Comparison

Plexamp vs Pocket Bard

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

Head to head
About

Plexamp

A dedicated music player for your Plex library, offering audiophile-grade playback features, stunning visuals, and personalized radio stations. Enjoy your music collection with advanced customization and offline listening options.

Highlights
  • Audiophile-grade playback (gapless, EQ, loudness leveling)
  • Hypnotic visualizers and UltraBlur backgrounds
  • Personalized radio stations and Mix Builder
  • Offline listening for playlists and stations
  • Powerful search and playback history
  • Customizable themes and artist exploration
Features
Read full description

** You'll need a Plex Media Server and a Plex account to use this app ** Plexamp is the answer to the question "what would happen if you gave a handful of Plex music and pixel nerds a few cocktails and free rein to create the app of their dreams?" Plexamp is a beautiful, dedicated Plex music player with tons of goodies for audiophile purists, music curators, and music fans of all ages looking for their next aural fix. SUPER AUDIO PLAYER Loudness leveling, true gapless playback, Sweet Fades™, soft transitions, a configurable preamp, a 7-band EQ, and more. Perfection for golden ears, buttery smooth touches for the rest of us. Custom pre-caching so your music keeps playing, because sometimes life brings you through tunnels. MUSIC TO YOUR EYES Experience your music collection like you’ve never seen it before, with our UltraBlur backgrounds, over a dozen hypnotic visualizers, and four visual themes to satisfy every taste. FIND YOUR FIX Radios built from your library and your cooler friends' collections. Travel through time, pick a style or mood, or listen album-by-album like the purist you are. Use the Mix Builder to explore and craft your perfect blend. Explore your personal charts and see what you were into last Fall or your top albums from the 60s. OFFLINE BLISS Grab a few hours of your favorite playlist or stations with just a few taps. Download a custom mix or artist radio for the plane. Simple but powerful offline support for when you’re in the woods or run out of cellular data. IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS Powerful search. Playback activity history. Swipe-up play queue peeking. Fun artist explorations. As many settings and tweaks as our resident UXpert let us add. ENTERPRISE CLASS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Just kidding. It's a music player. Follow us on Twitter @plexamp or Mastodon https://mstdn.social/@plexamp See the terms of service at https://www.plex.tv/about/privacy-legal/plex-terms-of-service/

About

Pocket Bard

Enhance your tabletop RPG sessions with an immersive audio experience. Instantly change soundscapes to match the mood of your game, dynamically adjusting music and sound effects to perfectly complement your gameplay.

Highlights
  • Immersive audio experience
  • Dynamic soundscape changes
  • Match session tone
  • Alter music intensity
  • Adjust sound effects
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Pocket Bard is a fully immersive audio experience for your D&D or tabletop RPG session. With just a tap, change your entire soundscape to match the tone of your session. From moment to moment, alter the intensity of the music, ambience, and sound effects to pair perfectly with your gameplay. Free to download, no ads. The free library gives you 20+ complete scenes, including the full Fantasy Essentials collection (tavern, town, forest, cave, swamp, graveyard, dungeons, and more), enough to run an entire fantasy campaign without paying a thing. HOW IT WORKS More than a soundboard or a background playlist, every scene is a complete, layered soundscape you control live at the table. • Intensity slider (patented): one control reshapes the arrangement of the music in real time, from minor encounter to intense battle. • Music state controls: jump from exploration to combat with a single tap, and trigger a victory stinger when the fight ends. • Layered ambience: rain, wind, crowds, and creatures, each with its own intensity control. • Ambience variations: step indoors or out, into open fields or forest paths. • One-shot sound effects: a door slam, sword clash, thunderclap, or howl right on cue. • A mix that's already balanced: music, ambience, and effects are mastered to sit together at any volume. No mixing required. PREP LESS, PLAY MORE Built for game masters and dungeon masters, Pocket Bard runs on the phone, tablet, or desktop computer you already bring to the table. The controls stay out of your way, so you can shift the mood without breaking the flow of the story. When the party moves on, switch scenes with one tap, and the music and ambience automatically adapt. No more interrupting ads, juggling browser tabs, or clunky UI. No files to manage, no audio know-how needed. WORKS WITH ANY GAME Your weekly DnD group, a Pathfinder campaign, a Sci-fi one-shot, Blades in the Dark, Mothership, or your own homebrew. Scenes are built around places and moods, not rulebooks, so they fit any TTRPG and any setting. WORLDS TO EXPLORE Free with Fantasy Essentials: Tavern, Town, City, Village, Dark Streets, Mountains, Plains, Forest, Cave, Ancient Grove, Swamp, Graveyard, Dungeon Entrance, Dungeon Corridors, Dungeon Lair, Dwarven Kingdom, and more. Your free library also includes select scenes from other collections, like Deep Space and Shipwreck Cove. Open Worlds unlocks many more collections: Sci-Fi, Horror, Seafaring, Desert, Feywild, Northern, Cyberpunk, and Modern Urban. Think starships and derelict stations, haunted libraries and cursed lands, frozen harbors, buried tombs, enchanted glades, and high-speed chases. New scenes are added throughout the year. MADE BY HUMANS Every note, sound, and piece of art in Pocket Bard is thoughtfully crafted by real humans. Scenes are composed by professional musicians and mastered by our audio team. No AI-generated music or art. STREAM IT Pocket Bard owns the rights to its music, and you're welcome to use it in your streams and videos. A credit is always appreciated. OPEN WORLDS Open Worlds is our subscription: every collection, plus every new scene as it's released, billed monthly or yearly. One subscription, everything included. Immersive audio, made simple. With Pocket Bard, you can focus on what matters most: your story. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Service: https://www.pocketbard.app/terms-of-service.html Privacy Policy: https://www.pocketbard.app/privacy-policy.html Pocket Bard is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Chaosium, or any other game publisher. Dungeons & Dragons and D&D are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Screenshots

Plexamp4 screens
Pocket Bard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Pocket Bard at #180 against Plexamp's unranked. Pocket Bard also leads on review sentiment (86% vs 75%). Plexamp's advantage is ratings volume (10K vs 1.8K) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. Plexamp sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Pocket Bard sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Plexamp against 4.8 for Pocket Bard. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Plexamp has 10K ratings behind it against 1.8K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Plexamp's written reviews are positive against 86% of Pocket Bard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Plexamp ships an update every 2 weeks, Pocket Bard every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Plexamp versus Pocket Bard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlexampPocket Bard
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (10K ratings)4.8 (1.8K ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.3% of reviews86.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10K — better1.8K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#180 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.1
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB109 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperPlex Inc.Pocket Bard Inc.

Customer experience

Plexamp

All ratings9,958 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral1.9%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews1,633 reviews
Positive75.3%
Neutral6.5%
Negative18.2%

Pocket Bard

All ratings1,638 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral2.1%
Negative2.1%
Written reviews363 reviews
Positive86.0%
Neutral6.6%
Negative7.4%

User reviews

Plexamp

From 10K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Best player ever
  • 👍 Gorgeous cover flow
  • 👍 Flexible, fun, and friendly
  • 👍 Beautiful app that functions well
  • 👍 Exceptional user interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 List by folder is an insult
  • 🐛 Offline music experience not great
  • 🐛 Hopeless tagging
  • 🐛 Can't download full playlists
  • 🐛 Slow downloads

Pocket Bard

From 1.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Seamless transitions
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🎨 Great customization options
  • 🎶 High-quality music and sound effects
  • 💡 Versatile for various use cases (TTRPG, reading, writing, etc.)

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Unclear subscription model and pricing
  • 🐛 Bugs and crashes for some users
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 📦 Limited content in free version

Bugs and requests

Plexamp

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Inconsistent behavior when offline
  • Search function broken
  • Slow library loading
  • Unreliable downloads
  • Incompatibility with certain car systems

Requested features

6 requests
  • Repeat functionality
  • Ability to edit metadata
  • Better offline management and browsing
  • Apple Watch app
  • Airplay and casting support
Show 1 more
  • Customizable home screen and layout

Pocket Bard

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Downloading content causes crashes
  • Repeated terms of service pop-ups
  • One-shot sound effects not working
  • Inconsistent audio quality and balance

Requested features

6 requests
  • More sound effects (creature sounds, weather, etc.)
  • Ability to import custom music and sounds
  • AirPlay support for streaming to speakers
  • Offline mode or caching for downloaded content
  • Customizable scenes and soundscapes
Show 1 more
  • Shortcut integration for quick access

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Plexamp

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Plex Pass$6.991 Month
  • Yearly Plex Pass$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Plex Pass$979.00
2 purchases

Pocket Bard

Subscriptions2
  • Pocket Bard Open Worlds14 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Pocket Bard Open Worlds Yearly14 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Plexamp free?
Plexamp is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pocket Bard free?
Pocket Bard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Plexamp or Pocket Bard?
Pocket Bard is rated higher. Plexamp averages 4.7 out of 5 from 10K ratings, while Pocket Bard averages 4.8 from 1.8K ratings.
Do Plexamp or Pocket Bard have ads?
Neither Plexamp nor Pocket Bard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Plexamp or Pocket Bard?
Plexamp ships an update every 2 weeks, and Pocket Bard every 4 weeks. Most recently, Plexamp was updated on November 9, 2026 and Pocket Bard on November 7, 2026.

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