Kodi is a versatile tool that comes in very handy for watching movies, TV shows, live TV, sports, or playing retro games online. You can also use it to manage offline content that you already own. The best part about Kodi is that it is open-source and supports third-party add-ons that augment its utility in a large number of ways. However, getting to learn and use Kodi can be taxing on some users, especially those who are not very keen on DIY. So, if you are looking for a more refined media consumption experience, we have listed out Kodi alternatives that will offer you nearly the same amount of flexibility in terms of content discovery, management, and viewing.
For easier navigation, we have enlisted the 10 best Kodi alternatives in a particular order. If you happen to know some of these media centers then you can comfortably move to the new ones by clicking on the link below.
List of Best Kodi Alternatives (Updated June 2020)
In our recent update to this article, we have added three new Kodi alternatives and we hope that you find a suitable pick from the list. For better coverage, we have included media centers like Kodi which bring local content management, online viewing, live TV, and also some client-server apps like Plex. With all that said, let’s move to the list, shall we?
Undoubtedly one of the best Kodi alternatives that you can get, Plex is loaded with a truckload of features. In fact, it is perfect for streaming locally stored digital media to multiple devices (e.g. smartphones, set-top boxes) over the network, thanks to its client-server architecture.
Download Plex
If you like the media streaming approach of Plex, but not the fact that it comprises proprietary software components, then the open-source Emby might just be the Kodi alternative for you. It’s also built on the client-server approach and makes streaming locally stored media to network-connected devices super easy. Emby also includes a bit of live TV functionality and lets you manage DVR recordings as well.
Platform Availability: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux (Desktop); iOS, Android, Windows Phone (Mobile), Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Xbox, Samsung Smart TV (Others)
OSMC (Open Source Media Center) is perhaps the best looking Kodi alternative that you can find among the score of media centers. It’s based on the same Kodi project but brings a new and modern user interface that is best suited for TVs and larger screens. Similar to Kodi, OSMC is also open-source and brings the identical tabbed-layout UI.
Download OSMC
Jellyfin is a new media center, but it has gained quite a reputation among the erstwhile Kodi users. The software is open-source and completely free, just like Kodi, but that is not its selling point. It allows you to manage your library of content locally, but at the same time, you can host a server and access your content over the web.
Having said all of that, the best part about Jellyfin is that it supports live TV and you can even record the stream using the built-in DVR feature. That’s just great and this feature makes Jellyfin a suitable Kodi alternative. All in all, Jellyfin is a media center built by the community and you must give it a try for its sheer number of features that can even dwarf Kodi.
5. Stremio
Stremio is an all-exclusive media player using which feels a lot like a super-charged version of Kodi. But unlike Kodi, you don’t have to individually list or link sources as Stremio does all this automatically. It lists top-rated movies, TV series, YouTube channels on its own and also shows you a list of sources from where it can stream media. The available options include sources such as torrents as well as paid ones.
Stremio allows users to create a personal library of things they want to watch on the service. In case any particular movie is not available online and is exclusive to theaters, Stremio will also inform users. I really like the fact that the media player lets you stream movies directly from both – premium services such as Netflix as well as from free torrents portals, also showing the current number of seeders for a particular movie or TV show.
Download Stremio
MediaPortal 2 is an open-source media player that is primarily designed to work with – and improve the utility of – hardware such as a DVR, Blu-ray player, or a TV Tuner. Besides playing media from a connected player with greater ease, MediaPortal 2, also fetches information related to DVD movies and TV shows from IMDb automatically as well as saves this information so that it can be retrieved and readily displayed when you watch the same movie or listen to the same album again.
Platform Availability: Windows
If no-fuss media streaming via DLNA-compatible devices is all that you want, Universal Media Server is going to serve you just fine. It has an extremely simple UI and can be set up fairly easily. It supports streaming to a huge variety of devices and can transcode most of the audio, video, and image formats without any configuration. Among its many features are bit-rate adjustment according to network speed, and a web interface to work even with devices that don’t have DLNA support.
To set up Universal Media Server, just add the location of the stored media in the Navigation Share settings. Now, open a web browser (or DLNA browser app) on any device connected to the same network which is used to host the server and enter the IP address of the hosting device followed by “:9001“.
Download Universal Media Server
If you want a media center for your computer and not for TVs or larger screens then JRiver is an apt alternative to Kodi. Similar to Kodi, it allows you to organize all your local library of movies, TV shows, music, images, and more. It can even collate information about all your content and neatly categorize them in a tabbed-layout.Unlike Kodi, you don’t have a huge collection of addons here but JRiver brings a handful of services and plugins for scheduling, downloading, and managing cloud-based media networks. As for streaming, JRiver offers built-in support for YouTube, RadioTunes, BBC, and some more radio channels.
Platform Availability: Windows, Linux, macOS
If the primary reason you are looking for Kodi alternative is slow streaming or intermittent buffering issues then you must look into how much video cache memory has been allotted to Kodi. Sometimes, users allocate too little memory for Kodi to work properly. To fix that, you can install Ares Wizard (Free) addon and customize the video cache size. As a rule of thumb, you should at least provide 500MB of RAM for no buffering on Kodi. You can follow our article on the best Kodi tips and tricks to find more solutions to Kodi issues.
Kodi is far from beatable when it comes to offering versatility in content and impressive customization options. But if you want to utilize only a specific type among the great features of Kodi, these alternatives will serve you well. You may also try these out alongside Kodi to have a wider variety of entertainment possibilities.
If you mostly rely on online content, we would recommend you to start with Stremio as it has many free video sources and then (maybe) and then move to Plex or Emby if you wish to enjoy more premium content. Alternatively, if you want to manage your TV and DVD/Blu-ray hardware, you can start by choosing OSMC while Jellyfin will come in handy for hosting files stored on a single system to be played on others.
