with Winamp Classic skins, an equalizer, effects and plugins instead of a minimal GNOME interface.
Elisa
A KDE music player for browsing and playing a local music library and listening to online radio.
Audacious is a lightweight open source player for Windows, macOS and Linux with Winamp Classic skins, lacking Elisa's library browsing by genre and artist.
foobar2000
A light, deeply configurable audio player for people who care about their local music library.
Audacious is an open-source lightweight player for Windows, macOS and Linux with Winamp Classic skin support, but it lacks foobar2000's CD ripping and advanced tagging.
Gapless
A lightweight GTK4 music player for local audio libraries with an adaptive interface.
Audacious is a light, open-source player descended from XMMS with an equalizer, effects and optional Winamp Classic skins on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Strawberry Music Player
A Clementine fork aimed at collectors, with proper support for high-resolution files and CD ripping.
Audacious is a lightweight open-source player with Winamp Classic skin support and low resource use, but it is not built around a tagged collection like Strawberry.
Tauon
An open-source desktop music player for local collections, with Jellyfin and Airsonic streaming support.
Audacious is a lightweight open-source player with Winamp Classic skin support and builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, without Tauon's server streaming.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
musikcube
A terminal-based music player, library and audio streaming server for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Rhythmbox
A music player and library manager for the GNOME desktop with podcast and internet radio support.
VLC media player
A free player that opens almost any video or audio file, disc or stream without installing a codec pack.
Harmonoid
A cross-platform music player and library manager built on mpv and FFmpeg, with a Material Design interface.
