SubStreamer vs Plexamp
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SubStreamer
Access and stream your personal music library from a Subsonic-compatible server on your mobile device. Enjoy offline playback, personalized mixes, and detailed listening analytics without ads or subscriptions.
- Stream and download music library
- Offline listening with background processing
- Personalized smart mixes
- Listening analytics and scrobbling
- Playlist and library management
- Background playback with lock screen controls
- Open source
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Your music. Your server. Everywhere you go. Substreamer turns your Subsonic-compatible server into a personal streaming service. Browse, play, and download your entire music library on iPhone and iPad — free, with no ads, no subscriptions, and no data collection. Verified with Navidrome, Subsonic, Gonic, Nextcloud Music, and Ampache. Also compatible with Airsonic-Advanced, Funkwhale, Supysonic, and other Subsonic API servers. STREAM & DOWNLOAD Stream in full quality or choose a bitrate that suits your connection. Download albums and playlists for offline listening with background queue processing and automatic recovery. Substreamer switches to offline mode automatically when your server is unreachable. TUNED IN — SMART MIXES Personalised playlists powered by your listening history. Time-of-day mixes, deep cuts from similar artists, decade time machines, genre blends, favorites radio, and a custom mix builder — all generated from your own library, not an algorithm trained on someone else's taste. LISTENING ANALYTICS See your play history, top artists, albums, and songs, most active listening hours, activity heatmaps, and listening streaks. Scrobbles queue locally when you're offline and sync automatically when you reconnect. Exclude specific albums or artists so one-off plays don't skew your stats. LIBRARY MANAGEMENT Browse by album, artist, or playlist. List and grid views with alphabetical quick-scroll for large libraries. 5-star ratings and favorites sync with your server. Create and manage playlists, reorder tracks, or save your current queue as a new playlist. PLAYBACK Background playback with full lock screen and notification controls. Adjustable playback speed, shuffle, and repeat. Share albums or playlists with configurable links. BEAUTIFUL & PRIVATE Light, dark, and system themes with custom accent colors. Album art color extraction for immersive detail views. No tracking, no analytics, no account required — your music stays between you and your server. OPEN SOURCE Substreamer is open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Browse the code, report issues, or contribute at github.com/ghenry22/substreamer.
Plexamp
A dedicated music player for your Plex library, offering audiophile-grade playback features, stunning visuals, and personalized radio stations. Enjoy your music collection with advanced customization and offline listening options.
- Audiophile-grade playback (gapless, EQ, loudness leveling)
- Hypnotic visualizers and UltraBlur backgrounds
- Personalized radio stations and Mix Builder
- Offline listening for playlists and stations
- Powerful search and playback history
- Customizable themes and artist exploration
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** You'll need a Plex Media Server and a Plex account to use this app ** Plexamp is the answer to the question "what would happen if you gave a handful of Plex music and pixel nerds a few cocktails and free rein to create the app of their dreams?" Plexamp is a beautiful, dedicated Plex music player with tons of goodies for audiophile purists, music curators, and music fans of all ages looking for their next aural fix. SUPER AUDIO PLAYER Loudness leveling, true gapless playback, Sweet Fades™, soft transitions, a configurable preamp, a 7-band EQ, and more. Perfection for golden ears, buttery smooth touches for the rest of us. Custom pre-caching so your music keeps playing, because sometimes life brings you through tunnels. MUSIC TO YOUR EYES Experience your music collection like you’ve never seen it before, with our UltraBlur backgrounds, over a dozen hypnotic visualizers, and four visual themes to satisfy every taste. FIND YOUR FIX Radios built from your library and your cooler friends' collections. Travel through time, pick a style or mood, or listen album-by-album like the purist you are. Use the Mix Builder to explore and craft your perfect blend. Explore your personal charts and see what you were into last Fall or your top albums from the 60s. OFFLINE BLISS Grab a few hours of your favorite playlist or stations with just a few taps. Download a custom mix or artist radio for the plane. Simple but powerful offline support for when you’re in the woods or run out of cellular data. IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS Powerful search. Playback activity history. Swipe-up play queue peeking. Fun artist explorations. As many settings and tweaks as our resident UXpert let us add. ENTERPRISE CLASS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Just kidding. It's a music player. Follow us on Twitter @plexamp or Mastodon https://mstdn.social/@plexamp See the terms of service at https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/plex-terms-of-service/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Plexamp at 4.7 against SubStreamer's 4.0. Plexamp also leads on ratings volume (10K vs 131) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.4). SubStreamer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Plexamp sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. SubStreamer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Plexamp holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Plexamp has 10K ratings behind it against 131, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of SubStreamer's written reviews are positive against 76% of Plexamp's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SubStreamer | Plexamp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (131 ratings) | 4.7 (10K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.4% of reviews | 75.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 131 | 10K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 54 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gaven Henry | Plex Inc. |
Customer experience
SubStreamer
Plexamp
User reviews
SubStreamer
From 131 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Beautiful and modern UI design
- ⚡ Clean, intuitive interface
- 🎵 Excellent Navidrome server compatibility
- 📱 Works seamlessly with self-hosted music servers
- 🔄 Reliable background playback functionality
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent playback failures and stalling
- 🐛 Random crashes during playback
- 🐛 Scrobbling not working reliably
- 🐛 Large file playback issues (10MB+)
- 🐛 AirPlay/Apple TV streaming broken
Plexamp
From 10K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Best player ever
- 👍 Gorgeous cover flow
- 👍 Flexible, fun, and friendly
- 👍 Beautiful app that functions well
- 👍 Exceptional user interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 List by folder is an insult
- 🐛 Offline music experience not great
- 🐛 Hopeless tagging
- 🐛 Can't download full playlists
- 🐛 Slow downloads
Bugs and requests
SubStreamer
Reported bugs
18 issues- Songs fail to play without double-pressing play button
- Playback stops with 4 seconds remaining in track
- Skipping back crashes the app
- Large files (10MB+) require pause-then-play to start
- Scrobbling fails despite server support
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- AirPlay to Apple TV doesn't work
- Time display incorrect for songs over 1 hour
- Metadata loads too frequently, causing lag
- App freezes when pulling down menu on player screen
- Radio tab causes app freeze
- Occasional non-responsive behavior
- Crashes when switching between songs on cellular
- Image optimization never completes on large libraries
- Duplicate songs appear in multi-disc albums
- Offline folder structure doesn't match server
- Bluetooth playback sometimes plays two songs simultaneously
- SSL support issues in older versions
- Slow metadata loading from server
Requested features
18 requests- CarPlay support for in-car use
- Traditional Chinese language support
- Simplified Chinese language support
- All-songs library view (not just albums/artists)
- Lyrics API integration
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- Replay gain support
- Smart playlists for yearly recaps
- Batch download for offline music
- Display codec and bitrate information
- Better shuffle/random playback options
- Improved pull-down gesture for minimizing player
- Unified offline music view with filters
- Song sorting options in playlists
- Album art display in more views
- Radio station support visibility fix
- Genre sorting capability
- Lock screen playback controls
- Queue clearing functionality
Plexamp
Reported bugs
5 issues- Inconsistent behavior when offline
- Search function broken
- Slow library loading
- Unreliable downloads
- Incompatibility with certain car systems
Requested features
6 requests- Repeat functionality
- Ability to edit metadata
- Better offline management and browsing
- Apple Watch app
- Airplay and casting support
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- Customizable home screen and layout
In-app purchases
SubStreamer
No in-app purchases
Plexamp
- Monthly Plex Pass$6.991 Month
- Yearly Plex Pass$69.991 Year
- Lifetime Plex Pass$979.00









