Alternatives to Infuse
Apple-platform video player that connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and network shares. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Infuse
Apple-platform video player that connects to Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and network shares.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Infuse.
VLC media player
A free player that opens almost any video or audio file, disc or stream without installing a codec pack.
VLC is free and open source on macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux and Android and plays almost any file, disc or stream, rather than centring on media server libraries.
IINA
The mpv engine wrapped in a macOS app that actually looks and behaves like a macOS app.
IINA is free and open source with mpv decoding and a native macOS interface, but it is macOS only with no iOS version.
Jellyfin Media Player
A desktop client for Jellyfin built on libmpv, with hardware decoding and audio passthrough so fewer files need transcoding.
Jellyfin Media Player is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux with libmpv direct play, but it only works with a Jellyfin server.
mpv
A minimal, scriptable media player with high quality video output and no real interface to get in the way.
mpv is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux with high quality output and scripting, but has no real graphical interface and no iOS build.
SMPlayer
A front end for mpv and MPlayer that remembers where you stopped in every file you have ever opened.
SMPlayer is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux, using mpv and MPlayer engines and remembering position per file, with no iOS version.
Elmedia Player
A macOS video and audio player with native Apple Silicon support and AirPlay and Chromecast streaming.
Elmedia Player is a freemium macOS-only player for most formats with AirPlay and Chromecast streaming, but it does not connect to Plex, Jellyfin or Emby servers.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Plexamp
A music player from Plex for listening to and exploring the music library on a Plex server.
OSMC
A free, open-source media center operating system based on Debian Linux and Kodi.
LibreELEC
A minimal Linux operating system that exists only to run the Kodi media center.
Syncplay
Keep video playback synchronized across a group.
Symfonium
An Android music player for local files, NAS shares and servers like Plex, Jellyfin and Navidrome.
Stremio
A media center app that gathers video from add-on sources into one library and plays it.
