Christmas vs iOSamp
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Christmas carols by real musicians
- Countdown to Christmas
- Sleep timer
- Wake up alarm
- Background audio
- Fading imagery
- Rearrange song order
Read full descriptionHide 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.
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.
- True gapless playback
- 10-band EQ with saveable presets
- ReplayGain normalization
- Smart playlists
- Tag editor
- Wi-Fi transfer
- WebDAV and Subsonic streaming
Read full descriptionHide 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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
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.
Christmas ships an update monthly, iOSamp every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Christmas | iOSamp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (51 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 44.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 51 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 147 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | XME Inc. | DAVID B RAST |
Customer experience
Christmas
iOSamp
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
Christmas
No in-app purchases
iOSamp
No in-app purchases









