Music discovery website Soundcloud has some great mobile apps, but desktop users aren’t so lucky: it’s the browser, or nothing at all.

Fortunately there’s now an unofficial alternative in Soundnode, an open-source Soundcloud client for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The package is entirely self-contained, no installation required: just run it, log on, and search for new music or listen to songs from your Stream, Likes, Tracks or Playlists.

You can also “like” songs along the way, maybe save them to an existing playlist, or create one from scratch. It’s possible to follow and unfollow users, too.

All this is managed from a good-looking, smartly-designed interface. It’s NW.js-based, so doesn’t quite have the richness of a real desktop client, but you’ll still figure out everything you need to know in a couple of minutes.

Soundnode looks so good you’ll think it’s an official app

There are gaps here and there: right now you can view comments, but not post them.

But Soundnode also has its pluses – like easier playback for some, thanks to support for native media keyboard shortcuts – and from current developer discussions it looks like further important features will be added soon.

Soundnode is an open-source application for Windows, Mac and Linux.