Comparison

Cality vs Surface Builder

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

Head to head
About

Cality

This app is a creative MIDI processor that allows for rhythmic enhancement, controlled chaos, and the addition of new textures. It offers features like pitch quantization, probability gates, and a cloud module for generating additional notes.

Highlights
  • Rhythmic enhancement
  • Controlled chaos
  • Pitch quantization
  • Probability gate
  • Cloud module for additional notes
  • Midi controllable note quantizer
  • Swing and accents
Features
Read full description

Cality is a creative midi processor allowing subtle rhythmic enhancement, controlled chaos and everything in between. Add swing or accents, quantise the pitch of notes, use a probability gate or use the cloud module to add addition notes all under midi control The cloud section takes techniques common in granular synthesis and brings them to the realm of midi notes. It adds additional notes to the ones you are playing. This can be a simple rhythmic accompaniment or it can bring new textures from your synths by generating a cloud of tiny notes almost entering the realms of black midi. The note sections gives a fully automatable/midi controllable note quantiser with a range of scales, a transposer and the ability to constrain to simple chords as well The tempo section allows the addition of swing and accents to incoming midi notes as well as providing a probability gate Cality is great for bringing life to simple midi loops or patterns or for taking you deep into creative realms.

About

Surface Builder

Create custom MIDI control surfaces for audio applications. Design interfaces with buttons, knobs, and faders to send and receive MIDI data, control audio clips, and customize appearance. Supports AUv3 plugins and standalone use.

Highlights
  • Customizable MIDI control surfaces
  • AUv3 plugin and standalone modes
  • Send/receive MIDI data (notes, controllers, pitch bend)
  • Audio clip playback control
  • Multi-scene interface design
  • Drag and drop interface customization
Features
Read full description

Surface Builder is a tool for creating control surfaces that send MIDI data to one or more audio components in order to simplify remote control tasks. You start by creating a surface of a given size, adding buttons, knobs, faders, etc. to the surface and configuring them to generate the required MIDI output. Surface Builder allows you to send note on/off, controller change and program change values as well as being able to emulate modulation wheel and pitch bend data. Buttons can also be configured to send bulk MIDI data using a single key press. You can build surfaces that span multiple scenes and link between them for large complex interfaces. Incoming MIDI data can also be used to control or trigger elements of the interface, giving a bi-directional stream of MIDI data. Surface Builder can be added as a pure MIDI plugin which allows processing of MIDI only, or as an instrument plugin, allowing you to process audio passing through it. You can even load it as an intrument and configure a surface to start and stop audio clips either manually or remotely. Surface Builder was designed to be used as an AUv3 plugin within your favourite DAW, but it can also be used in standalone to send MIDI directly to MIDI hardware using direct access to their MIDI ports. Many different object types are supported including buttons, switches, lights, rotary knobs, faders, sliders, XY-Pad, keyboards, as well as text, image and box objects. Each object has many different styles and colours, so no two surfaces look the same. Drag and drop an audio file onto a button and that button becomes a clip player. Attach rotary knobs to control the clips volume and pan. Throw on top of that a LP/HP filter knob and you are cooking on gas. Drop PNG transparent image icons on buttons to customise the look and feel. A button can record and playback bulk MIDI commands, on both button press and release. So pressing a button could send the notes of a chord when pressed, and appropriate note offs on release. A surface can consist of up to 6 scenes for really complex designs. Buttons and switches can be used to switch scenes and also to show and hide other objects to make better use of screen space. Once your surface is complete switch to presentation mode to hide all the toolbars. Each surface can be saved with compressed audio and images all in a single surface file. Features ○ AUv3 and standalone modes. ○ Bluetooth MIDI support. ○ Drag and Drop interface. ○ Send and Receive Note On/Off. ○ Supports all Control Change parameters. ○ Supports Program Change commands with bank support. ○ Multiple Audio Clip playback. ○ Record and playback bulk midi data. ○ Multi-Scene. ○ Multi-level undo/redo. ○ MIDI Monitor ○ Presentation Mode. ○ iPhone and iPad compatible.

Screenshots

Cality4 screens
Surface Builder4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Cality at $6.99 against Surface Builder's $14.99. Surface Builder's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and review sentiment (80% vs 67%). On ratings volume, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Cality costs $6.99 and Surface Builder $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Surface Builder holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 15 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Cality's written reviews are positive against 80% of Surface Builder's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cality ships an update every 4 weeks, Surface Builder every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Cality versus Surface Builder: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalitySurface Builder
Price$6.99 — better$14.99
Rating4.4 (17 ratings)4.7 (15 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews80.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings17 — better15
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPagefall limited4Pockets.com

Customer experience

Cality

All ratings17 ratings
Positive76.5%
Neutral17.6%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral25.0%
Negative8.3%

Surface Builder

All ratings15 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral13.3%
Negative6.7%

In-app purchases

None

Cality

No in-app purchases

None

Surface Builder

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cality free?
Cality costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Surface Builder free?
Surface Builder costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Cality or Surface Builder?
Surface Builder is rated higher. Cality averages 4.4 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while Surface Builder averages 4.7 from 15 ratings.
Do Cality or Surface Builder have ads?
Neither Cality nor Surface Builder shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cality or Surface Builder?
Cality ships an update every 4 weeks, and Surface Builder every 3 weeks. Most recently, Cality was updated on October 2, 2026 and Surface Builder on October 1, 2026.

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