# Alternatives to Infuse Beautiful Apple-platform player for network shares. Infuse ranks #3 of 7 in Video players, with an Alt Score of 73. It is proprietary, freemium from $1.99/month and available on iOS and macOS. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/infuse/ Category: Video players ## Overview - **Who it's for**: People with existing personal video collections across Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, Vision Pro) who want a single player that handles messy, mixed-format files without converting them first. - **What you get**: Infuse plays virtually any video format natively, including MKV, ISO/BDMV, HEVC, 4K, HDR, and Dolby Vision, with no transcoding required. It connects to network shares, NAS devices, Plex/Emby/Jellyfin servers, and cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) to stream media directly. It also auto-fetches artwork, synopses, ratings, and cast info to organize files into a browsable library. - **How it works**: You point Infuse at your media, whether local files, a network/NAS share, a media server, or a cloud drive, and it indexes the content, pulls in matching metadata, and streams or plays it directly on the device without needing a separate conversion or sync step. ## Profile - **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-10) - **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-10) - **Starts at**: $1.99/month (verified 2026-07-10) - **Platforms**: iOS, macOS - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-10) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [VLC](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/vlc.md) | 96 | GPL-2.0-or-later | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS | | 2 | [mpv](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mpv.md) | 78 | GPL-2.0-or-later | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 3 | [IINA](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/iina.md) | 73 | GPL-3.0 | macOS | | 4 | [MPC-HC](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mpc-hc.md) | 68 | GPL-3.0 | Windows | | 5 | [SMPlayer](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/smplayer.md) | 68 | GPL-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 6 | [MX Player](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mx-player.md) | 28 | Proprietary | Android, iOS | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Video players checklist | Infuse | VLC | mpv | IINA | MPC-HC | SMPlayer | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Freemium | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free | | Starts at | $1.99/month | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | License | Proprietary | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 | | Platforms | iOS, macOS | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Windows, macOS, Linux | macOS | Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux | | Format support breadth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Hardware decoding | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Subtitle handling | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Streaming (DLNA, network) | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Playback speed & A-B loop | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | | Plugins / scripting | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? | | Casting support | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | | Open source | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | No ads or upsells | Partial | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | | Library management | Yes | Partial | ? | ? | ? | No | ## Sources Sources for Infuse. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **Pricing model**: Freemium — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Unlock the full Infuse experience. From 4K Dolby Vision to lossless audio and unlimited sources — Pro takes everything to the next level.” - **Starts at**: $1.99/month — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: Infuse Pro; also $16.99/year or $99.99 lifetime. - Quote: “$1.99 / month” - **License**: Proprietary — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “The Service and all contents, including but not limited to text, images, graphics or code are the property of Firecore and are protected by copyright, trademarks, database and other intellectual prope” - **Platforms**: iOS, macOS — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: Also iPadOS/tvOS/visionOS, outside the catalog's iOS/macOS vocabulary. - Quote: “iOS 18+, iPadOS 18+, tvOS 18.5+, macOS 15+, visionOS 26+” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Jul 1, 2026” - **Format support breadth**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “3GP, AVI, AV1, ASF, BDMV, DIVX, DVDMEDIA, DVR-MS, FLV, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), H.266 (VVC), ISO/IMG, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MTS/M2TS, MXF, OGM, OGV, RMVB, STRM, STRMLNK, TS, VC1, VIDEO_TS, VOB, ” - **Hardware decoding**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Hardware-accelerated decoding on Apple Silicon means you get butter-smooth 4K HDR playback while barely touching the battery.” - **Subtitle handling**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “DVB, DVDSUB, MICRODVD, MPL2, PGS, SMI, SSA/ASS, SRT, SUB, SUP, TIMED TEXT, TMP, TXT, VOBSUB, VTT, XSUB” - **Streaming (DLNA, network)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “SMB, NFS, FTP, FTPES, FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV, UPnP/DLNA” - **Playback speed & A-B loop**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: Speed control confirmed; A-B loop not evidenced. - Quote: “Easily speed up or slow down videos to accommodate a wide variety of different watching scenarios. Choose from one of the pre-defined speeds, or set a custom speed of your own in increments of 0.05x.” - **Casting support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Stream videos to the big screen with surround sound and subtitles via AirPlay and Google Cast.” - **Open source**: No — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “The Service and all contents, including but not limited to text, images, graphics or code are the property of Firecore and are protected by copyright, trademarks, database and other intellectual prope” - **No ads or upsells**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-10) - Note: No ads, but the free tier upsells Infuse Pro. - Quote: “Go further with Pro.” - **Library management**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-10) - Quote: “Infuse automatically fetches rich metadata, artwork, cast info, ratings, and trailers for every item in your library — from any source.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/