Media player privacy ratings
Video, music and podcast players.
15 media and podcast players are rated against 4 public criteria, and 15 have enough evidence for a letter grade. Of the 4 with a known jurisdiction, 3 are based in a Five Eyes country, and 4 in the wider Fourteen Eyes.
Open-source media and podcast players only · Criteria for this category · Suggest an addition · Markdown
| Name | Grade | Score | Data | Jurisdiction | Open source | No trackers or telemetry | No ads or data sales | Independent audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open source podcast manager and player for Android, with subscriptions by RSS feed and optional sync through gpodder.net or Nextcloud. No iOS or desktop app. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source audio player for Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows with Qt and GTK interfaces, Winamp Classic skin support and plugins for effects, lyrics and visualizations. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source local music player for Android with a Material Design interface, built on ExoPlayer, with gapless playback, ReplayGain and advanced tag support. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source GTK front end for the mpv video player on Linux, with a GNOME-style interface, playlists and mpv configuration and script support. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source video player for macOS built on mpv, with a native interface, picture-in-picture, online subtitle search and plugin support. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source podcast app from KDE for Linux, Windows and Android, built with Kirigami for desktop and mobile, with episode downloads, streaming and optional sync through gpodder.net or Nextcloud. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source media center for playing and organizing local and network video, music and photos, with a TV-friendly interface and add-ons. Developed by the non-profit Kodi Foundation. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Lightweight open source media player for Windows, a community-maintained continuation of Media Player Classic Home Cinema with built-in LAV Filters codecs. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Free, open source command-line media player for Windows, macOS and Linux based on FFmpeg, with a minimal on-screen controller, scripting in Lua and JavaScript, and libmpv for embedding in other apps. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source music player and library manager for the GNOME desktop on Linux, with internet radio, podcasts, audio CD playback and plugins such as Last.fm and ListenBrainz scrobbling. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source music player and collection organizer for audiophiles, forked from Clementine, with tag editing, lyrics, scrobbling and streaming from Subsonic, Tidal and Qobuz. Windows and macOS builds are for sponsors. |
Grade B | 80 | 100% | – | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Open source desktop podcast client for Linux, Windows and macOS that downloads and manages episodes from RSS feeds and YouTube channels, with optional sync through gpodder.net. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | – | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Cross-platform media player from the non-profit VideoLAN project that plays most audio and video formats, discs and network streams without extra codecs. |
Grade D | 50 | 100% | France Nine Eyes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Podcast player from Automattic for Android, iOS, the web and desktop, with syncing across devices, discovery and a paid Plus tier. The mobile apps are open source. |
Grade F | 25 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | Partial | No | Partial | No |
Podcast, audiobook and radio app for Android with RSS feed subscriptions, downloads and playback controls, free with ads and an in-app purchase to remove them. |
Grade F | 0 | 100% | United States Five Eyes | No | No | No | No |
Questions
What is the most private option among media and podcast players?
No pick has been made yet. The table above is sorted by score, based on public evidence.
How are media and podcast players rated?
Each entry answers 4 questions: open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and independent audit. Answers need links to evidence. See the full criteria.
Does jurisdiction matter?
Jurisdiction decides which laws can compel a provider to hand over data. Each entry shows its country and whether it is in the Five, Nine or Fourteen Eyes. The data a provider can hand over depends mostly on what it stores and who holds the keys. Read about jurisdictions and the CLOUD Act.