ncmpcpp
Shares rank 2 of 4 terminal music players by recommenders
Plain terminal client for the MPD music server, favored for local playback. Caveat: it is terminal-only and less customizable than some alternatives.
Plain terminal client for the MPD music server, favored for local playback. Caveat: it is terminal-only and less customizable than some alternatives.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well with MPD
“I still like the plainness of MPD + ncmpcpp.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026” “for local playback I like ncmpcpp with MPD”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow when run inside Eshell
“It runs full-fledged TUIs like vim and ncmpcpp in Eshell slowly”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Eschewing Zshell for Emacs Shell (2014)” Less customizable than alternatives
“A lot more (easily) customizable compared to ncmpcpp as well.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “The state of Linux music players in 2026”
Other terminal music players people recommend
The three most recommended other terminal music players, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cmus | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| ncmpcppThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| cliamp | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| Retro Music Player | 6 | 4 | 60% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It runs full-fledged TUIs like vim and ncmpcpp in Eshell slowly”
“for local playback I like ncmpcpp with MPD”
“I think ncmpcpp might check all those boxes, with the caveat that it's a TUI player.”
“A lot more (easily) customizable compared to ncmpcpp as well.”
“I still like the plainness of MPD + ncmpcpp.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.