Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

foobar2000 VS VLC Media Player

Compare foobar2000 VS VLC Media Player and see what are their differences

foobar2000 logo foobar2000

An advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform.

VLC Media Player logo VLC Media Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework.
  • foobar2000 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-13
  • VLC Media Player Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-13

foobar2000 features and specs

  • High Customizability
    Foobar2000 allows for extensive customization through themes, plugins, and advanced settings, enabling users to tailor the interface and functionality to their specific needs.
  • Wide Format Support
    The player supports a broad range of audio formats including MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, WAV, and many others, ensuring compatibility with most audio files.
  • Lightweight and Efficient
    Foobar2000 is designed to be lightweight and efficient, consuming minimal system resources, which makes it a good choice for users with less powerful hardware.
  • Advanced Features
    The player includes advanced features such as gapless playback, ReplayGain, and customizable keyboard shortcuts, catering to power users and audiophiles.
  • Active Development and Community
    Foobar2000 has a strong, active development team and community, providing regular updates and a wealth of user-created plugins and themes.

Possible disadvantages of foobar2000

  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users may find the interface and extensive customization options overwhelming, leading to a steep learning curve.
  • Basic Default Interface
    The default interface is quite plain and may not be visually appealing to users seeking a more modern or advanced look without additional customization.
  • Limited Native Features
    While highly customizable through plugins, the out-of-the-box functionality may be limited compared to some other media players, requiring users to invest time in finding and installing plugins.
  • Windows-Centric
    Foobar2000 is primarily designed for Windows, with macOS and mobile versions lacking some of the advanced features available on the Windows platform.
  • No Built-in Streaming Services
    Unlike some modern media players, Foobar2000 does not natively support popular streaming services, which might be a drawback for users looking to integrate streaming within their media player.

VLC Media Player features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    VLC Media Player is available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, providing a consistent experience across different devices.
  • Wide Format Support
    VLC supports virtually all audio and video file formats, making it a versatile media player for various types of content.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, VLC is free to use and its source code is accessible, allowing for community-driven modifications and improvements.
  • No Ads or Spyware
    VLC Media Player is free of advertisements, spyware, and user tracking, offering a clean and private user experience.
  • Customizable Interface
    Users can customize the interface with skins and add functionality through plugins and extensions, enhancing the user experience.
  • Streaming Support
    VLC can stream content over networks and manage internet radio streams, making it ideal for both local and remote media playback.
  • Frequent Updates
    The development team regularly updates VLC, ensuring it remains secure, stable, and compatible with the latest media formats.

Possible disadvantages of VLC Media Player

  • Resource Intensive
    VLC can be resource-intensive, which may cause performance issues on older or less powerful devices.
  • Complex Interface
    The extensive range of features and settings can be overwhelming for new or less tech-savvy users, making it difficult to navigate.
  • Occasional Bugs
    Like any software, VLC is not immune to bugs, which can sometimes result in crashes or unexpected behavior during playback.
  • Limited Library Management
    VLC's media library functionality is relatively basic compared to dedicated media management software, which may be a downside for users with large media collections.
  • Suboptimal Subtitle Support
    While VLC supports subtitles, the functionality can sometimes be glitchy, with occasional issues in displaying or syncing subtitles accurately.
  • Advanced Features Can Be Hidden
    Some advanced features are not immediately obvious and may require digging into the settings or using command-line options, which can be a barrier for less experienced users.

foobar2000 videos

Z Review - My Foobar2000 Setup Video

More videos:

  • Review - Foobar2000 - The Best Music Player

VLC Media Player videos

VLC Media Player Review!

More videos:

  • Tutorial - VLC Media Player Android Review and Tutorial - Cool Features of VLC

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to foobar2000 and VLC Media Player)
Audio Player
35 35%
65% 65
Media Player
29 29%
71% 71
Music Player
52 52%
48% 48
Audio & Music
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using foobar2000 and VLC Media Player. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare foobar2000 and VLC Media Player

foobar2000 Reviews

10 Best Poweramp Alternatives for Android (FREE) 2023
Apart from that, Foobar2000 supports almost all of the music formats and codecs out there, which makes this app highly compatible.
Source: techonation.com
The best free music players 2021: organize, tag and enjoy your music collection
Rather than flashy skins, foobar2000 features a customizable modular interface that gives you the information you want in a format that's convenient for you. Modules include album art, search box, playlist manager and various visualizations, with optional tabs for easier navigation. Custom layouts can be saved as themes for future use, and you can experiment with different...
10 Best Winamp Alternatives for Windows 10
If you are searching for a lightweight and easy-to-use Winamp replacement for Windows 10, then foobar2000 might be the best pick for you. Guess what? foobar2000 supports a wide range of audio codecs like MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, etc. Apart from that, it was the user-interface that makes the app stand out from the crowd.
Source: techviral.net
Best Windows 10 Music Player Apps for PCs in 2019
While Foobar2000 was pushing forwards with a Windows Store app to complement its existing Win32 offering, that project seems to have stalled thanks to low user count. The "proper" app is still very much alive and kicking and is both powerful and customizable.
The best free music players for Windows PCs
Don’t let the basic interface fool you into thinking this isn’t worth your time. You can customize its look however you want, and play anything from MP3s and WMA to Musepack, Speex, and even rarer formats with the right plug-ins. There are also extensive tagging abilities and full support for keyboard shortcuts, which makes Foobar2000 a great piece of software for managing...

VLC Media Player Reviews

  1. Muhammad Yaseen
    Playing Videos

    This is very useful application for me. Now i can watch videos of any format on my laptop with vlc player. It solved my all problems of video formats and play problem.


Best VLC Alternative Media Players
Users might seek alternatives to VLC Media Player due to preferences for a different user interface, additional features not available in the program, performance issues like lagging or compatibility problems, or specialized needs such as specific codec support. While VLC offers robust functionality and broad compatibility, exploring other media players can address personal...
9 Best VLC Alternatives to Play Media in Any Format
In today's fast-paced world, media players have become an essential part of our lives. VLC Media Player has always been a popular choice, but it seems that the video player exhibits more problems as time goes on. A quick search of user reviews proves that it has fallen behind competitors in terms of advanced features, and newer updates of VLC are fraught with bugs, glitches,...
10 Best VLC Media Player Alternatives in 2024 (Free)
Some years before VLC Media Player provided a lot of useful and satisfying features to the users as one of the best Media Players but as the use of Media Players increased many more alternatives to VLC Media Player developed that became its competitors. These not only serve similar features as VLC Media Player but also provide more useful features and various file formats...
Top 5 GOM Player Alternatives for Windows
You can spot VLC Media Player on the first position of almost every media-player-based list. It’s been one of the standards for playing wide variety of media formats — including audio and video. Being an open-source program, you are completely free to use VLC. As far as playing media in Windows is concerned, VLC Media Player comes with the best-in-class support. You will...
Source: xtendedview.com
Top 5 Alternatives of VLC for iPad
VLC player is one of the famous media players that is commonly used across multiple operating systems, including iPadOS. It's an open-source and easy-to-use media player that shows compatibility with every mainstream video and audio format. IPad users can use the file synchronization feature to stream videos saved in cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, iCloud Drive,...

Social recommendations and mentions

VLC Media Player might be a bit more popular than foobar2000. We know about 3 links to it since March 2021 and only 3 links to foobar2000. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

foobar2000 mentions (3)

  • For those who've recently switched from Windows to Mac, what's the one app you miss the most?
    Foobar2000. There is no macOS music player that comes close; QuodLibet almost hits the spot, but that's a very large "almost". Source: over 1 year ago
  • Girl with blow up costume really whips the llama's ass
    Putting WinAmp nostalgia aside, have you heard of https://foobar2000.org? Source: about 2 years ago
  • This man thought opening a TXT file is fine, he thought wrong
    I would 100% agree if it weren't for the existence of the music player foobar2000. Both share similar design goals. But foobar takes it a step further by making the entire UI completely user customizable with a simple built in editor. All without sacrificing speed, compactness, or usability. Source: almost 4 years ago

VLC Media Player mentions (3)

  • The 10 tools I install on every new Mac I get
    VLC - plays everything, has excellent keyboard shortcuts and can in a pinch even record screens for you (free). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Why Open Source Software VLC's official website has been blocked for over 5 months now?
    Try accessing it without the 'www' subdomain (https://videolan.org/vlc/). Source: over 2 years ago
  • AV1 no working
    I think I recommend you to use VLC Media Player without AV1 extension, it just decode. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing foobar2000 and VLC Media Player, you can also consider the following products

AIMP - AIMP : Free Audio Player : Официальный сайт программы

MusicBee - While iTunes might be the benchmark music organizer and player app, MusicBee is a strong alternative that many prefer.

Winamp - Winamp is a media player that allows users to play multiple-file formats, arrange media in a varied file-management system, and play unique media with AAC encoding.

KMPlayer - KMPlayer is a freeware and supporting 36 different languages with 300 million users globally. PCKMPlayer is a freeware and supporting 36 different . ConnectKMP Connect allows you to connect your.

Clementine - Clementine is a cross-platform free and open source music player and library organizer based on...

MPC-HC - MPC-HC, the free, open source media player for Windows. DownloadsNote. Supported Operating Systems: Windows® XP SP3 .