# plappa — Self-hosted Audiobooks

> Self-hosted audiobook player client for Jellyfin, Emby, and AudioBookShelf. (iPhone/iPad app by Leo Wehrfritz.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plappa/id6475201956 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Leo Wehrfritz](https://appshunter.io/developer/1663611386)
- Category: Books, Entertainment
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 325 App Store ratings · 286 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.0 · 34 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Chinese (Simplified, China), Slovenian
- Released: 2024-04-05
- Data updated: 2026-09-01
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plappa/id6475201956/reviews.md

## What is plappa?

Disclaimer: plappa only works in connection with a Jellyfin or AudioBookShelf media server!


plappa is an audiobook player/client for Jellyfin, Emby and AudioBookShelf, the popular self-hosted media server.

Features:
- Support for most common audio formats
- Purpose built for audiobooks
- Save and sync playback states via iCloud or your AudioBookShelf server
- Reads metadata like author, narrator and others
- Download audiobooks and podcast episodes for offline listening*
- Support for podcasts, collections and series with AudioBookShelf


* plappa allows you to unlock additional features like downloads and customization options through optional in-app purchases:
You can choose between a one-time purchase or an auto-renewing subscription (1 month free trial included).
The one-time purchase unlocks all current and future updates. With the subscription, all features are available for the duration of your subscription.
Both the subscription and one-time purchase can be shared with your family.


plappa is licensed under the Apple standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

## Key features

- Jellyfin, Emby, AudioBookShelf client
- Supports common audio formats
- Saves and syncs playback states
- Reads audiobook metadata
- Offline listening (via IAP)
- Podcast and collection support (AudioBookShelf)

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Subscription (1 Year) | $1.99 | per year |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Full Version (Lifetime) | $4.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of plappa?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 🚀 Great app with all the same features
- 🚀 Excellent, love download to watch
- 🚀 Works great! Just what I needed!
- 👍 Brilliant app
- 👍 Amazing!
- 👍 Amazing
- 👍 Fantastic!
- 👍 A Must-Have for Audiobook Shelf Lovers
- 👍 Great dev!
- 👍 Works Wonderfully
- 👍 Always improving
- 👍 Best Audiobook player for Audiobookshelf
- 👍 Outstanding
- 👍 A great way to access audiobook shelf!
- 👍 Excellent Audiobookshelf Client!
- 👍 Just what I was looking for
- 👍 Great for selfhosting
- 👍 Great app
- 👍 Masterpiece
- 👍 5 Stars
- 👍 Works perfectly with Audiobookshelf
- 👍 Incredible
- 👍 Love this app
- 👍 Very good already
- 👍 Excellent app!
- 👍 Great alternative to main Emby app
- 👍 Great app for IOS!
- 👍 Great for self hosted audiobooks
- 👍 AudiobookShelf
- 👍 Fantastic app!!
- 👍 Unbeatable
- 👍 Really great Podcast/Audiobook app for self-hosters
- 👍 Couldn't have designed it better myself
- 👍 Very good
- 👍 Love the app!!
- 👍 A great app with a friendly developer
- 👍 Perfect companion app
- 👍 Works great!
- 👍 Amazing app by an awesome developer
- 👍 Excellent
- 👍 Hands down the best
- 👍 Feels very professional
- 👍 Awesome app

**Cons**

- 🐛 Great player. Audiobookshelf support needs work
- 🐛 Small bugs, good app

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Can't login Audiobookshelf
- Podcasts library not listing all podcasts

**Most requested features**

- Auto download when start playing book
- Auto delete when finished book
- Option to add multiple servers
- More sorting and filtering options in the library section
- Refresh button for libraries
- Easy way to change server address without logging out
- Sync the unplayed/unlistened flags with AudiobookShelf
- Shortcut to bookmarks from within the player
- Slider for fine-tuned control of playback speed

## Recent user reviews (10 of 286)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plappa/id6475201956/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Great When it Works

*2026-08-25, version 1.6.2*

Like the title says, it’s great when it works, but every other week I run into a playback issue whether when streaming a book or playing one that I’ve downloaded to my device. I have to delete and reinstall the app to clear it; that usually works so to restore playback. Using it with audiobookshelf.

### 2/5 — Good but buggy

*2026-08-23, version 1.6.2*

Clean interface and good audiobookshelf integration. Really struggling with the app retaining positions accurately on my 17 Pro though. The “go back x seconds after interruption” setting does whatever it wants regardless of my setting, and if I pause from the lock screen widget the playtime continues incrementing even though audio starts. Ending a timer from my Apple Watch while a book is playing seems to cause a random increment of 1-5 minutes. This is all with a downloaded local book, so not even a connectivity concern with my audiobookshelf server. I’ll be looking for another option despite paying for this one - keeping accurate positions, always, is my highest priority requirement for an audiobook player.

### 5/5 — Amazing

*2026-08-19, version 1.6.2*

Great app! Clean UI, easy to integrate with AudioBookShelf.

Sometimes I have issues downloading where I’ll try to start the download but it won’t go and I’ll have to reset the app then it works. Never had an issue with just streaming though.

Apple Care Play support was the final feature I needed to kick Audible.

I get books from libro.fm and highly recommend folks check them out for their DRM free content to integrate with plappa and wherever backend you have!

### 5/5 — Lovely app for audiobookshelf

*2026-08-08, version 1.6.2*

Simple, fast with a cute icon and interesting name. Very worth paying for

### 5/5 — Quick developer response to issues

*2026-08-03, version 1.6.2*

I reported an issue on Saturday. Developer responded on Monday that it had been fixed.

### 5/5 — Updated. Back to 5! Used to be 5 stars

*2026-08-03, version 1.6.2*

Updated! Fixed within 24 hours! Thanks! Have been using Plappa flawlessly with ABS for around 6 months.  Now whenever I open a new audiobook that wasn’t opened previously, it’ll open the book but no chapters will load and you can’t play or download.   Thought it was the audiobook or my server first, but after realizing no new audiobook would work, I tried Audiobooth and everything worked. 

Will update to 5 stars once fixed.

### 5/5 — Just what I was looking for

*2026-07-31, version 1.6.1*

Works well with Audiobookshelf over Tailscale VPN, and has all of the player functionality I’ve been looking for.  Nice user interface.  Includes all of the features that are needed for ease of listening to audiobooks.

### 2/5 — Ok for smaller libraries

*2026-07-31, version 1.6.1*

I have a Library of more than 5000 books and it runs just fine on audiobook shelf. But this app really struggles to run effectively when it’s trying to sync the library. And eventually, it started cutting out about every 5 to 6 minutes and I’d have to restart the app. Ended up going to Prologue and there are no issues now.

### 5/5 — Fantastic

*2026-07-22, version 1.6.1*

The perfect audiobook player.

It makes Audible feel incredibly slow and bloated.

### 5/5 — Perfect

*2026-07-18, version 1.6.1*

Works exactly as described, easy to get set up and running. Absolutely brilliant

## Frequently asked questions about plappa

### What is plappa?

plappa is a mobile application that functions as a client for self-hosted media servers such as Jellyfin, Emby, and AudioBookShelf. It is specifically designed for playing audiobooks, offering features like metadata reading and playback state synchronization.

### What are the key features of plappa?

Key features include support for most common audio formats, purpose-built audiobook playback, saving and syncing playback states via iCloud or your AudioBookShelf server, reading metadata like author and narrator, and the ability to download audiobooks and podcast episodes for offline listening through optional in-app purchases.

### How does plappa make money?

The app is free to download and use with basic functionality. Additional features, such as downloads and customization options, can be unlocked through optional in-app purchases. Users can choose between a one-time purchase or an auto-renewing subscription, both of which can be shared with family.

### What media servers does plappa work with?

plappa is designed to work exclusively with Jellyfin, Emby, and AudioBookShelf media servers. It requires one of these self-hosted servers to be set up and running to access your audiobook library.

### Can I listen to audiobooks offline with plappa?

Yes, offline listening is possible with plappa. This feature, along with other customization options, can be unlocked through optional in-app purchases. You can choose to purchase these features either with a one-time payment or a subscription.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.6.2 — 2026-08-01

Changes:
- Fixed an issue causing books not to load with ABS 2.36.0
- Added stable and unique device ID for each client with Jellyfin and Emby servers
- Added option to use API key for authentication with ABS (this should fix playback issues related to token refresh)

### 1.6.1 — 2026-05-25

Changes:
- Added 1 and 2 second options for skip intervals
- Improved logging for authentication errors
- Fixed an issue causing plappa to generate a new device in ABS for every session
- Fixed an issue causing playback to stall when the access token was updated during playback

### 1.6.0 — 2026-02-21

Changes:
- Added initial Chinese translation (a huge thank you to moxie1121 for providing the translation!)
- Improved responsiveness of the playback slider
- Fixed a crash

### 1.5.6 — 2025-11-07

Changes:
- Fixed an issue causing re-authentication pop-up to appear too often
- Fixed an issue causing protocol and port to be ignored when re-authenticating
- Switched to streaming API endpoint in ABS

### 1.5.5 — 2025-10-08

Changes:
- Improved error handling for failing In-App purchases
- Fixed an issue causing custom headers not to be included with the server connection check
- plappa now accepts podcasts responses from the ABS API even if enclosure contains empty values

## Apps similar to plappa

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [ListenBook: audiobook player](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/listenbook-audiobook-player/id1621926254) | 3.6 (37) | Free | Books |
| [BookPlayer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bookplayer/id1138219998) | 4.8 (18,845) | Free | Books |
| [BookPlayer: MP3/M4B/M4A/MP4](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bookplayer-mp3m4bm4amp4/id6478473640) | 4.4 (197) | Free | Books |
| [NovelOasis-Read Without Limits](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noveloasis-read-without-limits/id6443462029) | 4.4 (1,490) | Free | Books |
| [Narrator: Audiobook Maker](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/narrator-audiobook-maker/id1622812139) | 4.5 (166) | Free | Books |
| [Yomu EBook Reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yomu-ebook-reader/id562211012) | 4.8 (1,572) | Free | Books |

## More apps by Leo Wehrfritz

- [OpenAirScan](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/openairscan/id1663611384)
- [Paperparrot](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperparrot/id1663665267)
- [Telefant](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/telefant/id6563147903)

All apps by Leo Wehrfritz: https://appshunter.io/developer/1663611386

## Related topics

[plappa](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/plappa) · [shelfplayer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/shelfplayer) · [audiobookshelf](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/audiobookshelf) · [jellyfin audio](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/jellyfin-audio) · [self hosted](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/self-hosted)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*