Comparison

Christmas vs iOSamp

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

Head to head
About

Christmas

Experience the holiday spirit with festive music and a countdown to Christmas. Enjoy beautiful carols performed by real musicians, set a sleep timer, and wake up to holiday cheer. Keep the Christmas spirit alive all year round with this immersive experience.

Highlights
  • Christmas carols by real musicians
  • Countdown to Christmas
  • Sleep timer
  • Wake up alarm
  • Background audio
  • Fading imagery
  • Rearrange song order
Features
Read full description

Bring the Christmas spirit to your day with soothing holiday music, festive scenery, and a live countdown to Christmas. Enjoy 22 Christmas tracks, including vocal and instrumental performances, plus a separate Snow Storm sound with its own volume control. FEATURES • Live Christmas countdown in days, hours, minutes, and seconds • A special MERRY CHRISTMAS! greeting on Christmas Day • Festive video backdrops and 25 beautiful photos • Offline music and photo slideshow • Sleep timer with a gentle fade-out • Wake timer • Independent music and sound volumes • Background audio and repeat playback • Gentle snow flurries throughout the control panel Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Video provided by Videezy.com.

About

iOSamp

A local music player for audiophiles and collectors, offering advanced playback features and extensive library management. It supports various audio formats and allows easy music import via Wi-Fi, Files app, USB, or direct download. No subscriptions, accounts, or ads are required.

Highlights
  • True gapless playback
  • 10-band EQ with saveable presets
  • ReplayGain normalization
  • Smart playlists
  • Tag editor
  • Wi-Fi transfer
  • WebDAV and Subsonic streaming
Features
Read full description

iOSamp is a local music player for collectors, audiophiles, and anyone who trusts their own taste over an algorithm. Your files on your device. No subscription necessary, no account creation needed, no ads, ever. Built by a guy who grew up on Hotline servers, oth.net, hoarding FLACs, and caring way too much about ID3 tags. Playback • True gapless playback • 10-band EQ with saveable presets • ReplayGain normalization, track or album level • Crossfade, A/B repeat, independent speed control • Waveform scrubber, pre-generated for every track • Real-time spectrum analyzer • Bookmarks and chapter support • Format, bitrate, and sample rate display • CarPlay, AirPlay, sleep timer • Synced lyrics Library • MP3, FLAC, AAC, ALAC, OGG, OPUS, WAV, AIFF, WMA, APE • Smart playlists built from rules: rating, play count, date added, genre, year, duration, and more • Build Session: shuffle any part of your library, keep or skip each track, save the keepers as a playlist • Collections: group whole albums, box sets, label catalogs, numbered series • Tag editor, duplicate detection, artist name normalization • Genre and artwork fetching via MusicBrainz and Discogs • Format and bitrate badges so you can tell FLAC from MP3 at a glance Getting music in • Wi-Fi transfer: start the built-in server and drag files in from any browser on your network • Files app and iCloud Drive imports, single files or whole folders • USB cable transfer from Finder or iTunes • Direct download from any audio URL Your servers • Stream from WebDAV shares • Full Subsonic API support: Navidrome, Airsonic, and friends • SMB shares through the Files app • Everything stays on-device; no analytics, no tracking

Screenshots

Christmas2 screens
iOSamp4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Christmas at 4.7 against iOSamp's 4.0. Christmas also leads on ratings volume (51 vs 1) and device support (5 vs 1). iOSamp's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Christmas holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Christmas has 51 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Christmas ships an update monthly, iOSamp every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Christmas versus iOSamp: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChristmasiOSamp
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (51 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews44.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings51 — better1
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size147 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperXME Inc.DAVID B RAST

Customer experience

Christmas

All ratings50 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive44.1%
Neutral10.2%
Negative45.8%

iOSamp

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Christmas

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • No "beautiful fading imagery", just white screen
  • No video on Apple TV
  • Background missing on Apple TV version
  • Cannot change wallpapers on Apple TV
  • App only plays the first song and no more
Show 8 more
  • Music keeps playing when app is closed
  • App goes blank/black
  • App won't load/crashes after update
  • App won't startup
  • App won't open
  • Crashing reported months ago
  • Application never appears after download
  • Update broke the music functionality

Requested features

13 requests
  • Changeable wallpapers
  • Video on Apple TV
  • Fix Apple TV background
  • Add "Greensleeves" song
  • Add new music for New Year
Show 8 more
  • Make it louder
  • Add a timer
  • Ability to erase recorded files
  • More Christmas carols
  • Next song starts automatically
  • Pause button
  • Scroll through song list while listening
  • Update for iOS 4

iOSamp

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Christmas

No in-app purchases

None

iOSamp

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Christmas free?
Christmas is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is iOSamp free?
iOSamp is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Christmas or iOSamp?
Christmas is rated higher. Christmas averages 4.7 out of 5 from 51 ratings, while iOSamp averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Christmas or iOSamp have ads?
Neither Christmas nor iOSamp shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Christmas or iOSamp?
Christmas ships an update monthly, and iOSamp every 2 weeks. Most recently, Christmas was updated on October 21, 2026 and iOSamp on October 19, 2026.

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