Top 10 free and paid MKV players for Mac

MacBooks can't play .mkv files natively, so you'll need a third-party app or QuickTime plug-in. Check out the top 10 free and paid MKV players for Mac. Learn about their pros, cons, and special features, and make your choice.

Top 10 MKV players for Mac

When choosing the MKV player for Mac that meets your needs, remember to look at the bigger picture. What other formats does this app support? What about playback controls? Are there any extra bells and whistles? You might be surprised to learn that some Mac video players can even run online YouTube videos. So make sure you know all the app's pros and cons.

Let me start with a quick overview in case some of you need an immediate decision. But if you have an extra minute, read the whole article for more details and useful tips for movie fans.

Let’s compare!	Who will like it?	Cool features	How much?
Elmedia Player	Everyone. Best overall media player with full features	Supports all formats, HD playback, subtitle management, streaming to Smart TV, AirPlay, Roku, DLNA	Included in Setapp for $9.99/mo, along with 250+ other apps for Mac, iPhone, and web
Movist Pro	Users who want high-quality video playback	Hardware acceleration, HDR color processing, customizable video settings	Included in Setapp for $9.99/mo, along with 250+ other apps for Mac, iPhone, and web
VLC Player	Users who need a free MKV player	Open-source, supports most video formats	Free
Mac Blu-ray Player Pro	Users who need Blu-ray support in the first place	Plays Blu-rays and other formats	Starts at $19.95/year
Plex	Users who want a personal media streaming service	Media server, organizes your files.	Free for basic features. $4.99/mo
MPlayerX	Users who prefer free tools	Multilingual subtitle support, automatic detection of the next file to play	Free
OmniPlayer	Users who want customizable playback options	Over 40 format support, picture-in-picture mode, audio/video sync	Free (basic), $3.99+ for VIP version
Cisdem Video Player	Users who need conversion features	8K support, convenient UI, video format conversion (Pro version)	Free (basic), $19.99 (lifetime)
DivX Player	Users who want a simple MKV player	Multi-subtitle support, easy-to-use interface	Free (basic), 6;19.99 (Pro)

1. Elmedia Player

My number one recommendation is Elmedia Player — an MKV video player for Mac that can replace all other apps for you. It plays not only MKV but also tons of different formats. HD and Ultra HD videos that might lag in other apps work flawlessly here.

Access to all audio and subtitle tracks is just two clicks away. You can also add third-party audio or upload your subtitles. But that's the basics. Let's get to the fun stuff.

Mark important or interesting parts of the video. Select Bookmark from the right-click menu. Now, you can jump to that part with one click.
Navigate through a long video. MKV files support chapters. These are logical segments into which the video is divided. Select Chapters from the right-click menu and jump to the point you need without scrolling.
Stream video to any Smart TV, AirPlay, Roku, or DLNA device. You don't need any additional settings or plug-ins.
Watch videos in picture-in-picture format. You can even customize the size of the minimized window.

Elmedia Player for Mac to play MKV

Pros

Free version with basic functionality available: video, audio, and subtitle playback, universal format support, etc.
Available on Setapp in the Pro version.

Cons

Advanced features are available in the Pro plan.

Price

Free (basic features)
$9.99/mo on Setapp, along with 250+ other apps for Mac, iPhone, and web
From $19.95 on the developer's website.

2. Movist Pro

Movist Pro is another MKV player for Mac that also works with over 30 other video formats.

This app supports hardware-accelerated decoding of the H.265/HEVC codec. Simply put, it efficiently plays large files (4K) while using relatively few resources. The video won't freeze, and your Mac won't slow down.

In addition, Movist Pro takes care of the picture: it tries to reproduce the HDR color as best as possible on non-HDR monitors.

For easy playback of each new video, the player allows you to set many default settings: default track language, video quality, filters, equalizer, etc.

Subtitles are perfectly realized in Movist Pro. You can customize their location — on the video or in the letterbox, and turn on the subtitle voice-over. But the best part is the ability to play multiple subtitle tracks simultaneously.

Movist Pro media player

Pros

Possibility to adjust the saturation, brightness, and contrast of the image.
Available on Setapp.

Cons

No AirPlay support (it's coming soon).

Price:

$7.99 on the developer's website.
$9.99/mo on Setapp, along with 250+ other apps for Mac, iPhone, and web

3. VLC Player

VLC is one of the most popular free Mac .mkv players. It supports dozens of formats and offers a large (perhaps too large) number of options. For example, you can customize the audio and visual effects and even make the image psychedelic or wavy.

It's a good player, but the dated design and cluttered interface can spoil the experience.

VLC Player

Pros

Can open damaged MKV files.
Synchronizes audio, video, and subtitles if they play out of sync.

Cons

Considered less secure than paid players.

Price: Free

4. Mac Blu-ray Player Pro

Mac Blu-ray Player Pro is primarily designed to run Blu-rays and is excellent at it. With it, you can also open MKV on Mac quite conveniently. However, the list of features is plain: there is no equalizer, no settings for displaying subtitles, picture-in-picture, and other valuable details.

Pros

Excellent player for Blu-rays.
Works with 4K video.

Cons

It's not worth buying the Pro version just to play MKV files.

Price:

Starting at $19.95 per year.

5. Perian

Perian was a plug-in that extended Quick Time's functionality to play MKV files. However, you can use Perian only on operating systems older than OS X 10.8 (released in 2012), and the developers stopped supporting it around the same time.

Pros

Works on computers running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or earlier.

Cons

No longer available for download from the official website.

Price: Free

6. Plex

Plex is a client-server media player platform. The original idea is this: on Plex, you create an account and a media server to which you add videos in any format, including .mkv. Then, you log in to your account (from any device) and run the video. During playback, the program transcodes the video to the format your device supports.

Plex streaming

Pros

Own library of free movies and shows.

Cons

Too tricky if you only need to play MKV files.

Price: $4.99 per month.

7. MPlayer X

MPlayerX plays MKV and, according to the developers, "any media format in the world without additional plug-ins or codec packages". To play, drag and drop the video. The app can find the next file to run on its own if the file names are numbered in any guessable pattern. Another feature is its handy playback controls, entirely based on trackpad gestures.

MPlayer X

Pros

Plays videos from YouTube.
Supports subtitles in various languages, including Arabic and Hebrew.

Cons

Risk of malware.

Price: Free

8. OmniPlayer

OmniPlayer is an app from the Mac App Store that plays MKV on Mac and additionally supports over 40 video formats. The free version is sufficient to watch videos, jump through chapters, and make minor adjustments, such as delaying or advancing audio. Most valuable features, such as color equalizer, speed increase and decrease, subtitle delay, etc., are only available in the paid version.

OmniPlayer

Pros

Picture-in-picture feature is available.
Convenient settings panel.

Cons

The best features are paid.

Price

Free (basic)
From $3.99 for the VIP version.

9. Cisdem Video Player

Cisdem Video Player works with .mkv files as well as dozens of others, including those in 8K resolution. Buttons for selecting an audio track and subtitles are located right on the control panel, which is very convenient. The app's paid version allows you to convert videos to other formats, including those compatible with Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Vivo devices.

Cisdem Video Player

Pros

Nice and clear interface.
Picture-in-picture function is available.

Cons

No jumping between chapters.

Price

Free (basic)
From $19.99 for a lifetime license.

10. DivX

DivX is an MKV player with a nice interface but a minimal set of functions in the free version. In fact, you can only watch the video and change the subtitle or audio track. But even here, you may run into difficulties, as free DivX doesn't support some common audio formats, such as AC3.

DivX for Mac

Pros

Runs multiple subtitle tracks simultaneously.
User-friendly interface.

Cons

Annoying ads for the Pro version.

Price

Free (basic)
$13.99 for a Pro version.

MKV format: What are its pros and cons

Maybe it's important for you to know what MKV is and what makes it so unique. Here's a simple explanation.

MKV is a video container. You can think of it as a box that contains many audio, video, and subtitle streams. It's handy for storing and navigating videos. For example, you can have a video with English, Spanish, and any other audio stream as a single file instead of several separate files.

MKV pros:

Easy selection of audio, video, or subtitle tracks. You can switch between them on the fly without stopping playback.
Easy navigation. You can split the file into chapters — logical parts of the video — and quickly switch between them.
Error resistance. MKV files can be played even if they are damaged.
Metadata support. You (or the file's author) can add a title, author, genre, and so on. This is useful for categorizing content.
High quality. MKV files usually provide excellent video and audio quality.

MKV cons:

Limited hardware support. Not all devices can play MKV by default — Mac is an example.
Potentially larger file sizes. MKV can take up more space compared to some popular formats, such as MP4 and AVI.

For all its advantages, the only significant problem with MKV is that Mac can't play it by default. Fortunately, this problem is easily solved by installing an MKV player.

And one more solution: How to open MKV file on Mac? There are at least three ways.

Open an MKV player and drag and drop a video file.
Right-click on a video file > Open with > choose the player you want.
Open an MKV player > File > Open video > choose the video.

Choose whichever is more convenient!

Try the best players to watch .mkv on Mac for free

Of all the MKV players for Mac reviewed, I recommend Elmedia Player and Movist Pro. They are the most robust and secure media players you can install on your Mac. They both have a free version with fairly extensive functionality and an even more advanced paid version. Plus, they're both part of Setapp, an app platform with 250+ apps. Try them all free for 7 days with a single subscription.

If you have a specific need — for example, if you want your player to work with Blu-rays — check out Mac Blu-ray Player. And if you want a streaming service plus a media player, check out Plex. If you also need to convert videos, try Cisdem Video Player.

Finally, if you don't want to install a new MKV player on your Mac, try converting MKV videos to MP4 and playing them with QuickTime. Read the detailed guide here.