LiquidFin vs Aether Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LiquidFin
Stream your Jellyfin media library with a fast and elegant client. Enjoy movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks, and live TV with offline downloads and built-in admin tools. Designed for Apple devices.
- Stream movies, TV shows, music, and audiobooks
- Live TV streaming
- Offline downloads for playback
- Jellyseerr integration for media requests
- Built-in server administration tools
- Dedicated viewing modes for different media types
- Seamless switching between multiple Jellyfin servers
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LiquidFin delivers a fast, elegant, and powerful way to stream your Jellyfin media across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Built for both viewers and server administrators, LiquidFin combines a beautiful, native playback experience with administration tools. Watch & stream everything: - Movies, TV shows, and collections - Live TV streaming - Full music and audiobook support - Books library browsing - Picture-in-Picture & background playback Built for music & audiobooks: - Dedicated music mode & library view - Dedicated audiobooks mode - Playlist support - Chapter support for audiobooks - Seamless background playback Offline downloads: Take your media anywhere with download support for offline playback. Jellyseerr integration: Search, discover, and request new media directly from your server. Built-in admin tools: Refresh libraries, start tasks, disable users, see storage details and more Focused viewing modes: Switch between dedicated experiences for Movies & TV, Music, Books or Live TV Effortless server switching: Quickly switch between multiple Jellyfin servers. Even more: Small quality of life features like support for preroll plugins, ... Designed for Apple devices - iPhone & iPad - Apple TV - macOS - Apple Watch - Liquid Glass design LiquidFin is free to download, with optional premium features to unlock the full experience. Terms of service: https://bcnlab.org/legal/tos
Aether Player
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Aether is a personal media player for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and your own files — built natively for every Apple screen. Connect your server and your whole library appears: movies, shows, music, Continue Watching, Recently Added. Add a second server and both merge into one deduplicated view, with a picker that tells you which copy is the better file. Your media, not theirs. PLAY ANYTHING • Direct play or server-transcoded — Aether follows the best path automatically, per title. • MKV, HEVC, Dolby Vision, DTS: formats other players choke on play through a modern engine, GPU-accelerated for smooth 4K. • Picture in Picture, AirPlay, Dolby Atmos, lock-screen controls. • Switch audio and subtitle tracks mid-playback on every platform. • Offline downloads, including whole seasons — and Smart Downloads that keep the next unwatched episodes ready. EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE • Profiles: separate Continue Watching, watchlist, ratings, Home rails and trackers, with a PIN on the way in and per-profile library visibility. • A child's profile can be held to an age rating. • Pair a profile to your Plex Home profile, or to its own Jellyfin or Emby user, so watched state stays separate on the server too. • Two profiles are included; up to five with Supporter. SUBTITLES, DONE PROPERLY • Aether reads subtitle files itself and times them against the picture, so they sit where you put them — in the black bars or over the video, in your own style, with sync and size adjustable in the player. • Search OpenSubtitles from a title's own page in thirty-one languages, ranked against the exact file you're playing. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY • One library across every connected source, filtered by genre, year, rating, country, audio language, server or the libraries you curated on them. • Continue Watching, Up Next and a Discover tab with trending titles and Where to Watch availability in your region. • Person pages, franchise collections, and ratings from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb. • Music as its own tab — artists, albums, playlists, and a player built for it, with the catalog kept on disk so it opens offline. • Live TV from a playlist you already have, with a full guide, categories you make yourself, Xtream Codes accounts and HDHomeRun tuners. Bring-your-own: Aether provides no channels. BEAUTIFUL ON EVERY SCREEN • iPhone and iPad: cinematic hero art, a page that grows out of the poster you tapped. • Apple TV: precision focus design, and your Continue Watching in the top shelf. • Apple Vision Pro: an auditorium around the picture — raked seating, masking walls, house lights down. • Mac: a native app with a menu-bar mode, a series browser, and Apple's own decoder for what it can play. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Aether connects only to the servers you configure. No account of ours, no cloud, no ads, no cross-app tracking. Your ratings, watchlist and resume positions live on your devices and in your own iCloud. Optional anonymous usage statistics can be turned off any time. SOURCES • Plex (multi-server, multi-account) • Jellyfin (multi-server) • Emby (multi-server, Live TV, music) • Silo • SMB / network shares, with Bonjour discovery • WebDAV • Local files Optional, all bring-your-own: connect your own Seerr to request what you don't have, your own Trakt or Simkl account to track what you watch, and your own OpenSubtitles account for subtitle search. Aether requires a Plex, Jellyfin, Emby or Silo media server, an SMB or WebDAV share, or local video files. It is not a streaming service and does not provide any content. Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, Silo, Trakt, Simkl and OpenSubtitles are trademarks of their respective owners. Aether is an independent, third-party client and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by them. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://aetherplayer.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
LiquidFin and Aether Player are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. LiquidFin sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Aether Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
LiquidFin ships an update fortnightly, Aether Player weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LiquidFin | Aether Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 106 MB | 107 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ANDREAS WACKLER | Vaclav Zmrhal |
In-app purchases
LiquidFin
- Pro Monthly2 variants$1.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$9.991 Year
- Pro Yearly$12.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$29.99
- Pro Lifetime$39.99
Aether Player
- Supporter$0.991 Month
- Supporter$9.991 Year
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$4.99
- Large Tip$9.99









