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[Top 10] Best Free iTunes Alternative Software for Windows and Mac 2020
By
Spencer Mcfadden, on August 29, 2020, in
iTunes Alternatives
Summary: Not a fan of iTunes? Don't have iTunes on your Windows PC and want to find best alternatives to iTunes? You're in the right place. In this article, we are going to show you what is iTunes alternative, how to find the best iTunes replacement and more.
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In the past decade, Apple's iTunes is for sure one of the most popular desktop app on both Windows PC and Mac. As a media player, media library manager, online radio broadcaster, and iPhone, iPad, iPod manager, before the release of iTunes 12.7, it was just getting notorious for trying to be everything to everyone, all the time: music, books, apps, videos purchasing, syncing, and a lot more.
Sadly people can hardly find decent iTunes replacements that cover these all. iTunes is not simply blamed for its bloated components, hulk installations, endless updates, users even hardly use iTunes without a manual guide. Beyond that, tons of iTunes errors occur every single day, and there is no feasible solutions to conquer these glitches (Learn: How To Transfer Music from iPod to Computer without iTunes.). Now this story has been ended with the recent release of macOS Catalina, which split iTunes into three separated apps - Music, Podcasts and TV Shows.
What Is iTunes Alternative Software
Not everyone is a fan of Apple iTunes. Why Apple design iTunes as such a omni-purposed application? Would iTunes be a better product if it were split up into smaller, focused, single-purpose apps? See table below to find out why you'll need an iTunes alternative that will improve your Apple product and media content experience.
Shortcomings in iTunes for Media Playback
- If you want to listen to local music files with iTunes, it will add them to your library automatically. Even you don't always want it to do so.
- iTunes does not make a clean divide between movies to buy and the ones to rent.
- It is a very tedious task to get more information about movies.
- Apple is promoting their very own 24/7 Radio Station, Beats 1, while they seem to not care much about the actual "Internetradio" segment.
Shortcomings in iTunes for Music Library Management
- The album view doesn't clearly separate the artists, and the artists view shows the full tracklist for each album, which wastes a lot of space.
- Users can see the tracks of the playlist but cannot see in the data of the single tracks to which playlist they belong.
- Browsing through your music in iTunes you may easily loose track and often it takes too much clicks reaching your destination.
Shortcomings in iTunes for iPhone iPod Syncing
- In iTunes the functionality for uploading and downloading files to and from iOS Devices is hidden under three layers of navigation. Just to get there is painful.
- In iTunes the user is presented with an unwieldy screen of multiple scrollable lists of checkboxes. Inherently it is very hard to keep track of what is synchronized an what isn't.
- No way to transfer music from iPod iPhone back to computer.
- iTunes sync will overwrite existing content on your device.
How To Choose The Best iTunes Alternative - 3 Factors
In the past decade, iTunes serves perfectly: music, books, apps, videos purchasing, syncing, and a lot more. The more features it covers, the harder it becomes a smaller, focused, single-purpose app. So an iTunes alternative software will rethink iTunes first, find confusing and painstaking parts in iTunes, then deliver a more dedicated solution. Here are some key factors by which we round up this best iTunes alternative list.
Best iTunes Alternative Factor 1 - Software Price
Both free and paid iTunes Alternative software are available to help improve your iTunes experience. Even though paid solutions always provide more features and better customer support service, we insist picking free solutions as our recommendation.
Best iTunes Alternative Factor 2 - Feature-Rich
Both entry level and senior users understand that iTunes has a variety of limits. We'd like to recommend you the best iTunes Alternative software that can fill these gaps. All iTunes alternative solutions in our recommended list have features that iTunes doesn't have.
Shortcomings in iTunes for iPhone iPod Syncing
Each iTunes Alternative software in our list focuses on solving one particular problem, for example, your iTunes music playback, iTunes library or iPhone, iPad, iPod content management, Apple device backup and restore, etc.
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Top 10 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows and Mac
#1 Best Free iTunes Alternative Software - SyncBird Pro
As a free iPhone/iPod music transfer software, SyncBird allows you to transfer music from iPod to computer; import photos from iPhone to computer; copy music from computer to iPod without iTunes. It focuses on managing your iOS media content, with more freedom and comfortness. Transfer your iPhone/iPod music, movies, photos and more without bringing iTunes in.
The Good
- Capable of copying iPhone/iPod music to/from computer without iTunes.
- Import new songs to iPhone iPod without losing existing ones.
- Sync iPhone iPod with multiple iTunes library on different computers.
- Free up space on your iPhone by cleaning out a variety of iOS junks.
The Bad
- New iTunes Alternative freeware but lack of media conversion ability.
- Cannot fix missing album cover art, lyrics and more.
- Cannot rip CDs to iTunes library.
You've Good Reasons To Use SyncBird Pro:
#2 Best Free iTunes Alternative Software - CopyTrans Manager
CopyTrans Manager is the lite and free version of CopyTrans. This iTunes Alternative only works for Windows but lets you copy music from your computer to your iPod without using iTunes. No matter where the music you're moving came from, it's easy to transfer through with this straightforward and convenient tool (CopyTrans Alternative for Mac).
The Good
- Simple interface.
- Build-in iTunes music player that lets you play the music from your Apple devices.
The Bad
- Limited file types and features.
- Cannot Transfer music from iPod to computer.
- Cannot Transfer music from iPhone to iTunes library.
- Cannot Transfer photos from iPhone to computer.
#3 Best Free iTunes Alternative Software - Senuti for Mac
Senuti, the backward spelling of iTunes, is one of iTunes Alternative applications work solely on macOS (Find Senuti for Windows ). It helps you manage your iTunes library by transferring music, movies, videos, iTunes U, and podcasts from iPod (and your iPhone, iPad) back to your Mac. As a commercial iTunes Alternative for iPhone iPod Music Transfer, you can only transfer 1000 songs without purchasing the full copy.
The Good
- Straightforward and perfect for new Mac users.
- Drag and drop playlists directly into the program.
The Bad
- Cannot transfer music from computer to your iPod.
- Limited feature.
- Cannot Transfer music from iPhone to iTunes library.
- Crashes and bugs.
#4 Best Free iTunes Alternative - iTools for Windows/Mac
As the best iTunes Alternative for iOS device manager, iTools is a powerful and feature rich solution, which focuses more on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch content management. It lets you manage your iPod touch through an intuitive interface on your Windows / Mac computer, explore your iPhone/iPad file system and make customizing ringtones for your iOS devices.
The Good
- Create ringtones from music on your computer and then load them to your iPhone, iPad and iPod.
- Install and uninstall apps on iPod touch.
- Screen recording for iOS devices.
#5 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows/Mac - SharePod
Running on both Windows PC and Mac, SharePod was another iTunes Alternative freeware for quite a while until redesigned and marketed by MacroPlant, the developer of iExplorer. It can efficiently transfer your music collection from an iPhone, iPod or iPad to your computer hard drive, make it easy to back up or restore your music, videos, and photos (Learn How To Transfer Photos from iPhone To iPhone).
The Good
- Basic editing on your music collection to correct missing or wrong meta info.
- Restore the database on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
#6 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows - MediaMonkey
Mainly served as media manager for serious music lovers, MediaMonkey is an iTunes Alternative for media library organizing and music playback. It's capable of syncing music with almost any device including your iPhones, iPods, MP3 portable players and more. But the iPod Transfer feature integrated with MediaMonkey is quite basic.
The Good
- Offer plenty of ways to enjoy your favorite tunes.
- An active community of coders who made custom skins and tweaks.
The Bad
- For Windows computer only.
- Combined with too much codec package that you may not need.
#7 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows/Mac - Foobar2000
Foobar2000 is a lightweight but powerful audio player for the Windows and Mac platforms. It supports a wide variety of audio formats and can be used to sync music if you have an older Apple device (iOS 5 or lower). When choosing Foobar2000 as your iTunes alternative for music playback, you'll get lots of reminiscent feelings for its basic UI interface and elements.
The Good
- Runs on Windows and Mac computers.
- Foobar2000 has portable edition without installation.
The Bad
- Foobar2000 requires loading music manually
- Lack of sufficient settings
#8 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows/Mac - Vox Player
Vox is an iTunes alternative player for utilizing a Mac's potential. In addition to common formats, including: FLAC, MP3, CUE, APE & M4A, you can also playback Hi-Res Audio (HD Audio) with up to 24bit/192kHz, at 4 times higher than iTunes' standard 44kHz sound resolution. Also Vox allows you to enjoy the 5.1 multichannel audio playback for the most comprehensive, sophisticated music listening experience.
The Good
- Professional music player on Windows and Mac computer.
- Enjoy your iTunes & Personal Music Library with ultimate possible quality.
- Built-in radio app feature gives you access to thousands of radio stations around the world.
- Stream any YouTube link by copy/pasting (Press CMD+U) it into VOX Music Player for Mac.
The Bad
- No iPhone, iPod content management option.
#9 Best Free iTunes Alternative for Windows - Winamp Player
Originally released on 1997, Winamp is a legendary iTunes alternative for music playback and library management. Since version 5.2, it has supported synchronizing DRM-free media to iOS devices like the iPod which makes it an excellent alternative to iTunes on both Windows and macOS platforms.
The Good
- Manage iPhone iPod music content wirelessly
- Various skin options (not modern designed though).
The Bad
- Runs on Windows operating systems only.
#10 iTunes Alternative for PC/Mac - DearMob iPhone Manager
DearMob iPhone Manager is designed for a safer and easier iOS managing experience: back up routinely in case of unexpected scenarios, transfer whatever you like, and manage files to improve your digital life. Now you can get rid of iTunes/Finder and embrace more possibilities.
The Good
- Full way transfer and manage 15+ types of files
- Robust backup and restoration at fast speed
- Transfer 100 pieces of 4K photos in 8 seconds. Handle 10000+ photos without freezing
- Export original and edited pictures. Convert HEIC to JPG, bulk delete at your choice
- Option to convert photos, media files, and books to Apple-friendly format on the fly
The Bad
- None so far
The Bottom Line
Every iTunes Alternative mentioned above has solid performance and is capable for replace your iTunes in some way. As each of them focuses on different part of the iTunes Alternative solutions, now it's up to you to make the choice. It's a mainstream trend that on neither recent macOS Catalina nor Windows 10, users no longer need an all-around iTunes that handles all media management tasks (How To Uninstall iTunes). Instead, it's suggested to get more focused iTunes alternatives per your specific need.
