Many different programs support FLAC. If you are not sure what to download, see Using FLAC for instructions and guides on playing FLAC files, ripping CDs to FLAC, etc.

This section is for the official FLAC tools. See the extras section below for other third-party tools.

All source code and binaries are freely available and distributed under Open Source licenses. The codec libraries are distributed under Xiph.org's BSD license, and the plugins and command-line utilites (flac and metaflac) are distributed under the GPL. If you would like to redistribute parts or all of FLAC under different terms, contact Josh Coalson. (For more information, see the license page.)

• Linux
  • FLAC for Fedora Core 4
  • FLAC 1.x Debian packages
  • RPMs can be found on Planet CCRMA and rpmfind.net
• Mac OS X
  • MacFLAC with installer and GUI front-end (source code not available)
  • FLACer (source code not available)
  • xACT with installer and GUI front-end (source code included)
  • FLAC Fink package for use with Fink
  • FLAC tools for OS X. The .dmg file is an installer and the .tar.gz file is a tarball.
• Windows
  • FLAC for Windows with installer (If this does not work, download flac-1.2.1a.exe from here) NOTE FOR VISTA USERS: if the installer is getting stuck, try this workaround
  • FLAC for Windows (command-line tools only)
• Other
  • FLAC package for Amiga
  • FLAC packages for IRIX.
  • FLAC for Solaris 2.7
  • Unofficial port of the FLAC libraries to Windows CE (WinCE)
• Source code
  • FLAC full source code; also includes documentation and build systems for Windows (MSVC++) and *nix,*BSD,OS/2,OS X (autotools)
  • Nightly CVS tarball; this is the actual CVS repository used for development
• Older versions
  • Older versions of FLAC available from SourceForge

NOTE: these extras are not part of the FLAC project. Most (except those marked [$]) are freely available but distributed under their authors' own terms.

NOTE: make sure to check out the links page for a large list of open-source software supporting FLAC.

GUI encoding/decoding front-ends:

• Windows
  • AutoFLAC for automated ripping and encoding to FLAC with EAC (ExactAudioCopy); also has a write mode for burning back to CD for an exact copy
  • dBpowerAMP, a swiss army knife that can convert and play many formats, including FLAC.
  • Flacattack: an all-in-one tool that works with ExactAudioCopy to encode a CD image to FLAC, embed the cuesheet, add ReplayGain, create lossy files, etc. all in a customizable directory structure.
  • FLACdrop, an Oggdrop-like frontend for Windows.
  • FLAC frontend, a Windows GUI, or the even more versatile Multi frontend.
  • FLACTester, can test a whole tree of FLAC files for errors and generate a report.
  • Frontah, a new frontend to many codecs, including FLAC. Still in beta but has good reviews.
  • GX::Transcoder
  • MAREO is a "virtual" encoder that can be used with ExactAudioCopy to encode to multiple formats (including FLAC) at once while ripping.
  • MediaCoder converts between many audio and video formats.
  • MediaMonkey can organize, encode, decode, edit tags, and rip to FLAC and other formats.
  • Yahoo! Music Engine
• Mac OS X
  • iTunes-to-FLAC, an AppleScript for converting between FLAC and WAVE/AIFF with tagging via iTunes.
  • MacFLAC, a FLAC distribution which also includes nice graphical front-end.
  • Max, a CD ripper and encoder that supports several formats including FLAC.
  • MediaRage, for editing FLAC metadata (also supports Vorbis and other formats).
  • RipBeak is a nice GUI encoding frond-end that supports FLAC as well as Vorbis and MP3.
  • xACT, another FLAC distribution with a graphical front-end to FLAC and other formats.
• Unix
  • Grip is a great ripping and encoding front end and can be easily configured to use flac. See this thread on how to configure Grip for FLAC.
  • xmcd is a CD ripper with CDDB support as well as a player.
  • (many more)
• Pocket PC
  • [$] Live2496, a program that can record 24-bit audio up to 96kHz on a Pocket PC (using Core Sound's PDAudio interface) can record directly to FLAC.

CD burning:

• Windows
  • burnatonce, a CD burning GUI that wraps around cdrdao and mkisofs.
  • Burrrn supports burning CDs from cuesheets directly from many formats, including FLAC, and supports most tag formats.
  • CD Wave, a CD authoring tool that can read and write FLAC.
  • dBpowerAMP CD Writer.
  • [$] Easy CD-DA Extractor.
  • [$] Easy Media Creator 9 Suite from Roxio.
• Mac OS X
  • [$] Roxio's Toast 7 Titanium supports encoding to FLAC and CD/DVD burning from FLAC.
• Unix
  • Arson: KDE ripper/burner
  • K3B: CD/DVD creator for Linux
  • (more)

Players and plugins:

• Windows
  • [$] Adobe Audition a.k.a. CoolEdit (as a plugin, alternate plugin by Case here)
  • Apollo (as a plugin)
  • dbPowerAMP (as a plugin)
  • DirectShow: Illiminable's DirectShow filters for encoding to/decoding from FLAC and Ogg FLAC (as well as Ogg Vorbis/Speex/Theora).
  • DirectShow: CoreFLAC: DirectShow filters for encoding to/decoding from FLAC.
  • foobar2000 (as a plugin)
  • [$] Media Center/Media Jukebox (as plugins). Source code is available.
  • [$] MediaMonkey: organizes, plays, and rips to FLAC.
  • Mp3CoolPlay-X (as a plugin)
  • Quintessential Player (as a plugin)
  • Songbird
  • VLC
  • VUPlayer
  • Winamp has native FLAC support
  • Windows Media Player, using either the Illiminable or CoreFLAC DirectShow filters, and FLAC tag support with WMP Tag Support Extender (guide)
  • XMPlay (as a plugin)
  • Yahoo! Music Engine
• Mac OS X
  • Cog
  • Cynthiune music player
  • MacAmp Lite X
  • PureMusic Audio Player
  • Songbird
  • VLC
  • XiphQT component for Quicktime/iTunes that supports Ogg FLAC playback
• Unix
  • AlsaPlayer
  • GiantDisc: Linux jukebox + Palm remote
  • MPlayer
  • Muine: a music player for GNOME
  • Musik: an open-source, cross-platform multimedia player and library
  • VideoLAN client
  • Xine multimedia player
  • xmcd: X CD player
  • XMMS: X MultiMedia System
  • (many more)
• Java
  • jFLAC: a Java native-FLAC decoder library and player application.
  • J-Ogg: Java libraries for Ogg decoding, including Ogg FLAC.