RexyView vs Cathode Player
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
RexyView
Access and stream your entire Plex media library across all your Apple devices. Enjoy smooth playback, offline downloads, and detailed server monitoring, all with a beautifully designed native interface.
- Native Apple device design
- Browse and watch Plex library
- Offline playback support
- Plex server monitoring
- Apple Watch companion app
- Home screen widgets
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RexyView is a beautifully designed Plex client built natively for every Apple device you own. Browse and watch your library on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro — and monitor your server from your wrist with the Apple Watch companion. BUILT FOR APPLE Designed from the ground up for iOS 26 and the Liquid Glass interface. Sharp on iPhone, spacious on iPad, native in macOS, cinematic on Apple TV, and immersive on Apple Vision Pro. BROWSE YOUR LIBRARY Movies and TV shows from any Plex Media Server. Alpha-indexed grids for fast scrolling, full-text search, and Continue Watching and Recently Added on every home screen. Rich detail views include synopsis, cast, genres, and episode lists, with actor pages showing full filmographies. A dedicated ratings button surfaces scores from Plex, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes. WATCH ANYTHING Smooth playback with Direct Play, Direct Stream, and server-side transcoding. Multiple audio tracks and subtitles, scrubbing with preview, chapter navigation, and a sleep timer. A live info panel shows codec, resolution, bitrate, and buffering stats. Picture-in-Picture on iPhone and iPad. Progress syncs across all your devices. OFFLINE PLAYBACK Download movies and episodes to watch without a connection. Your progress queues locally and syncs back when your server reconnects. SERVER DASHBOARD For server owners — monitor your Plex server at a glance. See who's watching what, on which device, with full codec details. Live CPU and RAM graphs for host and Plex process. Bandwidth tracking by user and stream. Full user list with last-seen timestamps. Playback history across all users. Tap any active stream for detailed info, or stop it with a single swipe. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Four widget sizes from a quick stream count to a full dashboard, for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. Widgets refresh automatically from your server. Tap any widget to jump into the Dashboard. APPLE WATCH COMPANION A companion for your wrist — not a video player. See active streams, server load, and user activity at a glance. A dedicated Resources screen shows live CPU and RAM graphs. Complications in Circular, Corner, Rectangular, and Inline styles put stream counts on your face. Tap a stream for details, or long-press to stop it. APPLE TV INTEGRATION Your recently-added content appears on the Apple TV home screen via Top Shelf. Browse and play without opening a tab. MAKE IT YOURS Choose between a traditional poster grid or a cinematic hero landscape view. Pick from a range of accent colors, or stick with pure black or the system default. Blurred poster backgrounds on detail pages give every title its own atmosphere. THOUGHTFUL DETAILS Multi-profile support for Plex Home users. Actor headshots with TMDB fallback. Stylized title logos (optional). Offline scrobble queue. PERFORMANCE Engineered for a light memory footprint. Posters are downsampled server-side and client-side so your library stays snappy even with thousands of titles. Smart caching keeps things fast. PRIVACY FIRST RexyView talks only to your Plex server and optionally to TMDB for actor photos. No analytics. No tracking. No ads. Your viewing activity never leaves your device or your server. ==== Note: A Plex account and Plex Media Server are required to use RexyView. RexyView is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or otherwise associated with Plex Inc. or The Movie Database (TMDB). "Plex" is a trademark of Plex Inc. "IMDb" and "Rotten Tomatoes" are trademarks of their respective owners. Metadata and artwork are provided by your Plex Media Server, with optional fallback to TMDB for actor photos.
Cathode Player
A native video viewer for following channels and watching content across your Apple devices. Enjoy a fast, lightweight experience with features like picture-in-picture, background audio, and cross-device sync via iCloud. Discover new content with curated channel suggestions.
- Follow channels and view latest videos
- Search for videos and channels
- Native player with picture-in-picture and background audio
- Save videos to Watch Later
- Cross-device playback progress sync
- Curated channel suggestions
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Cathode is a clean, native video viewer for following channels and watching content on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Built with SwiftUI for a fast, lightweight experience. FEATURES • Follow channels and see all their latest videos in one feed • Search for videos and channels • Watch shorts and regular videos with a native player • Picture-in-picture, background audio, and AirPlay support • Save videos to Watch Later • Pick up where you left off — playback progress syncs across your devices via your private iCloud account • Read comments • Compact mini-player while you keep browsing • Curated channel suggestions across Tech, Science, Programming, Cooking, and Lifestyle to help you get started CROSS-DEVICE SYNC Watch Later, history, and saved channels are stored in your private iCloud account so they are always with you. Nothing is sent to our servers. PRIVACY Cathode does not collect personal information, has no analytics, and does not require an account. Your data stays on your device or in your private iCloud.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: RexyView at 5.0 against Cathode Player's 4.2. RexyView also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%) and device support (6 vs 4). Cathode Player's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, ads, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. RexyView sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Cathode Player asks for nothing beyond the download.
RexyView holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cathode Player has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of RexyView's written reviews are positive against 67% of Cathode Player's.
RexyView ships an update every 3 weeks, Cathode Player weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | RexyView | Cathode Player |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.2 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 26.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chris Ortega | Zabir Raihan |
Customer experience
RexyView
Cathode Player
In-app purchases
RexyView
- Small Coffee$0.99
- Large Coffee$2.99
- Buy Me Lunch$4.99
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- You're Amazing$9.99
Cathode Player
No in-app purchases





