Comparison

Smart Shuffle vs Sequence Playlist

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

Head to head
About

Smart Shuffle

This music player brings back the classic album shuffle experience, playing songs in their intended order within randomly selected albums. It offers extensive customization for album selection and playback control, including CarPlay and Apple Watch integration.

Highlights
  • Album shuffle playback
  • CarPlay integration
  • Siri Shortcuts
  • Cloud album access
  • Enhanced album selection & filtering
  • Apple Watch interface
  • Sleep mode timer
Features
Read full description

Do you miss the old "Album Shuffle" on your Apple device? Here at Spudfish Software, we did, so we did something about it! Smart Shuffle: The Album-Centric Music Player Smart Shuffle brings album shuffle back to you, randomly shuffling your music and playing it back one album at a time with songs selected in the order that the artist intended. If you love albums, Smart Shuffle is the only music player you need! Version 4.0 also includes a host of new features to help you further take charge of your album collection! CARPLAY COMPATIBLE!!! - Tell Smart Shuffle to re-shuffle, play next album, play previous album, or view the next albums in your queue from our new CarPlay interface! SIRI SHORTCUTS - train Siri to tell Smart Shuffle to Shuffle Albums, Play Next Album or Play Previous Album PLAY ALBUMS FROM THE CLOUD - Smart Shuffle can now access your albums in the cloud, seamlessly adding them to your selection list. Have a bad data plan or spotty internet connectivity? Just turn off this feature from the Settings app for Smart Shuffle. ENHANCED ALBUM SELECTION - Sort your albums by Title, Artist, Genre, Composer, or Release Date - Filter the selection list to refine your selections. You can create an album playlist to match your mood by filtering on any combination of: - Artist - Genre - Grouping - Composer - Rating - Play Count - Date Added - Decade Released - Minimum Song Count - Inclusion in one of your Playlists - Cloud Availability - Filter by Selected to see only the albums you have currently selected for shuffling, or those that you haven't selected yet. - Start Album: Select the first album to play, then pick random albums thereafter. - Split Multi-Disc Albums: treat each volume of a multi-disc set individually APPLE WATCH INTERFACE - Control the playback of your album selections on your Apple Watch. Play or pause the current album, skip to the next album, or re-play the previous album. SLEEP MODE - Touch and hold the play/pause button for a second to request Sleep Mode - Smart Shuffle will automatically pause after 30 minutes, an hour, or after the current album. You'll get lulled to sleep listening to your favorite albums without missing a bunch of them while asleep! ANNOUNCEMENT AND DELAY - Smart Shuffle now comes with settings to announce each new album before it is played, and to delay for up to 30 seconds between albums to let you cleanse your musical palate. RESPONSIVE TO TOUCH EVENTS - Double tap the screen to play/pause music - Swipe left/right on the album art to skip to the next/previous album - Swipe left/right on the now playing information to skip to the next/previous song - Swipe down in the pull-tab to show your entire shuffled album queue. Swipe up to view the currently playing album art. - Touch the progress bar to change songs - Touch the time remaining to show the time of day that the currently playing album will end. Touch again to return to time remaining. - Touch and hold the progress bar to get a list of songs to choose from - From the Selection Screen, touch and hold an album to play it first in your shuffled list REMOTE CONTROL EVENTS - In addition to the usual remote control events (play/pause, next song, previous song), Smart Shuffle can now skip to the next/previous album using the "skimming" remote control events. Double-click and hold the remote control on headphones, or touch and hold the forward arrow on the remote control panel on your lock screen. If you quit the application, your music keeps playing. Open the Music app, and your Smart Shuffle mix is retained. Pop right back into Smart Shuffle to skip albums or select new albums to mix. Happy Shuffling! See our website for additional information, FAQ's and contact us to report bugs or request new features. http://spudfish.com/smartshuffle

About

Sequence Playlist

Organize and play your music playlists with advanced shuffling, sorting, and editing options. Create custom sequences, sort by various criteria, and manually reorder tracks for a personalized listening experience.

Highlights
  • Advanced playlist shuffling
  • Sort by title, artist, genre, rating, play count
  • Manual track reordering and deletion
  • Save randomized or sorted sequences
  • Portrait and landscape support
  • Dark Mode
Read full description

A simple music player, shuffler, sorter, and sequence editor for your playlists.  - Select a playlist, then click Play to play from the beginning, Random to shuffle and play in random order, or click any row to start playing from there.  (We use unbiased randomization algorithms producing a well distributed shuffle sequence, to bring you best results. Each newly generated sequence will not contain any duplicate tracks, and will shuffle your entire playlist.) Optionally save the randomized playlist track sequence to a new playlist for later use in this app, or other supported Music player apps. - Automatically sort songs in your music playlists from your phone. Sort by song title, artist, genre, rating, play count, album title or album track number, and if desired, save these changes to a new playlist. This new playlist can then be played within this app, or other supported Music apps. Use it to find duplicate tracks in a playlist, or order songs in your preferred way for your listening   pleasure. - Manually re-order or delete unwanted tracks with the Edit button. - Use in portrait or landscape configuration. - Dark Mode supported. - iOS 12 and above. * You will need to turn on "Sync Library" in Settings -> Music. * You will need to create at least one playlist from your Apple Music app before using the app to view, sort, edit playlists, shuffle, and play songs. NOTE: ------ To use this app, you must already have playlists created in the Apple Music App or other compatible apps. This app will help you sort, reorder, and play them in a convenient way. The main window displays playlist names in sorted order. These playlist names are automatically sorted alphabetically in this app for display purposes only. It will not alter the order you currently have in your Apple Music app. We build this app to obtain the ability to shuffle music playlists differently, with the added benefit of being able to view, re-arrange, and save each random sequence generated by the app. Furthermore, we wanted to automatically sort playlists in other ways, while also having the ability to manually re-order and delete tracks. Originally we built it for our own use, but now we are happy to share it with the public. No Ads, purchases, data collection, or tracking of any kind. Enjoy, and happy listening :-)

Screenshots

Smart Shuffle3 screens
Sequence Playlist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sequence Playlist at Free against Smart Shuffle's $1.99. Sequence Playlist also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (100% vs 68%). Smart Shuffle's advantage is ratings volume (36 vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

Sequence Playlist is free to download; Smart Shuffle costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sequence Playlist holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Smart Shuffle has 36 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Smart Shuffle's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sequence Playlist's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Smart Shuffle ships an update every 2 months, Sequence Playlist every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 4, 2026 and June 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Smart Shuffle versus Sequence Playlist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSmart ShuffleSequence Playlist
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating3.8 (36 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings36 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSpudfish SoftwareBlue Vine Solutions, LLC

Customer experience

Smart Shuffle

All ratings36 ratings
Positive63.9%
Neutral16.7%
Negative19.4%
Written reviews115 reviews
Positive67.8%
Neutral12.2%
Negative20.0%

Sequence Playlist

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Smart Shuffle

No in-app purchases

None

Sequence Playlist

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Smart Shuffle free?
Smart Shuffle costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sequence Playlist free?
Sequence Playlist is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Smart Shuffle or Sequence Playlist?
Sequence Playlist is rated higher. Smart Shuffle averages 3.8 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while Sequence Playlist averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Smart Shuffle or Sequence Playlist have ads?
Neither Smart Shuffle nor Sequence Playlist shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Smart Shuffle or Sequence Playlist?
Smart Shuffle ships an update every 2 months, and Sequence Playlist every 6 weeks. Most recently, Smart Shuffle was updated on September 4, 2026 and Sequence Playlist on June 4, 2026.

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