IINA vs VLC on Mac: which free video player is better?

Short answer: on a Mac, IINA is the nicer everyday player and VLC is the more capable tool. IINA is designed for macOS, with gestures, Picture in Picture and Live Text. VLC runs on almost every system and adds discs, network streams, devices and file conversion. If you watch HDR or Dolby Vision films, look at a third option, below.

Disclosure: we make Stoic, a paid Mac video player. Facts about IINA and VLC come from their own websites, linked below, and our Dolby Vision test is published with its method.

IINA vs VLC at a glance

Interface: IINA feels like a Mac app

IINA describes itself as designed for macOS, and it shows: trackpad gestures, the Mac’s media controls, Picture in Picture and Live Text, with controls and sidebars you can rearrange. VLC uses one interface on every platform, so on a Mac it works well but looks and behaves like software built for many systems at once. If how the app feels matters to you, this is IINA’s biggest win.

Formats: both play almost everything

Neither will leave you with a file that will not open. VLC lists a very long run of codecs and containers on its features page, from MKV, AVI, MP4 and WMV to DivX, Xvid, DTS and TrueHD. IINA is built on mpv, which also plays nearly every common format. For MKV and AVI files, either is a big step up from QuickTime. See how to play MKV on Mac and the AVI player for Mac.

Discs, streams and converting: VLC does more

VLC plays files, discs, webcams, devices and network streams, and it can convert a file to another format. IINA is focused on playing your files well. If you have DVDs, an external drive, IPTV links or a capture card, VLC is the one to keep. If you need an MP4, see how to convert MKV to MP4 on Mac; a remux in Terminal is faster and lossless compared with VLC’s re-encode.

Subtitles

VLC supports the common subtitle formats and lets you shift timing by hand. IINA handles the usual formats too, and its plugins can add extra subtitle sources. Neither syncs a subtitle file to the speech for you; that is one of the things Stoic does automatically.

HDR and Dolby Vision: the job neither is built for

This is where the choice changes. We played the same 4K Dolby Vision Profile 5 file on the same MacBook Pro with M1 Pro. VLC 3.0.20 showed it with the green and purple cast that Profile 5 gets when a player skips Dolby Vision processing, and used 819% CPU. IINA’s site does not list HDR or Dolby Vision among its features, and its picture did not advance in that run, so we did not publish a number for it. See does VLC support Dolby Vision on Mac? and does IINA play Dolby Vision?

If you watch HDR or Dolby Vision films on a MacBook Pro or an XDR display, a player built for it will look better and run cooler. Stoic showed that same file with correct colour at 14.5% CPU. Full results are on the benchmarks page.

Privacy

Both are open source, so their code is public. VLC says it has no spyware, ads or user tracking, and IINA says it includes no tracking or telemetry. Download each only from iina.io or videolan.org.

IINA vs VLC: which should you choose?

• Choose IINA if you only use a Mac and want the free player that feels most at home there.
• Choose VLC if you also use Windows or Linux, play discs, open streams or devices, or want to convert files.
• Keep both if you like: they are free, and VLC is a good fallback for the odd file.
• Choose neither if you mostly watch HDR or Dolby Vision films. See Stoic vs IINA, Stoic vs VLC and the best video players for Mac.

Questions