Kodi vs foobar2000
Both are free media players tools. Here is how they actually differ.
Kodi and foobar2000 at a glance
| Feature | Kodi | foobar2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | XBMC Foundation | Peter Pawlowski |
| Licence | Open Source | Free |
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | No |
| Mobile | Yes | No |
| Source code | Public | Closed |
Kodi: what it's good at
Kodi organises your movies, TV shows, music and photos into a polished ten-foot interface designed for a television and a remote control, automatically fetching artwork and metadata for your library.
- Full-screen home-theatre interface
- Automatic artwork and metadata scraping
- Remote control and mobile app support
- Large official add-on library
foobar2000: what it's good at
foobar2000 is a famously efficient audio player favoured by people with large, carefully tagged music libraries. Its interface is austere by default but can be rebuilt almost completely, and its tagging and conversion tools are outstanding.
- Very low memory and CPU usage
- Powerful batch tagging and file conversion
- Fully customisable interface layout
- Gapless playback and ReplayGain
Which should you choose?
Both are free, so the honest answer is that you can install either and decide for yourself — that is the advantage of free software over a paid trial.
Both run on Windows, macOS. Only Kodi supports Linux, Android. If open source matters to you, Kodi publishes its source code and foobar2000 does not.
We deliberately do not publish a star rating for either. We have no way to verify a rating that would be honest at scale, and an invented one would be worse than none — so we give you the facts and let you decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kodi better than foobar2000?
Neither is universally better. Kodi turn any computer into a full home-theatre media centre, while foobar2000 extremely lightweight, endlessly configurable audio player. The right pick depends on your platform and workflow.
Are both really free?
Kodi is open source and foobar2000 is free. Both can be downloaded without paying.
Can I install both?
Yes. Since neither costs anything, installing both and comparing them on your own files is usually the fastest way to decide.