Aerobatic

Deploy static sites directly from within Bitbucket using the Aerobatic add-on. Includes CDN, SSL, custom domains, custom error pages, API proxy and more.

Good	API Proxy Helpful for calling APIs that are not CORS enabled. Also allows injection of environment variables to keep secrets out of the client-side code.
Good	Deploy alerts
Good	Free Tier
Good	Multiple deploy stages Easily deploy to a preview instance with a unique URL
Good	Bitbucket integration Edit your code, push your changes, and your site is live automatically (fast).
Good	Versioning Each push creates a new version of your site. Aerobatic maintains up to 50 previous versions of your site, all accessible from the own unique URL.
Good	Custom error pages Create your own 404 error pages.
Good	Custom domains Includes self-renewing wildcard SSL certificate
Good	Password protection
Bad	No FTP access Doesn't provide FTP access to upload files or edit the database on the go.

Dropbox

Good	Free for up to 2GB Dropbox is free for up to 2GB and every folder that is made public can become a static website.
Bad	No built-in custom domain support Has no built-in custom domain support, but third-party services can be used but not for free. For example: site44(https://ift.tt/2MUZFfQ) or KISSr(https://ift.tt/2Mk37PM) or websrvr(https://ift.tt/2tuettR per month)

Specs

Offline access	Yes
Platforms	Windows, Linux, OSX, Android, iOS, Windows Phone
Versioning	Yes

Rackspace Cloud Files

Good	Supports custom domains Rackspace has support for custom domains for static websites hosted on their servers.
Bad	No redirect support Over time, some pages will be renamed and others deleted. To avoid broken links, redirects are used. Unfortunately Rackspace does not support them.

GitHub Pages

Good	Supports Jekyll A simple, blog-aware static site generator, Jekyll makes it easy to create site-wide headers and footers without having to copy them across every page. It also offers some other advanced templating features.
Good	Automatic minifying of assets GitHub will automatically minify assets as soon as they are uploaded.
Good	CDN support out of the box GitHub gives CDN support out of the box for GitHub pages. Fastly, one of the best CDNs right now is the one behind this service.
Good	Supports MarkDown rendering MarkDown files are rendered as HTML; ideal for documentation sites.
Good	Supports custom domains A custom domain can be added by creating a CNAME file with the necessary domain in the root of the repository and adding/changing corresponding DNS entries.
Good	The ability to create and edit files on the web UI gives GitHub pages the same power as a small CMS One of GitHub's features is a very powerful web editor which helps users edit or even create files right from the web browser, once the file is saved it's the same as a commit. Coupled with pages, this tool becomes even more powerful, giving users a free CMS that is easy to use and create.
Good	Best used with a static site generator Popular front-end tools like Gulp, BrowserSync, Jade can greatly simplify things when creating a static website
Good	Free tier Static websites can be hosted on GitHub Pages for free as long as the repository is public. Private repositories start at $7/mo.
Bad	No way to handle images, video, audio etc. for non-technical users
Bad	For a custom domain users still have to use "www" Due to GitHub's DDoS mitigation technology, users who host their static websites on their servers, cannot have a custom root domain. For example: "example.com" cannot be used, "www.example.com" must be used instead. While in theory the first one is allowed, it greatly affects loading times.
Bad	Unable to set cache expiry, must accept GitHub defaults (which are short) Low cache expires - GitHub sets the cache-control: max-age header to 600 seconds, or ten minutes. Normally, you would set this value to a year so that it stays cached, and then use fingerprinting on your assets. Instead of serving style.css, you would serve something like style-62c887ea7cf54e743ecf3ce6c62a4ed6.css. As it stands now, assets are rarely going to be cached on repeat visits. This will give a low score on https://ift.tt/Im3dhw with a 'should fix' recommendation around 'Leverage browser caching'. For a high traffic site this may have implications
Bad	Doesn't make sense for private websites Github pages are made for hosting public facing website. Private use websites should be hosted on a different platform.
Bad	Lack of support for custom handling of 404s etc Customizing 404s and other site error pages is not possible/documented.

CloudCannon

Good	Interesting for resellers A paid account gives you unlimited sites.
Bad	Custom domains are paid A paid account is required to add a custom domain.

Amazon S3

Good	Fast S3 is fast even without a CDN.
Good	Easy to setup with CDN Simple to set up with Amazon's CloudFont CDN.
Good	Free for small sites The free tier will cover most personal home pages.
Good	No security risks There's no server to manage, so no security issues to patch or keep watch.
Good	Fast setup You can provision a S3 bucket, upload files, setup the DNS, and go live in under 10 minutes.
Good	Easily scalable There's no cap in storage or traffic. Cost is based on usage.
Good	Supports custom root domains To set up a custom domain, Amazon Route 53 has to be configured as the DNS provider with the domain registrar, two buckets have to be created and configured with the name the same as the domain - one including, one excluding www. A more in-depth explanation can be found here(https://ift.tt/YpV048).
Good	S3 is better than SFTP and supported by most FTP clients Most popular FTP clients support S3 natively (Cyberduck, Transmit, and others). S3 is faster than FTP but works the same.
Good	Super cheap with a year's worth of free service S3 storage costs $0.03 per GB and gets cheaper the more is stored, PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST requests are $0.005 per 1,000 requests and GET and all other requests are $0.004 per 10,000 requests. And with some restrictions is available for free for a year.
Bad	Confusing web interface Amazon S3's web interface is quite confusing, especially for first-time users, but there are many tutorials online that help beginners to set up a static site on S3.
Bad	Credit card needed Amazon will try to retrieve the money every month after one year trial. If you have no money you will be banned.
Bad	Unpredictable monthly charges Since costs are determined by usage, they vary month by month.
Bad	No SFTP support Amazon S3 does not have SFTP support, instead the S3 web interface has to be used.
Bad	Setting up automatic public permissions is confusing By default, S3 sets uploaded files to private. You can configure your S3 bucket to auto-apply public permissions by copying and pasting a template. But the template might be intimidating to some users.

Google Firebase

Google Firebase is a platform for building web and mobile applications without the strain of worrying about DevOps and A/B testing on the hosting side.

Good	More than just hosting web applications In the core of Firebase allows you to do testing for Android apps, Analytics, Real-time Database, and many more. It's centered mostly for progressive web applications and mobile applications with real-time connectivity to your service.
Good	Flexible Pricing The Blaze Plan is a pay-as-you-go plan, which is, you pay for what you use, without overhead or upfront costs.
Good	Straightforward hosting Powered by Google's Cloud Platform, Firebase allows you to deploy static web pages or web applications with a nifty Node.js-based CLI Tool.
Good	Super fast CDN All static website content is hosted on the Fastly CDN making your website really fast.
Bad	Linked to Google Cloud Platform Unless you don't have a Google Account, you won't be able to access Google cloud services, including this one.

Ovobox

Simple and fast hosting for any front-end projects

Good	Custom domains and SSL
Good	Works fast
Good	FTP access
Good	Rest API
Good	Prerender
Good	Understandable UI/UX

Specs

Platforms	Any browser, soon on iOS and Android
Cloud Storage	Yes
Price (US)	Free

Bluehost

Good	Recommended by Wordpress.org
Bad	Requires a .edu email to get a discount BlueHost offers discounts for students who have an email that ends in .edu.

Bitbucket Pages

Bitbucket is similar to Github, but allows you to host private repositories for free.

Good	Free private repositories BitBucket allows users to have free private repositories as long as it's a team smaller than 5 that is working on a project. In other words, BitBucket charges per team member and not per repository member. This feature may make BitBucket, even BitBucket pages better than for example GitHub for some, since the static page's source code won't be open source, but it can still be viewed on the browser, so for static page hosting per se it is not a big deal.
Good	Multiple authentication methods BitBucket supports GitHub, Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, Google and even GitHub authentication.
Bad	The UI seems old and not very polished While GitHub's UI is extremely simple to understand and very polished, BitBucket lacks a bit on this category. With a design that seems old and not as pleasant to look at.

F(x) Data Cloud

Good	Rich API Rich, easy to use API.
Good	Very cheap They provide basic plans @ $1.99/month.
Good	Support system Helpful team.

Specs

Block Storage	Yes
ISOs	Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Windows
Uptime SLA	99.95%
Virtualization	KVM
Cloud Storage	Yes
Server locations	United States

Netlify

Deploy modern static websites with automated platform. Add best practices like SSL, CDN distribution, caching, and continuous deployment with a single click.

Good	Versioning and rollbacks
Good	Free tier Netlify's PRO Plan now Free for Open-Source Projects
Good	Free one-click SSL
Good	Netlify CDN
Good	RESTful API
Good	Atomic deploys

NearlyFreeSpeech

Good	Very privacy oriented They will never discuss your situation with anyone to the extent that the law allows. They won't even state why a website is down. If you are not the account holder, don't expect any details from them.
Good	Very scalable NearlyFreeSpeech charges per resources and services used, as such it is very scalable and makes static site hosting very cheap for users who decide to go with this hosting option since static sites require very little resources.
Good	Relatively easy to use NearlyFreeSpeech provides SFTP access and a more traditional shared hosting environment compared to other services. This makes it easy for users who are not very advanced but still want to create a static site.
Good	Very informative FAQ The FAQ will address pretty much everything you might want to know before joining, and then some.
Bad	The FAQ is so long that you can spend over an hour reading it That's the FAQ if you are thinking about becoming a member. There's a much more detailed FAQ for members.
Bad	Not free Although it can be very cheap to host a simple static site on NearlyFreeSpeech for about $3/$4 a year, it still is not free.
Bad	Only for those who know what they are doing They do absolutely no "hand holding" unless you purchase a support package and even then it's barebones.

Surge

Static web publishing for Front-End Developers. Simple, single-command web publishing. Publish HTML, CSS, and JS for free, without leaving the command line.

Good	Free Tier Most sites are free and include basic SSL. Pro options for those who need it cost $13/month.
Good	Support on Slack Live Chat Support.
Good	Supports Jekyll and Grunt and other CIs
Good	Automatic Gziping Auto gzips and sends gziped files.
Good	Six Keystrokes to publish site Type surge and hit enter in your project directory to deploy.
Good	Custom 404.html files Catch-all 200.html files.
Good	Automatic Clean URLS /page resolves /page.html
Bad	Does not support .pdf by default Does not support .pdf. You have to be personally whitelisted.

Specs

Price (US)

free

13.00

Google Cloud Storage

Good	Supports custom domains To set up a custom domain, domain ownership has to verified(https://ift.tt/2KgEW4a), a CNAME DNS record has to be created and buckets created and configured. A more in-depth explanation can be found here(https://ift.tt/1u8mT4z).
Good	It's easy and very user friendly to start a new project Google Cloud Storage uses OAuth 2 for authentication, all it needs is google credentials and for the users to grant the necessary permissions and it's done.
Bad	No redirect support Over time, some pages will be renamed and others deleted. To avoid broken links, redirects are used. Unfortunately Google Cloud Storage does not support them.

Neocities

Good	Lively community Neocities also has a social aspect allowing for discovery of your site and interaction with and learning from others.
Good	Easy to use drag and drop interface Neocities uses a drag and drop interface to upload files on their server. This makes it arguably the best option for beginners for it's ease of use.
Good	Free tier Neocities has a free tier which provides hosting for up to 1GB of space and tools for website building.
Bad	No SFTP support Neocities has no SFTP support. In stead it uses a drag and drop web based interface, which is a nice tradeoff for beginners. It's not very useful for more advanced users though.
Bad	Supports a limited selection of file types Neocities only supports a limited number of file types. So for types not supported, third party services need to be used.

Figroll

Good	Custom domains
Good	Supports custom 404 pages
Good	HTTPS for free
Good	Staging URL's Get you share sites on different environments.
Bad	Shutting down https://ift.tt/2KhHaAB

Specs

Comment

Closing soon

GitLab Pages

Good	Open Source Unlike BitBucket or GitHub, GitLab itself is Open Source. Even EE (which is needed for pages, but is free on Gitlab.com) is "source available".
Good	Regular updates GitLab is being constantly worked on and has a new release every month.
Good	Easy to setup Gitlab pages are quick and simple to setup, with documentation(https://ift.tt/2MUGGBM) that's short and fast to read through.
Good	Free private repositories You can use private repositories on the free tier.
Good	Supports multiple domains on a single site
Good	Support for lots of static site generators They support jekyll, hugo, hexo, middleman and any other SSGs. Anything you can define in Jenkins CI configurations.

TeamViewer

Advantages

• Free for personal use
  As long as you don't use TeamViewer for commercial use, it's free.
• Easy setup
  Download the client from TeamViewer(https://ift.tt/sRJCJU) and run the software. Optionally, you can also install the software for unattended control.

NoMachine

Advantages

• Cross-platform
  NoMachine is for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Raspberry.

Ammyy Admin

Zero-Config Remote Desktop Software Ammyy Admin. The easiest way to establish remote desktop connection.

Advantages

• Not expensive for pro
  
• No installation required
  You just need to share your `.exe` file.
• Free for personal use
  15 hours per month.
• Easy to use
  
• Supports all versions
  
• Customizable
  

Disadvantages

• Slow interactions
  
• Non-existent support
  
• Non-secure website
  Chrome warns of security issues. On the website there's a message to go to: https://ift.tt/2Kd5BlD

1. Quod Libet

Quod Libet(https://ift.tt/XaH9Ok) has enough features, but not an excess. Its tag editing functionality is also top-notch. It is also cross platform.

Positive	Easy to use Despite very good library management capability, Quod Libet is easy to use. The complexity is hidden in the plugins.
Positive	Customizable looks There are a few controls that allow the user to change how the player looks.
Positive	Great for organizing and editing large collections Quod Libet gives the user the necessary tools to edit and organize their library from within the app.
Positive	Lots of plugins available Quod Libet offers many plugin including Last FM sync, lyrics support and iOS sync.
Negative	GTK-APP = Terrible integration The software uses GTK+ so it doesn't even try to integrate itself into Windows, for example it uses its own theme, its own icons, its own keyboard shortcuts and it even uses the default limited GTK file open dialog.
Negative	Plugins could be better integrated Viewing the lyrics could be easier to access, Lyrics not downloaded automatically. No last.fm tab (no info about the artist, no proposal of similar artists... - scrubing works though).
Negative	Uses quite a bit of memory Using up to 130 MB.

2. MusicBee

MusicBee works great compared to other music managers like Zune and Foobar. It is totally customizable and the tag editing is very good. It also supports iDevices for transferring music (with drivers installed). Hands down, it is the best music player/manager for Windows.

Positive	iOS sync support There is a plugin available that allows users to sync their iOS devices including music ad podcasts.
Positive	Customizable look and feel MusicBee can be skinned. Skins can significantly change the appearance of a player. To apply a skin it has to be downloaded, moved to the appropriate folder and after restarting MusicBee, applied. A collection of skins can be found here(https://ift.tt/1qxfqWK). It's also possible to customize the layout by choosing which panels to display.
Positive	Fast
Positive	Simple Simple & easy-to-use interface.
Positive	Functionality can be extended via plugins A collection of plugins can be found here(https://ift.tt/2KdQC81) that extend the uses of the app from iOS support, last.fm support to streaming services support.
Negative	MP3 and AAC transcoding requires installing separate encoders Due to licensing reasons, MP3 and AAC encoders don't come bundled with the software and have to be installed separately.

Specifications

• Remote app available -> Android only
• Price -> FREE
• Algorithmic Radio -> Native Groove Music support
• DirectX version required -> 8.1 or above
• Minimum RAM -> 512MB
• Software Framework -> .NET 4.0
• iPod sync compatible -> No
• Minimum free storage -> 50MB
• Platforms -> Windows Vista, 7, 8 & 10 (32 or 64-bit)
• UPnP support -> Server and controller modes (via free plugins)
• Built-in scrobbling -> Last.fm

FREE

3. foobar2000

Positive	Supports a wide variety of audio formats Foobar2000 natively supports MP1, MP2, MP3, MPC, AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, ALAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CD, Speex, Opus and support for additional formats can be added with plugins.
Positive	Lots of skins made by other users available Browsing a site like DeviantArt will give you hundreds of skins to choose from.
Positive	Lightweight Foobar2000 has a clean, minimalistic UI, small filesize and is light on resource usage.
Positive	ReplayGain support ReplayGain can be applied on a per album or track basis, allowing the user to set up an even volumed listening experience.
Positive	Highly customizable Through themes and layout a user can customize the looks and usefulness of the app, though it does take a good bit of patience if something very specific is wanted.
Positive	Transcodes all supported audio formats The converter component allows foobar2000 to convert from and to any file formats that the player is capable of playing back.
Negative	Provides little in terms of hand-holding Advanced things like skinning and installing components may be a bit intimidating to new users as they require knowledge of their computers.
Negative	Extra step to sync with iOS Out of the box Foobar does not have sync with iOS, the user will need to load a plugin (that comes with the download) by using the components customizer.
Negative	Requires a bit of work to get up and running Most of the features that makes it powerful is usually set up by the user
Negative	Not easy to skin It looks like something out of win2000 out of the box. It is also very difficult to skin for the normal user. While there are a few themes in the settings adding in user made themes may be more technical than what a casual user is willing to learn how to do.

4. WinX MediaTrans

WinX MediaTrans shows its full ability to sync iOS files between iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and PC, implementing 2-way transfer of photos, music, videos, e-books and other media files (including iTunes purchases). It is ranked as the best iTunes alternative to deliver a much simper, smarter and safer syncing process.

Positive	Automatic to transcode video WinX MediaTrans is armed with a video transcoder helping change the video format from incompatible one to compatible MP4 (H.264) for iOS when adding a movie/video to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. The support of hardware acceleration greatly speeds up transcoding process so that you can quickly add a large video file to iOS devices at the shortest time.
Positive	Intelligent to manage music You can modify meta data of every music on your iOS devices, like title, artist, album, year and more. You are allowed to create a playlist with a name and add song in the same genre into the playlist. You can also delete unwanted songs, playlist from iOS devices permanently.
Positive	Turn iOS Devices as Flash Drive All supported iOS devices can be taken as a flash drive to save different files, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, TXT etc.
Positive	Easy to use WinX MediaTrans has an intuitive design with all features displayed on the interface in the form of icons. Users can easily learn how to get started with it. Only 2 steps, to select items > export, you can back up desired iOS files to PC. In turn, choose items from hard drive > add > sync and then you can get the content on your iOS devices for movable playback.
Positive	Fast to transfer No network needed, WinX MediaTrans completes sync mission via a USB cable which connects your iOS device and PC. Not affected by network condition or any other interruption, thousands of 4K and HD photos will be transferred to your PC within 1 minute.
Positive	Flexible & stable to sync Selective syncing is allowed. You can pick one photo, multiple songs, all e-books and more and back up to PC. Every item you select will be intactly transferring to computer. No missing data and no quality loss.
Positive	Powerful to handle iTunes purchases DRM-ed movies, music, and audio books purchased from iTunes Store can be exported as MP4/MP3 files with DRM-free, which can be played on any device (Android, Windows Mobile), players besides authorized Apple gadgets and iTunes.
Negative	Limited free version The maximum number of items you can transfer for free is 30 per day. You can't access DRM removal feature unless upgrading to full feature.

Specifications

• Platforms -> Windows 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista
• iOS Compatibility -> iOS 7 to iOS 11
• Languages -> English, Deutsch, French, Spanish, Japanese

5. Syncios iOS Manager

Syncios Manager is a powerful iTunes alternative and iOS manager, trusted by millions Apple users. It can help you backup and restore your iOS devices on one click. It enables you transfering data between your PC and iPad/iPhone/iPod without using iTunes, downloading online video and auido to iOS device for free, making iPhone ringtone, converting video&audio to iPad, iPhone, iPod.

Positive	Free limited version The app is available for free for anyone to use, though there are limited functions since there is a paid version as well.
Positive	Use storage on device for storing files Much like one would use a USB flash drive this app allows you to store data on an iOS device.
Positive	Easy backup and recovery One-key backup and one-key recovery for everything on the device.
Positive	Control ones data on their iOS device Transfer up to 12 types of data between PC & iOS: Music, videos, photos, apps, ebooks, contacts, messages and more.
Positive	File conversion for unsupported formats The audio & video converter allow you to convert and enjoying music, ringtones, video that were originally in unsupported format on an iPad, iPhone, iPod.
Positive	Free download of videos from Youtube to iPhone Supports downloading videos from over 100 video sharing sites including Youtube.
Negative	Free version is too limited Most functions are unable to be used in any worthwhile capacity in the free version as the app continually pushes for the user to purchase the full version, which is $40.

1. VLC

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

POSITIVE

• Good Windows app
  On Windows it is good though and will play most formats. Come on guys, please sort out your Android app!
• Intuitive UI
  An incredibly robust application but very simple on the surface. It makes playing music simple and puts the user in control.
• Needs no additional codecs?
  Everything VLC needs to play media files is contained within which means no outside codecs are needed.
• Functionality can be extended with addons
  VLC can be extended through scripting; it uses the Lua scripting language. More information VLC scripting in Lua can be found on their official forums(https://ift.tt/2MObbcK).
• Good support for H.265 since Feb 2015
  
• Open source
  The software is open source and completely free.
• Active development
  In addition to VLC being actively developed by the core developers, due to its popularity, VLC also receives regular update from the community.

NEGATIVE

• Does not support HEVC on Android Plaform
  It also sometimes doesn't play AVI format files.
• Lags on some videos
  Noticeable frame drops on some videos.
• Lacks libraries and advanced music player features?
  VLC is a media player first and foremost. There is no library management, aside from playlists, usage of tags is very limited, no rating system and VLC is best at playing a file directly from a folder as opposed to helping you manage or find good songs in your music library.

2. Elmedia Player

Elmedia is a free media player for Mac that supports various video and audio formats, including FLV, SWF, MP4, AVI, MOV, MP4, DAT, MP3, etc. The app features built-in web browser that allows you to watch online videos directly from the app, while Open Online Video lets you to do it without noisy ads. There is plenty Elmedia offers to enhance your viewing experience: 10-band equalizer to shape your audio tone, video aspect ratio change to fit image into screen, optimize your video viewing by adjusting playback speed,on-screen display for actions such as pausing, playback. Add hardware accelerated decoding to the list. It can significantly unload the processor, helps avoiding video slowdown, helps with sound to video sync, etc. Elmedia can play video in full screen mode or pin player window on top of other running apps so you do not miss a moment of a movie. The player has its own volume control, enables you to edit subtitles, and more. Elmedia Player is also available as a PRO edition. For $19.95 it offers: downloading videos from the Internet, including videos broadcast over RTMP and videos embedded via HTML5; downloading YouTube videos in various formats and resolutions; extracting audio files from YouTube videos in MP3 and other formats; downloading YouTube playlists; making screenshots of your favorite moments; adjusting audio in various ways; choosing output devices for video and audio; saving Projector EXE files as SWF, AirPlay support,video tuner to make your videos better, A-B loop to repeat a video segment playback, flipping, rotating images.

POSITIVE

• Supports all other popular video and audio formats
  
• Convenient video settings
  You can use different settings to video like video and image layout adjustments.
• Supports H265 format and many others specific media formats
  Among popular media formats, Elmedia also supports : . ra, .ram, .ogg, .ogm, .ogv, .m2t, .m2ts, .ts, .asf, .fli, .ac3, .mqv, .nut, nuv,.nsv, .rec,.vfw, .pcm, .aiff, .aif, .flac and etc.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Download Mp3 -> Yes
• License -> Free/Pro
• Download videos -> Yes
• Platforms -> Mac
• Platform -> Mac
• Play online videos -> Yes
• Embedded tracker -> Yes

3. Splash

POSITIVE

• Hardware support for decoding
  Hardware decoding for AMD, Intel and NVidia GPUs including iGPUs (integrated GPUs)
• Motion / frame interpolation
  This is a great feature that works out of the box. Videos are MUCH smoother because of this.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Supported audio formats -> MP3, MP2, M4A, AAC
• Supported video formats -> AVI, M2T, MTS, M2TS, MKV, MKA, MOV, MP4, MPG, TS, M4V, VOB, DIVX, XVID, WMV, MBT

4. MPC-HC

POSITIVE

• Supports H.265, and has for over 2 years
  VLC only recently improved their support for H.265 in Feb 2015, before that it didn't work as well as MPC-HC's.
• Supports frame stepping with Ctrl+Left/Right
  Useful for game development frame debugging. Your average user won't need this. VLC has frame advance, but it's hidden and non-intuitive; I'm not sure if VLC can step backwards, I don't think it can. So, MPC-HC is better in my book for that functionality.

NEGATIVE

• Windows only
  MPC-HC supports only Windows operating systems.

5. IINA

The modern video player for macOS.

POSITIVE

• Like MPV with better GUI and settings
  It's like mpv, just more user friendly GUI and more settings available via UI.
• Open source
  

6. MPV

A free, open source, and cross-platform media player.

POSITIVE

• Open source
  It's open source (GPL2) and totally free.
• Minimal interface
  The whole interface is just a video with a minimal OSD.
• Lightweight
  
• Can be fully configured
  
• High performance
  Very responsive seeking even on high bitrate video.
• GPU video decoding
  MPV leverages the FFmpeg hwaccel APIs to support VDPAU, VAAPI, DXVA2, VDA and VideoToolbox video decoding acceleration.

NEGATIVE

• Lack of a typical GUI can be jarring to some
  The minimal interface comes at the cost of beginner-friendliness. You need to know keyboard shortcuts by heart, settings are set in text files, right-clicking won't bring up a menu, etc.

Dell Ultrasharp U2415

The Dell Ultrasharp U2415 is a budget 24-inch 1920x1200 media editing monitor.

GOOD

• Flicker-free
  The Dell U2415 doesn’t put additional strain on your eyes since its backlight doesn’t flicker. Monitor flickering can cause severe eye fatigue over extensive use.
• Has a USB hub
  The monitor’s integrated USB hub consists of four downstream USB 3.0 ports that you can use to charge peripheral USB devices or connect them to your computer. The single upstream port offers high data transfer rate typical of USB 3.0.
• Can be used in portrait mode
  The Dell U2415 does an excellent job even when used in portrait mode because of its superb vertical viewing angles that are superior to what the overwhelming majority of competitors in this price range offer. When used in portrait mode, the monitor’s colors and shadows start to shift only when the viewing angle becomes greater than 25 degrees.
• Good for mixed-use
  The Dell U2415 offers exceptional color accuracy, high adjustability, decent responsiveness, and high resolution which, combined with its good overall picture quality makes it one of the best monitors in this price range.
• Adjustable
  Setting the monitor according to your workspace needs is simple because the stand supports all the key ergonomic adjustments, including height, tilt, pivot, and swivel. Additionally, you can mount the Dell U2415 on a VESA 100x100 compliant monitor stand.
• Factory calibrated
  Out of the box, the Dell U2415 displays 99% of the sRGB colors, which is an extremely rare feature for a monitor in this price range.
• Good for occasional gaming
  The Dell U2415 is an excellent companion for those enjoying a casual round of CS: GO or LOL in between working hours because the monitor offers reasonably high responsiveness and well-handled motion. It's works good even while playing fast FPS games as the monitor’s input lag of 9.1 ms is barely noticeable by most players. Furthermore, the Dell U2415 makes motion appear free from artificial motion blur thanks to its full pixel response time of 6 milliseconds which allows each pixel of the Dell U2415 to change their color within only six milliseconds.
• No signs of image retention
  The Dell U2415 was tested to be free of image burn-in problems that are common among monitors in this price range.

BAD

• Requires calibration
  To get the most out of the monitor’s performance, you need to calibrate it. The procedure will take you 5-10 minutes as the monitor’s optimized ICC profile is available on the Internet.
• Doesn’t look good in a dark room
  In a dark room, you can notice some minor backlight bleeding that occurs towards the lower part of the screen. Backlight bleeding appears when the panel can’t absorb the 100% of the monitor’s backlight and limits the monitor’s use in a dark environment. However, this is a widespread issue for the IPS panels in this price range.
• Not suitable for Adobe RGB content
  This monitor is not the right tool for those who work with Adobe RGB as it supports only 70% of the Adobe RGB colors.
• Lacks speakers
  Not a huge dealbreaker, but it's something to consider.

SPECS

Speakers	No
Maximum resolution	1920x1200
Color space	sRGB 99%
Dimensions	20.39"x20.95"x8.07" (with stand)
Peak brightness	275
Panel size	24”
Input lag	9.1 ms
Response time	6 ms
Color depth	8-bit
USB	5x USB 3.0
Swivel	-45° to 45°
Weight	18.37 lbs (with stand)
FreeSync	No
Additional connectivity	DisplayPort Out
HDMI	2x HDMI 1.4

Dell P2217H

The Dell P2217H is a versatile 21.5-inch entry-level IPS monitor. It is suitable for general purpose applications, like browsing the web, watching SDR media, working in a standard Windows environment, and even some casual gaming.

GOOD

• Good picture quality
  The monitor's contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are on par with what the majority of competitors in this price range offer. The monitor's IPS panel displays good-looking picture, with bright and saturated colors, reasonably deep blacks, and lifelike intermediate mid-tones. The colors pop thanks to the monitor's peak brightness of 250 nits. Dark scenes look pretty as the monitor's native contrast ratio of 1147:1 is high enough to make the IPS panel display good-looking blacks. The intermediate tones are well balanced as the monitor's gamma of 2.18 is only 1% away from the ideal value. Additionally, color inaccuracies are very hard to spot because of its average color error dE of only 3.2.
• Excellent ergonomics
  You won't have any trouble setting this monitor according to the needs of your workspace since the Dell P2217H supports all of the necessary ergonomic adjustments. Additionally, you can easily change its orientation from landscape to portrait, and vice versa.
• Suitable for occasional gaming
  The Dell P2217H offers good gaming experience for a general purpose display in this price range because of its reasonably low input lag and good motion handling capabilities. The monitor feels responsive because of its input lag of 9.8 ms. Only gaming monitors in this price range outperform such result. Motion looks reasonably clear because only tiny traces follow fast-moving objects on the screen. The monitor's pixels need only six milliseconds to change their color, which reduces motion blur.
• Good for general use
  While it does not excel in any aspect, the Dell P2217H has enough versatility to be a decent general purpose monitor. It features good picture quality and excellent connectivity, combined with an impressive range of ergonomic adjustments. The monitor is also suitable for occasional, non-competitive gaming since its input lag and pixel response time are low enough to grant reasonably smooth and responsive gaming experience.
• Flicker-free
  This monitor doesn't put additional stress on your eyes as its backlight doesn't flicker. This is important as monitor flickering is one of the leading causes of eye fatigue.
• Doesn’t suffer from image retention
  You can leave the monitor on for long periods without having to worry about pixel damage because the Dell P2217H does not have any problems related to image retention.
• Has a USB hub
  You can charge external USB devices and connect them to a computer using the monitor's USB 3.0 hub. The hub consists of four downstream ports that are used for connecting peripherals and a single upstream port that connects the hub to a computer.

BAD

• Bad for bright rooms
  The Dell P2217H can't fight glare in bright rooms because its peak brightness is not high enough.
• Limited color space
  The Dell P2217H is not the right tool for color-critical applications because it supports only 92.7% of the sRBG color space. The sRBG is the default color space for web applications, SDR media, and the standard Windows environment.
• Lacks 3.5 mm audio jack
  The Dell P2217H does not have a 3.5 mm analog audio output.
• Lacks speakers
  This monitor does not have onboard speakers.

SPECS

Panel type	IPS
Color depth	8-bit
G-Sync	No
USB	2x USB 2.0; 2x USB 3.0
Native refresh rate	60 Hz
Input lag	9.8 ms
Response time	6.0 ms
Native contrast ratio	1147:1
FreeSync	No
Wall mounts	VESA 100x100
Speakers	No
Swivel	-45° to 45°
Peak brightness	250 nits
Additional connectivity	VGA
Height adjustments	129 mm

Dell E2318Hx

The Dell E2318Hx is an excellent choice for those looking for a reliable and energy-efficient 23-inch monitor that would not break the bank. It's suitable for doing some general office work and browsing the web.

GOOD

• Good for mixed-use
  The Dell E2318Hx is among the most versatile budget monitors because it offers fair responsiveness, low energy consumption, and adequate picture quality without breaking the bank.
• Acceptable picture quality
  The monitor's picture quality is a tiny bit below the average because of its limited color gamut. However, the panel's peak brightness and native contrast ratio are on par with the rest of its competitors in this price range. The Dell E2318Hx displays adequately-looking pictures with average blacks and vivid, yet a bit inaccurate colors. The dark scenes look mediocre because the monitor's native contrast ratio of 1000:1 is a little bit too low and can't push blacks to really intense levels. Colors look shiny since the monitor's backlight can get up to 250 nits bright. However, you might spot some color inaccuracies because of the monitor's incomplete coverage of the sRGB color space, which results in color shifting.
• Affordable
  The Dell E2318Hx is one of the cheapest 23-inch IPS monitors on the market. You’ll be hard-pressed to find it a matching competitor in its price range since the big manufacturers like HP, Dell, Samsung, LG, Phillips, Asus, Acer, and AOC don't offer such large panels in the sub $120 range.
• Low energy consumption
  Running this monitor 24/7 will cost you less than $1.2 per month in electricity bills because the Dell E2318Hx consumes only around 16 W of electricity, which makes it one of the most energy-efficient monitors in this price range.
• Responsive
  This monitor doesn't feel disconnected and reacts to your actions quite rapidly as there is almost no lag between your actions and the actual stuff happening on the screen. The motion looks good and blur-free because of the monitor's full pixel response time of 5 ms, which allows each pixel of the panel to change their colors within only five milliseconds. Therefore, only very tiny trails may follow fast-moving objects.

BAD

• Poor connectivity
  The Dell E2318Hx offers only a bare minimum of connectivity which might be a huge deal breaker in 2018.
• Poor color space
  The Dell E2318Hx is unsuitable for color-critical applications because the monitor supports only 85% of the sRGB color space.
• Lacks ergonomic adjustments
  It will not be easy for you to set up a proper, ergonomically correct working environment with the Dell E2318Hx as its adjustment range is limited severely. You can't adjust its height, pivot, or swivel angle.

SPECS

Wall mounts	VESA 100x100
HDMI	Yes, 1
Dimensions	16.34”x21.45”x7.09” (with stand)
Tilt adjustments	-5° to 21°
Additional connectivity	VGA
Panel type	IPS
Pivot	No
Response time	5.0 ms
Panel size	23”
Height adjustments	No
Peak brightness	250:1
Weight	8.58 lbs
Color space	85% sRBG
Native refresh rate	60 Hz
Maximum resolution	1920x1080

LG 25UM58-P

The LG 25UM58-P is a well-rounded ultra-wide general purpose monitor. Its large, 25-inch 2560x1080 pixel panel offers a lot of display real estate which can boost your productivity significantly.

GOOD

• Suitable for casual gaming
  High responsiveness and proper motion handling make the LG 25UM58-P a suitable companion for enjoying an occasional CS:GO or Overwatch round. The monitor feels responsive because of its 9 ms input lag. Only a handful of other general purpose monitors in this price range can match such high responsiveness. The motion appears clear and almost free from the artificial motion blur effect because even the most rapidly-moving objects leave just some minor trails as the panel's pixels need only 5 ms to change their colors.
• Excellent value for money
  Priced just a bit above $150, this 25-inch ultra-wide monitor offers a generous amount of on-screen workspace, good picture quality, decent gaming performance, and some premium functions, like LG's On Screen Control and the Split Screen feature. You’ll struggle to find the LG 25UM58-P a matching competitor in its price range.
• Convenient controls
  You can access the monitor's setting using your keyboard and a mouse because the monitor supports LG's On Screen Control software. Moreover, the software features the Screen Split function which lets you organize the real estate of your monitor according to your needs.
• Decent viewing angles
  The LG 25UM58-P does look good from an angle because of its high-quality IPS panels. While the exact numbers for the 25UM58-P are still not available, the entire line-up of the LG’s ultrawide monitors from 2016 and 2017 suggests that the maximum, horizontal viewing angle of this monitor should be higher than 40 degrees.
• Nice for watching media
  You won't see the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen while watching media filmed in the widescreen cinema standard because of the monitor's near-cinematic resolution of 2560x1080. An aspect ratio of 21:9 is currently the de facto standard in the film making industry.
• Good for widescreen gaming
  The monitor's extended field of view can give you some actual advantage in games such as Battlefield 1 and Team Fortress 2 which offer a broader field of view for those running 21:9 monitors.
• Lots of on-screen real estate
  This monitor has enough workspace for you to edit two Word documents side by side - something you could never do on a 25-inch FHD monitor comfortably. Additionally, the large workspace does not come at the cost of resolution as the LG 25UM58-P offers 20% higher pixel density compared to the regular 25-inch FHD panel.
• Can be locked
  You can be sure that no one borrows the LG 25UM58-P from your work desk without you knowing it because this monitor has a Kensington lock.
• Good picture quality
  The monitor's contrast ratio, brightness, and color gamut are on par with what the vast majority of competitors in this price range offer. The LG 25UM58-P can display rich images, with eye-catching and vivid colors and deep dark spots. The colors look good because of the monitor's peak brightness of 250 nits and the full support of the sRGB color gamut. Dark scenes appear deep thanks to the native contrast ratio of 1000:1, which pushes the monitor's blacks to reasonably intense levels. Moreover, the LG 25UM58-P produces sharper and more saturated images than the corresponding 25-inch FHD competitors because it has 20% higher pixel density.

BAD

• Lacks some adjustability
  Setting up an ergonomically correct workspace might cause you a bit of a hassle because the monitor does not have a height or swivel angle adjustment. Also, there is no way to use this monitor in a portrait mode since its stand does not support it.
• Bad for dark rooms
  The monitor doesn't look good in dark rooms because its panel can't absorb all the light emitted by the backlight. Such effect is called backlight bleeding. Note that this is a widespread problem for most monitors in this price range.
• Can't fight glare
  The monitor doesn't look good in overly bright rooms with lots of windows as its backlight can't get bright enough to fight glare and heavy reflections.
• Requires calibration
  To pull the monitor's maximum color accuracy, you need to get it calibrated because the LG 25UM58-P lacks factory calibration. The calibration is required only if are going to do some color-critical work in the sRGB color space. Even though the calibration process itself is not complicated, it’d require you to have the specific testing equipment. The usual rental price of such equipment is around $10 a day.
• Has an external power brick
  You'll need to find a space for the monitor's PSU because the LG 25UM58-P comes with a bulky external power brick.

SPECS

G-Sync	No
Pivot	No
Height adjustments	No
FreeSync	No
Color depth	8-bit
Color space	sRGB (99%)
Additional connectivity	3.5mm headphone jack
Peak brightness	250 nits
Response time	5 ms
Panel type	IPS
Tilt adjustments	-5°/+20°
Maximum resolution	2560x1080
Native refresh rate	60 Hz
Input lag	9.0 ms
DisplayPort	No