CMSPlayer vs Hawk Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CMSPlayer
This app provides a seamless playback experience for VOD sources, offering features like playback speed adjustment, AirPlay, and Picture in Picture. It allows users to manage multiple sources, search for content, and track watch history. Optimized for Apple devices, it integrates with iCloud for cross-platform syncing.
- Seamless playback experience
- Playback speed adjustment
- AirPlay and Picture in Picture support
- Manage multiple VOD sources
- Aggregate search with history
- iCloud sync across platforms
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Cross-platform player for VOD sources. # Show and Episodes - Seamless play experience - Native app UI/UX, optimized for iPhone and iPad - Display shows in grid or list - Browse show details including actors and descriptions - Quickly navigate to an episode with segment or season selection - Sort episodes alphabetically or in reverse order # Play experience - Playback speed adjustment - AirPlay, Picture in Picture, SharePlay - Auto-play next episode - Pan horizontally to adjust playback progress - Pan vertically to adjust brightness and volume - Skip intro and outro with manual configuration - Auto-playback from last seen timestamp - tvOS/visionOS: Next episode button in info view # Search - Aggregate search - Search history - Option to enable exact match # Manage my stuff - Favorite - Watch history - Navigate to show from history # Source management - Manage multiple sources - Edit, delete or sort sources - Hide certain sources - Import sources from JSON - Export sources to JSON - Manually add source # Apple feature integration - iCloud sync across all platforms (can be disabled) - tvOS TopShelf Icon Attribution: Television icons created by Freepik - Flaticon https://www.flaticon.com/free-icons/television Disclaimer: This app doesn't provide, contain or distribute any VOD or video sources. All sources are provided and entered by the users. Users must provide copyright-free contents or ensure they have acquired the copyrights to play videos in CMSPlayer.
Hawk Player
Experience high-performance video playback with crystal-clear visuals and fast seeking. This media player offers precise control and a lightweight experience, perfect for users who value speed and accuracy. It also supports custom plugins and VOD protocols.
- High-performance video playback
- Crystal-clear visuals
- Lightning-fast seeking
- Precise control
- Lightweight experience
- Pluggable architecture for custom plugins
- VOD protocol support
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Hawks are known for their sharp vision, speed, and precision—qualities that define the Hawk video player. Just like a hawk soars through the sky with unmatched clarity and focus, Hawk delivers a smooth, high-performance video experience with crystal-clear playback and lightning-fast seeking. With its keen eye for detail, Hawk ensures precise control, seamless navigation, and a powerful yet lightweight playback experience, making it the perfect choice for users who demand both speed and accuracy in their media player. Everything is pluggable, you can build your plugins. It also support VOD protocol. So sit back and enjoy—Hawk sees everything, so you don’t miss a thing. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Hawk Player at Free against CMSPlayer's $2.99. Hawk Player also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 80%). CMSPlayer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 4 weeks). On ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Hawk Player is free to download; CMSPlayer costs $2.99 up front. Hawk Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. CMSPlayer asks for nothing beyond the download.
CMSPlayer holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CMSPlayer has 156 ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of CMSPlayer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Hawk Player's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
CMSPlayer ships an update every 9 days, Hawk Player every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CMSPlayer | Hawk Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (156 ratings) — better | 4.6 (22 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 156 — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 119 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Yuzhou Zhuang | JinShan Qu |
Customer experience
CMSPlayer
Hawk Player
In-app purchases
CMSPlayer
No in-app purchases
Hawk Player
- Monthly Premium$0.991 Month
- Annual Premium$4.991 Year
- Lifetime Access$12.99
- Lifetime Access$14.99
- Lifetime Access$17.99
