Add to ChromeWhen comparing Spotify vs ES File Explorer, the Slant community recommends Spotify for most people. In the question“What are the most useful Android phone apps?” Spotify is ranked 2nd while ES File Explorer is ranked 29th. The most important reason people chose Spotify is:
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music. The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Huge collection of music and fast access to newly released songs
Spotify has over 20 million songs and arguably the largest collection out of its competitors and usually has the fastest access to new music.
The Spotify desktop client allows local music files to be imported with the option of syncing with a mobile device which largely mitigates the issue of missing artists.
Pro Has a free version
A free, ad-supported account allows streaming from an extensive library of music.
Pro Related artists
Helps to find new authors based on your previous picks
Pro Weekly Discover playlist uses a great algorithm
A playlist generated by Spotify based on your listening habits and released every Monday. The algorithm used by this playlist is great and stands out from its competitors.
Pro Curated playlists
Public playlists on Spotify created by other people are great for finding new music.
Pro Client's functionality can be extended via third-party apps
Spotify desktop client allows for third-party apps. They extend the functionality of Spotify and many of them offer new ways of discovering music. Noteworthy apps include Moodagent, Last.fm, Swarm.fm, ShareMyPlaylists, The Hype Machine, We Are Hunted, Shuffler.fm.
Pro Built-in ZIP and RAR support
ES File Explorer supports the .zip and .rar compression formats.
Pro Integrates with a wide variety of services
The app supports Dropbox, Box.net, Sugarsync, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Amazon S3, Yandex and more.
Pro Supports SMB
ES File Explorer supports a local Samba connection to browse files on other area connected devices.
Cons
Con Free account have lots of ads
If you hate commercials, you would buy Premium or go on using something else.
Con Discovery is terrible
The discovery algorithm is poor and does not learn fast enough. Not obvious how to train it.
Con Poor audio quality
There's a high range of bitrates and most of vary from average to bad.
Con Ugly
Interface is kind of crappy.
Con Connects to an IP in China
For some reason ES File Explorer installs a folder called Baidu of which any app that installs this folder connects to an IP in China for some reason. Sadly it is still not known at this time for what or why.
Con Constant notifications
It is always running in the background and monitoring for possible issues. It always pops up with notifications about new files and suggested files for deletion. There is no way to turn it off.
Con bought by another company and bundled with adwares..
Con Loads at start up and constantly runs in background
Takes up resources by always running. Performs monitoring you cannot turn off.
Con Changes features often
Features are changed very frequently, with most of the additions/changes being unnecessary.
Con Adds possible malware
This issue appears after the update of Aug, 1, 2016 ver 4.1.2.4.
Con Closed source (proprietary)
The source code for ES File Explorer is closed source.
Con Slow
Con Broken
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