Sound Temple vs plugdata
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sound Temple
Immerse yourself in a unique acoustic space where ambient sounds blend into a harmonious landscape. Interact with your surroundings in real-time, shaping the soundscape through your own noises and voice. Record and share your sonic creations.
- Active listening immersion
- Real-time sound interaction
- Ambient soundscape blending
- Record and share audio experiments
- Export recordings for creative use
- Headphone microphone switching
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The app draws the user into the process of active listening: put on your headphones, and you’ll find yourself inside the Sound Temple acoustic space. Here the sounds of the world around you blend into a landscape with a unified harmony. You can interact with them in real time: make noises, knock and bang on things, sing, and either allow the sounds to drain into the background, or follow the courses of the sounds around you and the ways they change. Sound Temple is an independent sound art project created by artists Katerina Shikhova and Dmitry Larionov in collaboration with programmer Kirill Gorshkov. The project is carried out in creative partnership with Alma Mater Foundation (amfoundation.ru) We have made the main part of the project available for free because we enjoy seeing people’s reactions. We appreciate their new interpretations and ways of using Sound Temple. To support our project, you could buy the “share” function. You can record your acoustic experiments, share them on social media, export the recordings into editing software and use them in your creative projects (under a Creative Commons license). WARNING 1. For maximum sound quality and immersive effect, we recommend using wired headphones. Bluetooth headphones create delay and negatively affect the sound quality. 2. Please be cautious when connecting the app to open sound sources (bluetooth/inline speakers, your car’s sound system, etc.): due to the feedback effect, this can lead to an unpleasant loud humming noise or loud and sharp side-sound effects. 3. The “mic input” button in the top right corner allows you to switch the headset microphone to your iphone or ipad microphone.
plugdata
This app provides a visual programming environment for audio experimentation, prototyping, and education. It allows users to create and run audio patches on their mobile devices, enabling creative sound design on the go.
- Visual programming environment
- Audio experimentation
- Prototyping
- Educational tool
- Standalone application
- Audio plugins
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plugdata is visual programming environment for audio experimentation, prototyping and education. With plugdata for iOS, you can bring your plugdata patches with you everywhere you go. This app ships with a standalone application and audio plugins.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Sound Temple at 5.0 against plugdata's 4.3. Sound Temple also leads on review sentiment (87% vs 63%). plugdata's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 13 months) and ratings volume (20 vs 4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sound Temple holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: plugdata has 20 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Sound Temple's written reviews are positive against 63% of plugdata's.
Sound Temple ships an update every 13 months, plugdata every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Sound Temple | plugdata |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | 4.3 (20 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better | 63.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 20 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 147 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ekaterina Shikhova | Timothy Schoen |
Customer experience
Sound Temple
plugdata
In-app purchases
Sound Temple
No in-app purchases
plugdata
No in-app purchases








