Comparison

SmartPlaylist vs StarTone

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

Head to head
About

SmartPlaylist

Generate custom music playlists using extensive filtering and sorting rules. Organize your music library by text, numerical, date, and property criteria. Seamlessly integrate with your device's music player for playback.

Highlights
  • 26 customizable smart playlists
  • Over 20 search rules per playlist
  • Text, numerical, and date filtering
  • Logical operators for rule combination
  • iCloud backup and restore for rules
  • Hierarchical music library browsing
  • Playback queue integration
Features
Read full description

SmartPlaylist is the most advanced playlist generator for iPod/iPhone/iPad with many unique features. SmartPlaylist uses the titles stored in your Music library on your device. There are 26 smart playlists (SmartPlaylist A-Z) which you can use and name as you wish. In each SmartPlaylist you can combine more than 20 search rules to filter and sort your iTunes music library. These rules can be saved in iCloud. Available search criteria: ● Text search: Genre, Grouping, Composer, Artist, Album-Artist, Album, Title, Comments, Lyrics and/or iTunes-Playlist Search for exact matches („is equal to“), for any partial matches („contains“) or use wildcards („is like“ ?/*). Use logical operators to unite (" OR “), intersect (" AND “) or exclude (“ NOT “) certain songs Example: The rule "Genre contains blu OR zz" will give you all your blues and jazz songs in 1 playlist. ● Numerical search: Rating, Play Count, Skip Count, Duration, Track Number, BPM and/or Year. ● Date search: Added, Last Played, Last Skipped, Released (how many days, weeks, months or years ago) You can search for values less than, equal to / from-to (=) or more than the limit you set ● Property search: is in compilation, is in iCloud, is music video (all/yes/no) The titles loaded in SmartPlaylist also become the playback queue of the Music app and the now playing title is also shown in the lock screen and the control center, where you can play/pause, fast-forward, skip, etc. There are many settings to configure, e.g. what search rules you want to use and what info you want to see in the list of titles. General procedure: 1. Select a smart playlist (a) 2. Set the search rules (a) 3. Tap „Load titles“ (a) 4. Scroll through the list of matching titles (b) 5. Press on a title in the list to play it or tap to see all its details (c). a) THE MAIN SCREEN: The search rules of a smart playlist (e.g. „SmartPlaylist A“) ● Use „Menu“ to open the settings and help, copy/paste rules and backup/restore with iCloud ● Use „(i)“ to open the details of a search rule (there, use „(+)“ to open the pick list for genre, artist, etc.) ● Use „All/Active“ to toggle between showing all search rules and showing only the active rules (yellow) ● Browse your music collection hierarchically by Genres > Composers > Artists > Albums > Titles ● Use list operations to add, subtract or intersect the results of SmartPlaylists ● Limit the number of titles per artist or per album, or limit the list to x minutes, hours or titles ● Sort with multiple criteria, e.g. 1. by Artist, 2. by Rating (per artist), 3. by playCount (per rating) ● With „Show only“ you can load another SmartPlaylist while the previous list is still playing in the background ● If you do not set any search rules „Load titles“ will load all titles in your music library b) THE LIST VIEW: The list of titles matching the search rules ● Long-press on a title to play/pause ● Pinch in/out to change the row height (S-M-L) and toggle the display of the artwork ● Use quick-search to search within the loaded list or mark certain titles ● Scroll to the now playing song in the list with „Now playing“ c) THE DETAIL VIEW: All the details/infos for the selected song ● If you have selected a song which is not being played, you can scroll up and down through the title list with „^“ / „v“ ● When you are in the „Now playing mode“, „^“ / „v“ will play the previous or next song, respectively. ● Enlarge the cover artwork up to full screen (tap/double-tap or pinch in/out) ● Tap on a line to open the values in a text view where you can copy the text or look up the definition of words, etc. (e.g. in the lyrics) ● Add the selected song to another smart playlist or remove it from the current one (i.e. make exceptions to the rules, which can also be edited in the corresponding search rule) ● Load all songs with the same genre, artist, year, etc. as the selected song

About

StarTone

This music player allows you to rate songs with stars and love statuses directly from your device's library or audio files. It offers convenient rating options via widgets and Apple Watch, with iCloud sync for your ratings.

Highlights
  • Rate music with stars and love statuses
  • iCloud sync for ratings across devices
  • Rating support on Today Extension and Apple Watch
  • Play and rate common audio formats including Flac and MIDI
  • Embed lyrics and support for .lrc files
  • Smart playlist creation
Features
Read full description

StarTone is a music player which can play songs in your "Music" library and audio files stored in your device, including common format like mp3 and lossless format of Flac, also it support MIDI playback and support customize sound bank. StarTone was came out for rating music with stars and "love" statues. The rating bar stands out in the main page, so it just need one touch to make the rating, no need to open many submenus. In addition,  StarTone provides Today Extension and Watch app, so you can also make music ratings on the Widget Screen and your Apple Watch. StarTone now also equips some handy features to make the music listening easy and happy. Please try to play with them. Features:  1. Quickly set star and love ratings for music on your local library, Apple Music or audio file. 2. Sync music ratings with other devices or iTunes via iCloud on the go. 3. With iCloud Sync enabled, love / dislike rating are available. 4. Support rating on today extension (widget). 5. Share music ratings with family and friends. 6. Support embed lyrics, .lrc lyrics file and online lyrics. 7. Support automatically play when launch the app. 8. Support star music rating on Apple Watch. 9. Play and rate audio files of general format and Flac lossless format. 10. Support MIDI playback. 11. Smart playlist for both Music Library and audio files. 12. Play audio files on Apple Watch. 13. Scheduled music playback.

Screenshots

SmartPlaylist4 screens
StarTone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: SmartPlaylist at 4.4 against StarTone's 4.1. SmartPlaylist also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 67%) and ratings volume (53 vs 16). StarTone's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $1.99). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

SmartPlaylist costs $1.99 and StarTone $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SmartPlaylist holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 53 and 16 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of SmartPlaylist's written reviews are positive against 67% of StarTone's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SmartPlaylist ships an update every 2 months, StarTone every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
SmartPlaylist versus StarTone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSmartPlaylistStarTone
Price$1.99$0.99 — better
Rating4.4 (53 ratings) — better4.1 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews77.1% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings53 — better16
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.6 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerdaenu乃波 黄

Customer experience

SmartPlaylist

All ratings53 ratings
Positive81.1%
Neutral11.3%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews70 reviews
Positive77.1%
Neutral8.6%
Negative14.3%

StarTone

All ratings16 ratings
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.3%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

SmartPlaylist

No in-app purchases

None

StarTone

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SmartPlaylist free?
SmartPlaylist costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is StarTone free?
StarTone costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SmartPlaylist or StarTone?
SmartPlaylist is rated higher. SmartPlaylist averages 4.4 out of 5 from 53 ratings, while StarTone averages 4.1 from 16 ratings.
Do SmartPlaylist or StarTone have ads?
Neither SmartPlaylist nor StarTone shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SmartPlaylist or StarTone?
SmartPlaylist ships an update every 2 months, and StarTone every 5 weeks. Most recently, SmartPlaylist was updated on October 3, 2026 and StarTone on October 2, 2026.

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