Aether Player vs NowSeen
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
NowSeen
This app organizes and plays your personal IPTV playlists, M3U files, and Emby/Jellyfin libraries. It offers a program guide, multiscreen viewing, and subtitle customization. Syncs watch history and settings across devices.
- Plays M3U, Emby, Jellyfin
- Program guide with artwork
- Continue Watching row
- Multiscreen live TV
- AirPlay and Chromecast support
- Customizable interface
- Subtitle management
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NowSeen: your channels, films and series in one app NowSeen is a player for your own IPTV playlists, M3U files and Emby or Jellyfin libraries, on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Add your sources and you get proper artwork, seasons and episodes, ratings, and a Continue Watching row that remembers where you stopped. Everything in one place Movies, series and live channels live side by side. Browse by genre, see what's trending, pin your favourite categories to the Start screen, or search and find something in seconds. A guide that just works A full programme guide with artwork and descriptions, fast to scroll and easy to read on a big screen. Live TV comes with list and grid views, catch-up support and reminders that let you know when a programme starts. Multiscreen Watch up to four live channels at the same time in a 2x2 grid, switch audio between them and open any of them full screen with one press. AirPlay and Chromecast Send live TV, films and series to your TV with AirPlay or Chromecast, subtitles included. Choose which device plays and keep browsing on your phone. Make it yours Rename and reorder channels and categories, hide the rows you don't use, set which sections appear on Start, pick your own EPG sources, choose your metadata language, adjust the text size and set up parental locks. Nearly everything in NowSeen can be changed to how you like it. Subtitles the way you want them Choose your language, pick your exact text size, and switch tracks without leaving the picture. Closed captions are supported, and if a film or episode has no subtitles you can fetch them from OpenSubtitles right from the player. Keeps everything in sync Your playlists, favourites and settings follow you across your devices with iCloud. Optional Trakt and Simkl integration keeps your watch history and progress up to date, automatically and in the background. Made for every screen On Apple TV, NowSeen has a native interface with Top Shelf support. One Premium unlocks the full experience on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Premium Live TV is free to watch. Premium unlocks the full experience: 1 month for EUR 1.99 12 months for EUR 19.99 Lifetime for EUR 49.99, a single payment with no subscription Prices may vary by region. Your sources, your control NowSeen is a player. It does not provide any content, channels or subscriptions. You bring your own sources. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://nowseen.app/Privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: NowSeen at every 2 days against Aether Player's weekly. NowSeen also leads on iOS requirement (18.6 vs 26.0). Aether Player's advantage is device support (5 vs 3). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Aether Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and NowSeen sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Aether Player ships an update weekly, NowSeen every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Aether Player | NowSeen |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 92.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 107 MB | 115 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Vaclav Zmrhal | Ricardo Dimmendaal |
In-app purchases
Aether Player
- Supporter$0.991 Month
- Supporter$9.991 Year
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$4.99
- Large Tip$9.99
NowSeen
- NowSeen Premium$1.991 Month
- NowSeen Premium Family$3.991 Month
- NowSeen Premium$17.991 Year
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- NowSeen Premium Family$34.991 Year
- NowSeen Premium Lifetime$44.99








