Comparison

Aether Player vs Mulux

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

Head to head
About

Aether Player

Features
Read full description

Aether is a personal media player for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and your own files β€” 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 β€’ Direct play or server-transcoded β€” Aether follows the best path automatically, per title. β€’ MKV, HEVC, Dolby Vision, DTS: formats other players choke on play through a modern engine, GPU-accelerated for smooth 4K. β€’ Picture in Picture, AirPlay, Dolby Atmos, lock-screen controls. β€’ Switch audio and subtitle tracks mid-playback on every platform. β€’ Offline downloads, including whole seasons β€” and Smart Downloads that keep the next unwatched episodes ready. EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE β€’ Profiles: separate Continue Watching, watchlist, ratings, Home rails and trackers, with a PIN on the way in and per-profile library visibility. β€’ A child's profile can be held to an age rating. β€’ 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. β€’ Two profiles are included; up to five with Supporter. SUBTITLES, DONE PROPERLY β€’ Aether reads subtitle files itself and times them against the picture, so they sit where you put them β€” in the black bars or over the video, in your own style, with sync and size adjustable in the player. β€’ Search OpenSubtitles from a title's own page in thirty-one languages, ranked against the exact file you're playing. YOUR LIBRARY, YOUR WAY β€’ One library across every connected source, filtered by genre, year, rating, country, audio language, server or the libraries you curated on them. β€’ Continue Watching, Up Next and a Discover tab with trending titles and Where to Watch availability in your region. β€’ Person pages, franchise collections, and ratings from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb. β€’ Music as its own tab β€” artists, albums, playlists, and a player built for it, with the catalog kept on disk so it opens offline. β€’ 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 β€’ iPhone and iPad: cinematic hero art, a page that grows out of the poster you tapped. β€’ Apple TV: precision focus design, and your Continue Watching in the top shelf. β€’ Apple Vision Pro: an auditorium around the picture β€” raked seating, masking walls, house lights down. β€’ 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 β€’ Plex (multi-server, multi-account) β€’ Jellyfin (multi-server) β€’ Emby (multi-server, Live TV, music) β€’ Silo β€’ SMB / network shares, with Bonjour discovery β€’ WebDAV β€’ 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

Mulux

Features
Read full description

Mulux Cinema Bring your favorite films into your own cinema. Open your library on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Apple Vision Pro, pick up where you left off, and settle in for a movie. Understand the Story, Even Without Subtitles Found a film without subtitles? You no longer have to wait for someone to create them. Mulux Cinema uses AI speech recognition to generate subtitles from the dialogue and translate them into your preferred language. Already have subtitles? Use AI subtitle translation to make foreign-language dialogue easier to follow. Generated AI subtitles can also sync across devices, so you can create them on a supported device and use them on your other devices. Your Films, Wherever You Keep Them Play local files in a wide range of common video formats, or connect to network shares and media servers. Supports SMB, WebDAV, and FTP, along with Emby, Jellyfin, and Plex libraries. Whether your films are stored on your device, computer, or NAS, browse them in one place and find your next watch by its poster. Switch Devices. Keep Watching. Sync playback progress, library information, AI subtitles, and more through iCloud. Watch on your iPhone while you’re out, then switch to your iPad or TV at home. As long as both devices can access the same video source, you can continue where you left off. SharePlay lets you watch in sync with friends and family, so you can enjoy a movie together even when you’re apart. A Viewing Experience for Every Screen Portrait playback on iPhone and iPad uses a split layout: watch the video at the top, with playback, subtitle, and audio controls below. View the synopsis and technical details, or browse your library while watching. When chapter or episode information is available, jump to a chapter or choose another episode with ease. The layout also adapts to different iPhone Duo screen configurations. Picture in Picture on iOS lets you keep watching while replying to messages or using other apps. On Apple TV, an interface designed for the big screen and remote control turns your living room into your everyday cinema. An Immersive Cinema, Exclusively on Apple Vision Pro Step into an immersive cinema and let the film take center stage. Choose your cinema environment and seat, then enjoy the big-screen experience in your own viewing space. Subtitles and Playback, Your Way Adjust subtitle fonts, size, color, and position. Switch audio tracks and choose how the video fits the screen. Resume where you left off, play videos in sequence, and skip intros when the relevant information is available. Set things up the way you like, then enjoy the movie. Choose from Apple’s built-in translation, Apple Intelligence translation, or translation through a large language model API that you configure. Some AI features depend on your device model, system version, language, and the availability of Apple services. Speech recognition and translation accuracy may vary depending on the source content. Cross-device sync requires the same Apple Account and the relevant sync settings to be enabled. Local video files are not transferred automatically. The app does not provide movies or TV shows. Please use content you are authorized to access.

Screenshots

Aether Player4 screens
Mulux4 screens

Verdict

The call

Aether Player and Mulux are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters β€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them β€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Aether Player sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Mulux sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Aether Player versus Mulux: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAether PlayerMulux
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyβ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro β€” betteriPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Vision Pro
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size107 MB96 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVaclav ZmrhalεΏ—ε‡Œ ζ–Ή

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
1 purchases

Mulux

One-time1
  • Mulux Player Full Version$19.99

Questions

Is Aether Player free?
Aether Player is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mulux free?
Mulux is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Aether Player or Mulux have ads?
Neither Aether Player nor Mulux shows ads.

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