Comparison

Charsur vs Thrayam

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

Head to head
About

Charsur

Listen to a vast catalog of Carnatic music from a renowned digital workstation. Explore live concerts, temple compositions, and thematic albums categorized by artists, ragas, and composers. Create personalized playlists and enjoy continuous play of devotional music.

Highlights
  • Carnatic music catalog
  • Categorized by brand, artist, raga, composer
  • Create custom playlists
  • Continuous play option
  • High-fidelity audio recordings
  • Live concert and thematic albums
Features
Read full description

Charsur App has been created to help music lovers to listen to all that has been produced by Charsur Digital Workstation, at their convenience. The app brings out the different brands and has classified the entire catalogue as brands, Artistes, Ragas, Composers etc. for listening pleasure. Listener can choose their favorite albums, tracks, ragas, artistes, composer and create playlists of their choice. The App also allows the listener to tune in to Carnatic music on continuous play. Charsur Digital Workstation is a music label involved in the production of Carnatic music. A few albums has blossomed to 450 albums and is growing every year. From great maestros like Madurai Mani to the latest new generation leading artists like Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Charsur catalogue offers something for everyone and ample riches for music lovers of every stripe. • Kutcheri - Under this Brand Charsur brings out the Live Concerts by the performing artist of this decade. This brand brings out the strength of each artist, as the live concerts are unedited and un-tampered. Charsur captures the audio recording in a very high digital format of 24 bits. • Ksetra - This brand consists of compositions pertaining to famous temples of south India, and the compositions are those which were composed by the great composers and saints when they visited these temples and got inspired and composed. • December Season - live concerts from the madras music festival organized by different Sabhas (organizers) in Chennai (madras) for more than 100 years. • PADDHATTI – Live Concert of the great maestros – these concerts are again unedited - acquired from the analog recordings and digitally cleaned and re mastered. • RTP – Ragam Tanam Pallavi – this would be one single raaga which is sung elaborately by the artists giving various expressions of the Ragam and creative aspect of the music in different rhythmic patterns. • Thematic – this brands consists two different themes: • the album will feature various compositions of one composer only. • the album will based on a particular theme. But various composers. All the compositions chosen in this album would be under the theme chosen for e.g the album Vatsalyam consists of Lullabies composed by various composers. • One Raaga Compositions : the album under this brand is based on a particular Ragam bringing out the different flavors of a Ragam. Also the compositions chosen are by various composers, as every composer deals with the same Ragam differently. So the various expression and colors of a Ragam comes out in full. • Spiritual- consists of chants and devotional music like bhajans and abhangs • Saulabhyam – explores the traditional , rich namasankirtanam • Vaggeyakara – this brand is based on compositions of great Composers such as Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Sastri, Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavatar

About

Thrayam

This app provides essential tools for Karnatik musicians, including a digital thaalam with animated hand gestures and tempo control, a customizable tanpura with string animations, and a precise tuner that displays swaras in multiple languages. It helps musicians practice and refine their skills with detailed visual and auditory feedback.

Highlights
  • Animated thaalam hand gestures
  • Tap-tempo for thaalam
  • Playable tanpura with string animations
  • Single/Dual tanpura options
  • Fine-tune Shruti
  • Swaras display in multiple languages
  • Color-coded sharp/flat tuning
Features
Read full description

A Thaalam, Tanpura, and Tuner app for Karnatik musicians. It is the brainchild of Maestro Kumaresh Rajagopalan, designed and developed by Dr. Raghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan. Thaalam: Detailed Hand animations for each thaalam with 1 or 2 kalai options. Tap-tempo option to easily provide tempo for the thaalam. A thaalam progress bar to track the current aksharam. Tanpura: Playable tanpura with engaging string animations. Extensive controls for the tanpura. Single / Dual tanpura options. Fine-tune Shruti easily. Tuner: Display swaras in various Languages. Note wheel display along with fine-tune view. Note, frequency, and octave display for clear reference Color-coded sharp and flat tunings

Screenshots

Charsur4 screens
Thrayam4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Charsur at Free against Thrayam's $14.99. Charsur also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17). Thrayam's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 2.7) and review sentiment (92% vs 50%). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Charsur is free to download; Thrayam costs $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Thrayam holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 12 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Charsur's written reviews are positive against 92% of Thrayam's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Charsur ships an update every 5 weeks, Thrayam monthly. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Charsur versus Thrayam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCharsurThrayam
PriceFree — better$14.99
Rating2.7 (3 ratings)4.8 (12 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews92.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings312 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better17
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCharsur Digital WorkstationRaghavasimhan Sankaranarayanan

Customer experience

Charsur

All ratings3 ratings
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Thrayam

All ratings12 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral8.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive92.3%
Neutral7.7%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Charsur

No in-app purchases

None

Thrayam

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Charsur free?
Charsur is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Thrayam free?
Thrayam costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Charsur or Thrayam?
Thrayam is rated higher. Charsur averages 2.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Thrayam averages 4.8 from 12 ratings.
Do Charsur or Thrayam have ads?
Neither Charsur nor Thrayam shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Charsur or Thrayam?
Charsur ships an update every 5 weeks, and Thrayam monthly. Most recently, Charsur was updated on June 1, 2026 and Thrayam on September 21, 2026.

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