Rigelian vs JPLAY
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rigelian
Control your music library on MPD, OpenHome, or Kodi-based players with a modern interface on your iPhone or iPad. Effortlessly browse, search, and manage your music, playlists, and radio stations.
- Browse music by Artist, Album, Genre, Folder
- Qobuz integration for select players
- Thousands of radio stations
- Playlist creation and editing
- Cue file support
- Powerful search and queue management
- Automatic player detection
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Rigelian turns your iPhone and iPad into a refined, powerful controller for music players based on OpenHome (BubbleUPnP & upmpcli) and MPD (MPD, moOde, Volumio, Bryston, Chord Poly). Built specifically for iOS, it combines speed, clarity, and precision in a clean, modern interface designed for serious music lovers. Browse your collection effortlessly by artist, album, genre, folder, composer, or performer (MPD), and find anything instantly with fast, responsive search across your entire library. Create and manage playlists, control your play queue exactly the way you want, jump directly from the queue to related albums or artists, and quickly access recently added music or rediscover your collection with random playback. Rigelian integrates seamlessly with Qobuz on BubbleUPnP and upmpdcli players, gives you access to thousands of radio stations via radio-browser.info for MPD and displays track quality during playback and browsing. It automatically discovers compatible players on your network — including Bryston, Volumio, Rune, moOde, and standard MPD — and makes switching between them effortless. Enjoy high-quality album artwork, artist biographies and related artists. Subscription information The free version of Rigelian for iOS lets you add items to your playlist up-to 10 times per month. For unlimited access monthly and annual options are available, both including a 2-week free trial. A single subscription will work on all your devices, for all your family members. Cancel anytime during the trial period and you will not be charged. Payment is charged to your App Store account after the trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. Terms of Service https://www.rigelian.net/terms-of-service/ Privacy Policy https://www.rigelian.net/privacy/
JPLAY
This app is a high-fidelity music player designed for audiophiles. It seamlessly integrates streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal with local music files, offering a unified interface for all your audio content. Experience superior sound quality and discover new music through its intuitive design and advanced features.
- Plays Qobuz, Tidal, and local music files
- Works with most streamers and network DACs
- HQPlayer Control API integration
- Dramatically better sound quality
- Radio feature for music discovery
- Extended playlist management
- Artist bios and album reviews
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JPLAY is an award winning music playback app for audiophiles. It works instantly with nearly every streamer or network DAC on the market. It combines Qobuz, Tidal and local content in a single interface allowing user to access each library separately. Main features: • Beautiful, clean and easy to use app allowing you to play music on nearly all streamers/network DACs - no core needed! (UPnP AV/DLNA) • Plays from Qobuz, Tidal and files on local libraries • HQPlayer Control API – Seamlessly integrate and remotely control HQPlayer directly from JPLAY • Dramatically better sound quality thanks to minimizing network traffic • Radio feature discovers new music for you • Single library, individual library and folder views • Extended playlists management • Advanced search, sort, focus • Artists bios, album reviews etc • Highlighted audiophile formats • My Activity, My history keep your playback stats • Native iOS controls from locked screen • Sharing your favorite music on social media • And much, much more! JPLAY requires an active subscription to access its content and features. Sign up for a JPLAY subscription in the app. New users can enjoy a 14-day free trial period that will be automatically converted into a yearly subscription. Subscription is automatically renewed and charged on a yearly basis. You can cancel it at any time up until the day before renewal and you can at any time turn off the auto renewal.
Screenshots
Verdict
Rigelian and JPLAY both sit at 4.2 stars, but that hides the real split: 76% of Rigelian's written reviews are positive against 59% of JPLAY's. JPLAY's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Rigelian sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.69 per month and JPLAY sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $49.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Rigelian against 4.3 for JPLAY. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 33 and 52 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Rigelian's written reviews are positive against 59% of JPLAY's.
Rigelian ships an update monthly, JPLAY every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rigelian | JPLAY |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (33 ratings) | 4.3 (52 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.8% of reviews — better | 58.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 33 | 52 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lcw Kremers | Marcin Ostapowicz |
Customer experience
Rigelian
JPLAY
Bugs and requests
Rigelian
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
JPLAY
Reported bugs
14 issues- Tracks fail to render or play from Tidal
- App crashes on startup with older iOS versions
- Playback stuttering and lag issues
- Renderer in transition errors
- Device discovery failures
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Missing cover art for local files
- Playback gets stuck at end of songs
- Random track order despite settings
- Skips tracks mid-playback
- Connection drops with certain streamers
- Metadata not syncing properly
- Album art not loading from Synology/Plex servers
- Qobuz favorites import not working
- Tidal playlist suggestions missing
Requested features
16 requests- Monthly subscription option
- Cross-device synchronization for playlists and favorites
- EQ and tone adjustment controls
- DSD file playback support
- Multi-room audio capability
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Apple Watch control support
- AirPlay support
- Android version
- Gapless playback improvement
- Family sharing support
- Apple Music integration
- Internet radio support
- Volume control in player screen
- Automatic iCloud backup between devices
- WebDAV support
- Better error messages for troubleshooting
In-app purchases
Rigelian
- 1 Month Access - Auto Renew14 Days trial$0.691 Month
- 1 Year Access - Auto Renew14 Days trial$4.291 Year
JPLAY
- JPLAY Premium14 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Lifetime$149.00
- JPLAY Lifetime$199.00









