Swiftfin
Shares rank 16 of 30 music players by recommenders
Free, open-source Apple TV and iOS app for Jellyfin, praised for working well and for a recent tvOS update. Critics say it is less polished and stable than Infuse.
11 people recommended Swiftfin in Hacker News comments, 4 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 21 comments.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- mixed feelings
- 4
- warn against or regret it
- 7
The record
Recommended in 6 of 12 months
In 7 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 7 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 46% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 21 of the 25 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well for most people
“it is the free and open source option. Works great.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” “Swiftfin as a client has been working fine”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use may imply consent [pdf]” “is free and seems to work well”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” - Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin”
Recent release improved the app
“Swiftfin finally had a new release for tvOS this summer which is worth checking out”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team” “it's considerably better than the last app store release (quite a while ago”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team” “their latest release is by far the best”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” - Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Plex laid off the whole player team”
Strong on Apple TV
“Swiftfin and InFuse are great for Apple TV.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Jellyfin 12.0” “for iOS and tvOS Swiftfin is a joy to use”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Plex's 200% Lifetime Pass price hike tries forcing users to another subscription” Free and open source
“For free (and open source!) options you can use the Swiftfin tvOS app”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “Plasma Bigscreen – 10-foot interface for KDE plasma”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Less polished than Infuse
“the UI is no where near as polished as Infuse”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead” “this immediately looks so much better UX-wise than Swiftfin!”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Jellyfin 12.0” “The experience isn't as good though.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Jellyfin 12.0” - Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “Jellyfin founder Andrew leaves team”
Bugs and stability problems
“Small bugs? May be. But there’s a lot of lack of functionality and stability.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” “I had many issues with playback on ATV using Swiftfin.”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “State of the Fin 2026-01-06 – Jellyfin” “it's just as buggy and unpolished as I remember”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Jellyfin does hardware transcoding for free, and Plex wants $250 to match it”
Other music players people recommend
The four most recommended other 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 | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLC media player | 139 | 31 | 79 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| mpv media player | 68 | 11 | 11 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Infuse video player | 61 | 14 | 9 | 87% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Winamp | 53 | 6 | 6 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| SwiftfinThis page | 11 | 4 | 7 | 61% | 6 | — | — |
Also compared with Kodi, foobar2000, iTunes and Plexamp.
What people said
21 of the 25 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“got a huge update recently too”
“this immediately looks so much better UX-wise than Swiftfin!”
“Swiftfin and InFuse are great for Apple TV.”
“The experience isn't as good though.”
“It's not official, or even recommended at”
“I used Swiftfin, switched to Infuse”
“Swiftfin finally had a new release for tvOS this summer which is worth checking out”
“it's considerably better than the last app store release (quite a while ago”
“never refreshes, overlapping text constantly”
“for iOS and tvOS Swiftfin is a joy to use”
“the UI is no where near as polished as Infuse”
“Swiftfin as a client has been working fine”
“For free (and open source!) options you can use the Swiftfin tvOS app”
“their latest release is by far the best”
“is free and seems to work well”
“Small bugs? May be. But there’s a lot of lack of functionality and stability.”
“it works just fine right now”
“I'm glad Swiftfin is getting some attention.”
“I had many issues with playback on ATV using Swiftfin.”
“it is the free and open source option. Works great.”
“it's just as buggy and unpolished as I remember”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.