Spotifast

Spotifast, renamed from Fastpotify, is a native Rust Spotify app for Linux, macOS and Windows. It opens in well under a second and typically uses 100 to 250 MB of RAM, where Spotify's own desktop app often uses 600 MB to over 1 GB. MIT licensed and free.

Install via Homebrew, the AUR, Flatpak or AppImage and sign in on Spotify's site. It covers playlists, podcasts, search, lyrics and radio, acts as a Spotify Connect device, and controls Google Cast and Sonos speakers. Extras: a Winamp-style mini player and MilkDrop visuals.

The project charges nothing. The cost is Spotify Premium at $12.99 per month for an individual US plan, because free accounts can browse and search but can't play anything. Solo: worth it if you already pay Spotify and hate the official app. Teams: not applicable.

The catch: it's unofficial and runs on borrowed access. By default it uses a public Spotify app ID shared with spotify-player and ncspot, reads private Spotify endpoints for several features, and Spotify's developer policy bans products that replicate a core Spotify experience without permission. Spotify can break it anytime. Update to 0.13.3: it fixed a medium-severity advisory, including access tokens written to trace logs.