Records vs Sortwave
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Records
Rediscover music listening with a HiFi streaming player that emphasizes album artwork and visual navigation. Connects with Apple Music to present your library in a new, engaging way, inspired by the tactile experience of vinyl and CDs.
- Album-first visual navigation
- Gesture-driven interface
- Apple Music integration
- HiFi and Hi-Res streaming
- CD and Vinyl scanner
- Personalized music collections
Read full descriptionHide full description
Your music should feel like a collection, not a feed or text list. Records turns your library into a wall of album covers. Browse with your eyes, pick what you like, and play one record at a time. Create crates, import music from Apple Music or Discogs, discover new records, and keep a Journal of what you listen to. Records Pro unlocks unlimited crates and compatible music imports from Files and iCloud Drive. Records requires Media & Apple Music permission. An Apple Music subscription is required for catalog playback, but not for playing your own files. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://visual-acoustic.com/privacy/
Sortwave
Read full descriptionHide full description
Swipe music into place. Sortwave is a focused playlist-curation companion for Apple Music. Choose a playlist, listen to each full song, and decide what belongs without breaking your flow. Swipe right to keep a song. Route it up or down into playlists you already use. Mark favorites, shuffle your session, scrub through playback, undo a decision, or stop whenever you want. Sortwave queues your choices locally and applies them together when you choose Finish & Sync. Apple Music doesn’t allow third-party apps to directly delete arbitrary library songs. When you mark songs for removal, Sortwave places them in a clearly labeled Deleted Songs playlist and shows a short guide for completing deletion safely in Apple Music. Your original library stays under your control. Features: • Full-song Apple Music playback • Fast, gesture-first playlist decisions • Two configurable quick-route playlists • Favorite and unfavorite controls • Interactive playback scrubber • Shuffle, previous, next and undo controls • Batched sync with a clear summary • Session history and resilient local queueing • Secure connection restoration • No advertising or tracking An active Apple Music subscription may be required for full-song playback and library access. Sortwave is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sortwave at none against Records's 3. Sortwave also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Records sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Sortwave asks for nothing beyond the download.
Records ships an update every 5 weeks, Sortwave every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Records | Sortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (17 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | VA Visual Acoustic Technologies GmbH | Sooraj Sambasivam |
In-app purchases
Records
- Library Superpowers 1 Month$4.991 Month
- Library Superpowers 1 Year$34.991 Year
- Library Superpowers Lifetime$79.99
Sortwave
No in-app purchases









