LASTROW vs Infuse, VLC and Plex
LASTROW is a native player for the Apple ecosystem, built as a clean alternative to Infuse. This is an honest comparison: what it does the same, what it does differently, and what it does not do. Other product names are for reference only.
| LASTROW | Infuse | VLC | Plex | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One-time €5.99, with a 30-day free trial. No subscription. | Subscription (Infuse Pro) or an expensive one-time unlock for everything. | Free and open source. | Free client; many features require the Plex Pass subscription. |
| Playback engine | 100% native: own Matroska demuxer in Swift + VideoToolbox. No VLCKit. | Native engine with hardware decoding. | Own engine, mostly software-based (cross-platform). | Depends on the server: it may transcode on the Plex Media Server. |
| Direct SMB/NAS access | Yes, connects straight to SMB shares on your network, with no server in between. | Yes, direct access to SMB, NFS and other network shares. | Yes, opens SMB/network shares directly. | Not direct: it needs the Plex Media Server indexing your library. |
| Plex / Jellyfin client | Yes, plays from Plex and Jellyfin servers with the native engine. | Yes, acts as a client for Plex, Jellyfin and Emby. | Not a Plex or Jellyfin client. | Official Plex client; it does not play from Jellyfin. |
| Series & Trakt | Series grouped by season/episode with TMDB data, plus a 'For You' row of personalized recommendations powered by Trakt. | Full series support and Trakt integration. | Plays individual files; no series library or Trakt. | Its own series library; Trakt via features/plugins. |
| Privacy | No mandatory account, no telemetry, no cloud. Everything stays on your network. | No account required; some features use cloud services. | No account or telemetry. | Requires a Plex account; discovery and remote access go through their cloud. |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad and Apple TV (a single app). Mac coming soon. | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac and Vision Pro. | Nearly everything: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and more. | Very many platforms, plus the server on your machine or NAS. |
What LASTROW does not do (on purpose)
- It is not a transcoding server: it plays your files as-is with the native engine, it does not re-encode on the fly the way Plex can.
- It only speaks SMB2 and SMB3. Older shares that only offer SMB1 (Time Capsule, very old NAS) are not supported.
- TrueHD/Atmos audio has limitations: the focus is on DTS Core (via a minimal FFmpeg, LGPL) and on the tracks Apple hardware plays natively.
Infuse, VLC, Plex, Jellyfin, Emby and Trakt are trademarks of their respective owners. LASTROW is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by them; their names are used here for descriptive and comparative purposes only. No brand logos are shown. Information is indicative and may change per product.