spotatui vs spotify-player vs ncspot vs spotify-tui
Four terminal Spotify clients, all written in Rust. Three are maintained; spotify-tui has had no release since 2021. The real difference is scope: spotify-player and ncspot are Spotify clients and need Premium, while spotatui is a terminal music player where Spotify is one source among several, so it also works without a Spotify account.
curl -fsSL spotatui.com/install.sh | bash| spotatui | spotify-player | ncspot | spotify-tui | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Maintained | Maintained | Maintained | Unmaintained, no release since 2021 |
| Spotify playback | Native, built in | Native, via librespot | Native, via librespot | Needs spotifyd or another Connect device |
| Spotify Premium | Only for the Spotify source | Required | Required | Required |
| Spotify developer app | Not needed: log in with a pairing code | Optional, but its README strongly recommends your own client ID | Not needed: log in through a browser link | Required: your own client ID and secret |
| Other music sources | YouTube, local files, Subsonic/Navidrome, internet radio, Qobuz, Apple Music (macOS) | Spotify only | Spotify only | Spotify only |
| Usable with no Spotify account | Yes | No | No | No |
| Scripting | Lua plugins, a CLI and an MCP server | CLI commands | IPC socket and MPRIS | CLI |
| AI DJ | Optional, bring your own model | No | No | No |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | Preview, Spotify only, Spotify-style layout | No | No | No |
Based on each project's README as of October 2026. Synced lyrics and an audio visualizer are in both spotatui and spotify-player.
Pick by what you listen to.
spotatui
You want Spotify and your other music in one queue: YouTube, local files, a Navidrome server, internet radio. Also the pick if you have no Premium, want Lua plugins, or want an AI DJ that reads your listening history.
spotify-player
You only listen to Spotify, have Premium, and want a Spotify-only client with cover art, synced lyrics and a daemon mode.
ncspot
You only listen to Spotify, have Premium, and want a lean ncurses client in the ncmpc tradition, with vim-style keys and an IPC socket.
spotify-tui
Unmaintained: no release since 2021. spotatui is its maintained fork, and your spotify-tui config copies straight over.
Common questions
What is the best terminal Spotify client?
It depends on what you play. If you only use Spotify and have Premium, spotify-player and ncspot are both solid, maintained choices. If you also play YouTube, local files, a Navidrome/Subsonic server or internet radio, or you do not have Premium, spotatui is the only terminal client that puts all of those in one queue.
Is there a terminal music player that plays Spotify and local files?
Yes. spotatui plays Spotify natively and also plays local files, YouTube, Subsonic/Navidrome servers, internet radio and Qobuz, with one cross-source queue. On macOS it can also drive the Music app to play your Apple Music library.
Can I use a Spotify TUI without Spotify Premium?
Not for Spotify itself: Spotify requires Premium for third-party playback, so every Spotify TUI needs it, and spotatui's Spotify login refuses a free account. spotatui is the exception in that its other sources (YouTube, local files, Subsonic/Navidrome, internet radio) work with no Spotify account at all.
What replaced spotify-tui?
spotify-tui has had no release since 2021. spotatui is its actively maintained fork: native playback with no spotifyd, synced lyrics, Lua plugins and more music sources. The config migrates by copying ~/.config/spotify-tui/ to ~/.config/spotatui/.