puddletag

Open-source audio tag editor for Linux with a spreadsheet layout, modelled on Mp3tag.

Open sourceMusic tag editors

Updated Nov 1, 2026 · AppBreakup editorial · Linux

Visit puddletag See 4 alternatives

Is puddletag free?

Yes, free and open source

License:: GPL-3.0

Checked on puddletag's site Nov 8, 2026

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All 4

foobar2000
Free
Kid3
Open source
MusicBrainz Picard
Open source

Verified facts: 5 of 5
Alternatives ranked: 4
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About puddletag

puddletag is a music tag editor for Linux, written as an answer to Mp3tag for people who left Windows. It shows your files in a spreadsheet-style table, so you can see and edit artist, album, track numbers and other fields across many songs at once. It can fill tags from file names, rename files from their tags with patterns, and run functions such as find-and-replace, trimming and case changes. Actions let you chain those steps and reuse them, and it can look up album data and cover art from MusicBrainz and Discogs, with AcoustID fingerprinting if Chromaprint is installed. It reads and writes ID3, MP4/M4A, Vorbis comments for Ogg, Opus and FLAC, APEv2 and WMA tags. It's free and GPL-3.0 licensed, written in Python with PyQt6, and packaged by Debian, Fedora, Arch (AUR), NixOS and others or installable from PyPI. There's no Windows or macOS version, and the project website lags behind the GitHub releases.

Best for: Linux users who want Mp3tag-style bulk tag editing in a table view..

What works

Spreadsheet layout makes bulk edits across albums quick
Tag-from-filename, rename-from-tag and reusable actions
MusicBrainz and Discogs lookups with cover art
Free, GPL-3.0 and in most Linux repositories

Why people leave

Linux only; no Windows or macOS build
Interface takes time to learn, much like Mp3tag
Official website and docs are updated rarely

puddletag vs foobar2000, Kid3 and MusicBrainz Picard

From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.

Attribute	puddletag	foobar2000	Kid3	MusicBrainz Picard
Pricing	Open source	Free	Open source	Open source
Verified price	—	—	—	—
Free plan	Free app	Free app	Free app	Free app
Open source	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Self-hostable	No	No	No	No
Platforms	Linux	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS	Linux, Windows, macOS, Android	Windows, macOS, Linux

Top puddletag alternatives

See all 4

1
foobar2000
Free player with bulk tag editing and tag-from-filename tools, a long-time choice for Windows users.
65.0
2
Kid3
Cross-platform tagger for Linux, Windows, macOS and Android with a similar range of formats.
64.8
3
MusicBrainz Picard
Matches whole albums against MusicBrainz by audio fingerprint, so less manual editing.
61.8
4
Quod Libet
Ships Ex Falso, a free Linux tag editor that renames files from tags and edits many tracks at once.
51.2

Why people left puddletag

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puddletag: common questions

What is puddletag?

puddletag: Open-source audio tag editor for Linux with a spreadsheet layout, modelled on Mp3tag. Best for linux users who want Mp3tag-style bulk tag editing in a table view. Available for Linux.

Is puddletag free?

Yes. puddletag is free, open-source software.

Is puddletag open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at puddletag/puddletag.

What platforms does puddletag run on?

puddletag is available for Linux.

What are the best alternatives to puddletag?

The highest-ranked puddletag alternatives right now are foobar2000, Kid3 and MusicBrainz Picard. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

puddletag vs foobar2000: what's the difference?

puddletag is free and open source; foobar2000 is free to use. puddletag is open source and foobar2000 is not. Only puddletag runs on Linux. Only foobar2000 runs on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.

See all 4 puddletag alternatives

puddletag facts

5 of 5 verified

License: GPL-3.0; Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “' bin/pip3 install -r ' requirements.txt ' bin/python3 ' puddletag ' License puddletag is licensed under the GPLv3”
Layout: Spreadsheet-style table; Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “Unlike most taggers for GNU/Linux, it uses a spreadsheet-like layout so that all the tags you want to edit by hand are visible and easily editable.”
Web lookups: Discogs, MusicBrainz, FreeDB; Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “Doing web lookups using Discogs (does cover art too!), FreeDB and MusicBrainz is also supported.”
Formats: ID3, MP4, Vorbis comments, APEv2, WMA; Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “VorbisComments (ogg, opus, flac), APEv2 (Musepack mpc, Monkey’s Audio ape, WavPack wv) and Windows Media (wma).”
Install: PyPI and Linux distribution packages; Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “Puddletag is available on PyPI .”