Self-hosting your music is the easy part. Playing it well on a Mac is harder — most options are Electron, a phone app in a window, or give you no way to know your files reach your DAC untouched. Here's how the good ones compare.
Honest about the alternatives · facts as of June 2026
They're all good — they just optimise for different things: price, breadth, or how it feels and sounds. EKO's first because it's ours; the column that matters is up to you.
| Client | Native on Mac | Servers | Bit-perfect | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EKO THIS SITETauri · Rust engine | Native | Navidrome · Subsonic · local | ✓ Yes | Free + Pro · $15 one-time |
| NaviBeatSwiftUI | Native | Subsonic · Navidrome | ✗ No | US$5.99 5 platforms |
| AmperfySwift | Native | Subsonic · Ampache | ✗ No | Free |
| FeishinElectron | Electron | Navidrome · Jellyfin | ✗ No | Free |
| SupersonicFyne | Cross-platform | Subsonic · Jellyfin | ✗ No | Free |
Bit-perfect here means the player sets your DAC to each track's native sample rate and sends the samples un-resampled — EKO is the only one of these that does; the others play through the macOS mixer, which resamples. (Supersonic offers an exclusive-output mode but still doesn't switch the device rate; Feishin can approximate it only via manual config.) Credit where it's due: NaviBeat is the value pick — native, US$5.99, every Apple platform — and Amperfy and Feishin are excellent and free. Facts as of June 2026.
One $5.99 purchase across iPhone, iPad, Mac, TV and Watch. Unbeatable on value.
Free, open source, and properly native to Apple. Hard to argue with free.
The deepest feature set — and it does Jellyfin too — if Electron doesn't bother you.
A native Mac app you'll enjoy opening — that proves your files reach your DAC untouched.
Most players decode losslessly, then let macOS resample everything to a single rate before your DAC. EKO sends each file at its own rate, straight to the device — and shows you, with a seal that lights only when the path is genuinely untouched.
Free and open source. Native macOS. Navidrome, Subsonic and local files.