Comparison

Aether Player vs Swiftly Player

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Aether Player

Features
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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

About

Swiftly Player

Stream your Jellyfin media library without transcoding. Seamlessly resume playback across devices, download content for offline viewing, and enjoy features like skip intro and picture-in-picture.

Highlights
  • No transcoding required
  • Cross-device playback resume
  • Offline downloads
  • Picture-in-picture support
  • Multiple server support
  • Skip intro/credits
Features
Read full description

Swiftly plays the films on your Jellyfin server just as they are. Most apps have the server rebuild a film while you're watching. Swiftly leaves it alone — and tells you beforehand that it will. If something ever does have to be converted, you'll see which part of the file was responsible. Picture in Picture is built in, so a film can carry on in the corner while you get on with something else. RESUME ON THIS DEVICE Something playing on the Apple TV turns up as a button on your iPhone. One tap and it carries on here, at the second you left it. It works in every direction between iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. SERVERS AND ACCOUNTS Add more than one Jellyfin, stay signed in to all of them, and switch from your profile without typing a password again. DOWNLOADS Take episodes and films with you. Swiftly downloads the original file, so what you watch offline is the same quality as what you stream. MORE • Request what your server doesn't have yet, through Seerr, without leaving the app • Skip Intro and Skip Credits, via the Jellyfin plugin • People pages: tap a name in the cast for a biography and everything of theirs you own • Your home screen in your order — rows off, rows moved, genres as rows or as chips • Custom headers per server, for Jellyfin behind Cloudflare Access, Authelia, Authentik or Pangolin • Collections and each library, straight from the Movies and Shows title • Sign in with a Quick Connect code instead of a password • Lock screen and headphone controls, plus background audio • Your audio and subtitle language, chosen once • Next episode on its own, sleep timer, playback speed • Watchlist, filters and search • English and German Swiftly brings no films of its own — it simply shows what's already on your server. And it collects nothing: no analytics, no advertising, no account with us. Your viewing position goes to your server and nowhere else. You'll need a Jellyfin server of your own, 10.8 or newer, on a secure (https) address, and an iPhone or iPad with iOS 18. Uses VLCKit and libVLC by VideoLAN under the LGPL 2.1 or later. Licenses and source code: https://swiftlyplayer.com/licenses/

Screenshots

Aether Player4 screens
Swiftly Player4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Swiftly Player at none against Aether Player's 5. Swiftly Player also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Aether Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Swiftly Player asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Aether Player ships an update weekly, Swiftly Player every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Aether Player versus Swiftly Player: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAether PlayerSwiftly Player
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size107 MB55 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVaclav ZmrhalPaul Herter

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Aether Player

Subscriptions2
  • Supporter$0.991 Month
  • Supporter$9.991 Year
One-time3
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Medium Tip$4.99
  • Large Tip$9.99
None

Swiftly Player

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Aether Player free?
Aether Player is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Swiftly Player free?
Swiftly Player is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Aether Player or Swiftly Player have ads?
Neither Aether Player nor Swiftly Player shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Aether Player or Swiftly Player?
Aether Player ships an update weekly, and Swiftly Player every 6 days. Most recently, Aether Player was updated on October 10, 2026 and Swiftly Player on October 7, 2026.

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