Skym vs plugdata
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Skym
Control your Ableton devices with expressive touch gestures. This MIDI controller app lets you manipulate four parameters simultaneously, offering instant variability and interest to your sounds. It requires Ableton on macOS and does not generate sound on its own.
- Touch control for Ableton devices
- Control 4 parameters simultaneously
- X, Y, Speed, and Gate parameters
- USB or Bluetooth connection
- Free starter Ableton project included
- Expressive sound design
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Touch control for your Ableton devices. Skym is a MIDI controller app that allows you to control 4 parameters of your Ableton devices at once. Simply download the app, and install our Ableton script on Mac, and you can connect over USB or Bluetooth to perform expressive sound design. Our free starter Ableton project has some sounds to get you up and running. Skym sends 4 parameters at once. X, Y, Speed (how fast your touch is moving), and Gate (flips on and off with touch). These parameters automatically map to macros 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Combining these layers of control on synths, samplers, effects, gives you access to instant variability and interest in your sounds. Note Skym is a controller and not a sound generator, so the app does not make sound on its own. We only support connection and integration with Ableton on Mac. Mac OS must be 10.11 or later Ableton must be 11.0.0 or later
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 price: plugdata at Free against Skym's $7.99. plugdata also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Skym's advantage is review sentiment (80% vs 63%) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). On rating, ratings volume, ads 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
plugdata is free to download; Skym costs $7.99 up front. Skym sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. plugdata asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Skym against 4.4 for plugdata. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 22 and 17 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Skym's written reviews are positive against 63% of plugdata's.
Skym ships an update monthly, plugdata every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Skym | plugdata |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (22 ratings) | 4.4 (17 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better | 63.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 22 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 147 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ResGuide LLC | Timothy Schoen |
Customer experience
Skym
plugdata
In-app purchases
Skym
- Heat Map$4.99
- Warp Speed$9.99
- Pulse Cell$9.99
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- Life Flower$9.99
plugdata
No in-app purchases
