Leah vs VLC on the Mac

VLC is a free, open-source media player for almost every platform, known for playing nearly any file and stream. Leah is a paid video player made only for the Mac, built on Apple’s own video frameworks, made to be simple and to seek instantly.

At a glance

	Leah	VLC
Price	$9.99, once	Free
Source code	Closed	Open source
Where to get it	Mac App Store	videolan.org
Platforms	Mac only	Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and more
Macs	Apple silicon, macOS 15 or later	Apple silicon and Intel, Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later
Design	Few settings, by design	Many settings, filters and tools
MKV and WebM	Yes	Yes
Blu-ray PGS and DVD VobSub subtitles	Yes	Yes
Dolby TrueHD	Up to 7.1, exactly as recorded	Yes
Formats beyond Leah’s list, such as Vorbis, VP8 and Xvid	No	Yes
Network streams and discs	No	Yes
Internet access	Never connects	Can stream and look things up online

Choose Leah if

You want seeking and scrubbing that keep up with you: skip, drag along the timeline or jump anywhere, and the picture follows.
You want a simple player with few settings that works the same way every time.
You want an app from the Mac App Store that never connects to the internet.
You play Blu-ray rips and want lossless Dolby TrueHD in up to 7.1 channels and PGS subtitles.

Choose VLC if

You want a free, open-source player.
You have an Intel Mac or an older version of macOS.
You play network streams or discs, or formats outside Leah’s list, such as Vorbis audio or Xvid video.
You want the same player on your Mac and on other platforms.

Formats

Leah plays MP4, MOV and M4V, and MKV and WebM files with H.264, HEVC, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, VP9 and AV1 video, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, AAC, FLAC, Opus, Apple Lossless, PCM, MP3 and MP2 audio, and SRT, ASS/SSA, WebVTT, PGS and VobSub subtitles. See Formats Leah plays.

Get Leah

Leah is on the Mac App Store. See also Leah vs IINA and the Leah FAQ.

VLC details are from videolan.org as of October 2026.