PotPlayer Mac Alternative Solutions in 2023

Olga Weis Jan 19, 2023

This article contains information about PotPlayer macOS alternatives. PotPlayer is known mostly for its high customizability, small installation size, and being available for free. It’s a Windows-only app. But luckily, many players on Mac share the same traits. Learn about these alternative apps below. Find your universal Mac media player.

Elmedia Player — PotPlayer for Mac

Elmedia: universal video player

4.5 Rank based on 1531 + users Reviews(793)

Requirements: macOS 10.12+

Version: v8.12(3287), Released 8 Jan, 2023 Release notes

Category: Video

Direct Download

Out of all PotPlayer alternative Mac applications, Elmedia Player is probably the closest in terms of usability and functionality. It’s not just feature-rich, but these features are also well-organized and easy to access.

Elmedia Player provides many useful playback-controlling features, such as bookmarks, A to B looping, playlist importing and exporting, and speed adjustment. Timeline preview thumbnails make seeking convenient. Subtitle and audio can be synced to the main video track by changing their delay.

Elmedia Player PRO is even better. It unlocks lots of features straight from PotPlayer, such as video effects and an audio equalizer. But its most important feature is direct streaming over DLNA, AirPlay 2, and Chromecast. Elmedia uses transcoding to make nearly any video stream compatible. Available for $19.95, Elmedia Player PRO is a bargain.

Elmedia is the perfect PotPlayer alternative for Mac.

Users Review:

"I initially really liked this video player, because it plays so many different formats that other players like QuickTime won’t."

— JoenSF (apps.apple.com)

Pros:

Picture-in-Picture mode
Dozens of audio, video, and subtitle options
Two-click streaming.

Cons:

Elmedia PRO is a paid upgrade.

How to Use Elmedia Player

1

Get Elmedia Player. You can either download the installer from official website, or find it on the Mac App Store.

2

Open your media:

drag the file to the player window, or
find it with "File > Open" on the Menu Bar, or
right-click, choose "Open with > Other", and find Elmedia Player in the list of apps.

3

Play and enjoy!

Supported formats: MKV, AVI, FLV, MOV, MP3, FLAC, M4A, APE, OGG, AC3, M4A, AAC, WMA, WAV, and many more.

Supported OS: macOS

Price: free to use, PRO upgrade costs $19.95

PotPlayer Features Found in Elmedia Player

Elmedia Player includes the same features that make PotPlayer great. Check out this list, and see for yourself - it’s a perfect alternative.

Sound settings in Elmedia Player are almost as varied as those in PotPlayer. You can select the output device, and adjust your sound with a 10-band audio equalizer with presets. An audio visualizer is present, too.

Elmedia Player has lots of useful video settings, just like PotPlayer. To improve HD support, it provides optional Hardware Acceleration and local video caching. There’s a deinterlacing filter that makes tape-recorded videos more legible. But that’s not all - Elmedia also has a powerful video tuner with hue, brightness, and contrast. And they can be adjusted while the video is playing.

Similarly to PotPlayer, Elmedia Player can customize subtitles by changing their font, color, size, and position on the screen. It can also search for subtitles online and open local subtitles automatically if they have the same filename as the video.

One of the things that Elmedia does is replicate the PotPlayer always-on-top feature with its own picture-in-picture mode. It even makes more sense than the original feature, since you’ll always want to minimize the window if it’s on top. Plus, the playback controls are adapted to the small PiP window.

VLC

VLC offers as much as PotPlayer in terms of customization, if not more. And it’s a free PotPlayer macOS alternative. But there’s a major downside - it’s the poor UI. It may be hard to find features, like streaming or playback speed, and commonly-used settings are mixed in with advanced stuff that most users will never need. The options aren’t always clearly described, either. Only use VLC if you’re ready to search and tinker. But if you are, it’s definitely worth it.

Users Review:

"Full featured media player tool, free and has a good controls for the videos. It just has a poor UI."

— Angela ashe (trustpilot.com)

Pros:

Free and open-source
Extreme customizability, even compared to PotPlayer.

Cons:

Difficult to use
Documentation is often lacking.

Supported formats: AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV, MP4, 3GP, OGG, MP3, AAC, Vorbis, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, MXF, etc.

Supported OS: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android

Price: free

Cisdem

Cisdem is a minimalistic media player for Mac. It’s not quite PotPlayer for Mac, due to the lack of features and settings. It is, however, a commercial, frequently updated, and free player, so it has that going for it, at least. Plus, it opens nearly every format. The paid upgrade allows Cisdem to convert media to different formats, but we didn’t find that feature very useful or worth the cost.

Users Review:

"It is the main video player I've been used now. It is simple to open and manage the media files, supports a various number of video/audio formats, even the HD videos."

— Tracy Gordon (MacUpdate)

Pros:

Free
Includes a converter.

Cons:

Limited audio, video settings.

Supported formats: MP4, H.264/MP4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, AVI, MKV, MOV, WMV, MPG, M4V, TS, MTS, M2TS, AVCHD, RM, RMVB, ASF, 3GP, F4V, FLV, ISO, DIVX, MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC etc.

Supported OS: macOS, Windows

Price: free

IINA

IINA is an open-source macOS player and a major competitor to VLC. While it doesn’t have the sheer amount of features to back it up, IINA makes up for it with a polished, adjustable interface. The same comparison can be made with PotPlayer: IINA is simpler but more stylish and overall convenient. Things like the Picture-in-Picture mode, Touch Bar, and Trackpad integration create a unique user experience.

Users Review:

"Good design, no glitches, good subtitle support and rendering, easy and accessible settings (video, audios, subs). It's not as complete as PotPlayer or other Windows players, but is the best FOSS video player I found for macOS. Recommended."

— Guest (alternativeto.net)

Pros:

Free software
Good user interface.

Cons:

Not as customizable as PotPlayer.

Supported formats: AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV, MP4, 3GP, OGG, MP3, AAC, Vorbis, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, MXF, etc.

Supported OS: macOS

Price: free

5KPlayer

5KPlayer is a free multi-platform media player. There are some interesting functions included, such as simple video editing and a media library organization tool. But the "workflow" of 5KPlayer doesn’t lend itself to everyday use. The amount of options is not on par with PotPlayer. Plus, the app shows ads to users and is hard to delete. Overall, we can hardly recommend trying this app.

Users Review:

"5KPlayer is very user-friendly, play things smoothly and download videos from most sites I like. the AirPlay function is also very useful."

— Guest (alternativeto.net)

Pros:

Unique secondary features
Free but pretty advanced.

Cons:

Ads and other suspicious activity
Not enough video/audio customization.

Supported formats: MP4, H.264/MP4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, AVI, MKV, MOV, WMV, MPG, M4V, TS, MTS, M2TS, AVCHD, RM, RMVB, ASF, 3GP, F4V, FLV, ISO, DIVX, MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC etc.

Supported OS: macOS, Windows

Price: free

MPlayerOSX

MPlayerOSX is a port of MPlayer, a Linux application. While MPlayer itself is still being updated, the port is out-of-date and may be incompatible with future versions of macOS (or simply not safe to use). But for now, it’s an interesting PotPlayer alternative Mac app. It includes an audio equalizer and video effects and also syncing features for sound tracks and subtitles. The interface is nothing out of the ordinary.

Users Review:

"As far as I'm concerned, this is the best player out there for non-QuickTime video."

— Verne-Arase (macupdate.com)

Pros:

Extensive audio and video settings
Fully free.

Cons:

Stopped updating.

Supported formats: AVI, MKV, FLV, MOV, MP4, 3GP, OGG, MP3, AAC, Vorbis, AC3, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, MXF, etc.

Supported OS: macOS, Windows

Price: free

Why is PotPlayer Popular?

PotPlayer is a media player for Windows. It’s available for free and equipped with many useful features. It allows users to customize nearly anything, including icon visibility, multiple player instances, and tooltips. Despite the variety of settings, they’re all neatly arranged and can be found easily.

Its downsides include the need for additional codecs, adware bundled with the installer, and ads in the application itself. Despite all these flaws, PotPlayer remains popular, which speaks to the quality of the app.

Conclusion

It’s easy to find PotPlayer for Mac. There’s just so much good software - especially when we consider apps like Elmedia Player. They don’t necessarily have to be exactly the same, just fill the same niche. And they often end up doing better than the original app itself. Which is why we suggest focusing on what you need from a player, rather than an arbitrary comparative standard.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Requirements: macOS 10.12+ , 89.21MB of free space
Version 8.12(3287) (8 Jan, 2023) Release notes
Category: Video

Direct Download

4.5 Rank
based on
1531 + users Reviews(793)

Key 2023-01-19T14:54:56

Does Elmedia support multiple playlists like PotPlayer?
- Electronic Team, Inc. 2023-01-24T10:26:28
  
  Hi! Elmedia Player supports playlists. However, multiple playlists are not displayed in Elmedia Player as tabs in PotPlayer. You can try the free version of our player and check it.
LucasDuncan80 2022-07-20T05:59:11

Does Elmedia run Blu-ray movies? That’s one thing I loved about PotPlayer and I’d like to do with Mac.
- Electronic Team, Inc. 2022-07-20T06:00:36
  
  Thank you for your question, Lucas! Yes, Elmedia Player supports Blu-ray discs.
Bob Harris 2022-07-18T06:23:51

Awesome selection, you answered a lot of questions I had. I used PotPlayer on Windows. But now I’ve switched to Apple, so I needed a macOS-friendly app. Does Elmedia support AirPlay 2?
- Electronic Team, Inc. 2022-07-18T06:24:41
  
  Hi Bob, thank you for your question! Yes, Elmedia Player supports AirPlay 2. You can also stream content via Apple TV, Smart TV, or other DLNA-enabled devices.
Gwen Davidson 2022-07-07T06:21:56

This list sounds awesome. Appreciate the tips. My friends were recommending PotPlayer but I’ve got a Mac, so I was feeling left out. Not anymore haha!
Jacob Lawson 2022-07-05T06:11:22

Thanks for these suggestions! I was having trouble finding a decent PotPlayer for Mac… I mean there are many apps out there, but not a lot of them come with all the features I need. And I didn’t really have the time to research... Elmedia looks great, I’ll definitely give it a go.
Robbie Young 2022-06-29T06:24:04

Nice article! I agree that Elmedia Player is a good PotPlayer alternative for Mac. I’ve been using it for a while as my only player. There are many functions and the quality is great.