Comparison

SubStreamer vs Koel Player

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Koel Player

Stream your personal music library from your self-hosted Koel server. Enjoy features like queueing, playlist management, and lyrics. Cache songs for offline playback.

Highlights
  • Stream from Koel server
  • Queue and play music
  • Like/unlike songs
  • Playlist manipulation
  • View lyrics and media info
  • Cache music for offline playback
Features
Read full description

The official mobile player for Koel (https://koel.dev), the open-source self-hosted music streaming service. With Koel Player you can connect to and stream your music from your own Koel server. Koel Player supports most of the features found in the web-based version: - Queue and play music - Like/unlike songs - Manipulate playlists - View lyrics and media information In addition, Koel Player allows caching music for local playback. More features are planned.

Screenshots

SubStreamer4 screens
Koel Player4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: SubStreamer at Free against Koel Player's $9.99. SubStreamer also leads on ratings volume (131 vs 1) and review sentiment (72% vs 50%). Koel Player's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.0). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

SubStreamer is free to download; Koel Player costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Koel Player holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SubStreamer has 131 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 72% of SubStreamer's written reviews are positive against 50% of Koel Player's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SubStreamer ships an update every 2 weeks, Koel Player every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
SubStreamer versus Koel Player: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSubStreamerKoel Player
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating4.0 (131 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.4% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings131 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.416.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGaven HenryAn Phan

Customer experience

SubStreamer

All ratings131 ratings
Positive74.8%
Neutral11.5%
Negative13.7%
Written reviews203 reviews
Positive72.4%
Neutral10.3%
Negative17.2%

Koel Player

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative25.0%

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
Show 13 more
  • 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
Show 13 more
  • 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

Koel Player

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SubStreamer

No in-app purchases

None

Koel Player

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SubStreamer free?
SubStreamer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Koel Player free?
Koel Player costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SubStreamer or Koel Player?
Koel Player is rated higher. SubStreamer averages 4.0 out of 5 from 131 ratings, while Koel Player averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do SubStreamer or Koel Player have ads?
Neither SubStreamer nor Koel Player shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SubStreamer or Koel Player?
SubStreamer ships an update every 2 weeks, and Koel Player every 2 months. Most recently, SubStreamer was updated on September 22, 2026 and Koel Player on September 16, 2026.

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