ShowMIDI vs plugdata
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ShowMIDI
This application provides a real-time, glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. It visualizes various MIDI messages and allows you to pause the flow for a data snapshot. It can be used as a standalone tool or an AUv3 plugin within your DAW.
- Real-time MIDI visualization
- Auto-hides irrelevant messages
- Pause and snapshot data
- Standalone application
- AUv3 plugin support
- Supports MPE configuration
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ShowMIDI is an open-source multi-platform GUI application to effortlessly visualize MIDI activity. Instead of wading through logs of MIDI messages to correlate relevant ones and identify what is happening, ShowMIDI visualizes the current activity and auto-hides what you don't care about anymore. It provides you with a real-time glanceable view of all MIDI activity on your computer. ShowMIDI is designed to be always on, using the spacebar or play/pause button you can pause the flow and focus on a data snapshot with the latest state of any MIDI entity. ShowMIDI can be ran as a standalone application that automatically detects all your MIDI devices, or as an AUv3 plugin in your DAW or host to visualize MIDI data in your sessions. ShowMIDI visualizes: * MIDI ports * channels * program change * note on/off * channel pressure * polyphonic pressure * continuous control change * pitchbend * RPN and NRPN * MPE configuration and channel modes ShowMIDI supports: * themes * standalone operation * AUv3 operation
plugdata
This app provides a visual programming environment for audio experimentation, prototyping, and education. It allows users to create and run audio patches on their mobile devices, enabling creative sound design on the go.
- Visual programming environment
- Audio experimentation
- Prototyping
- Educational tool
- Standalone application
- Audio plugins
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plugdata is visual programming environment for audio experimentation, prototyping and education. With plugdata for iOS, you can bring your plugdata patches with you everywhere you go. This app ships with a standalone application and audio plugins.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ShowMIDI at 4.8 against plugdata's 4.4. ShowMIDI also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 63%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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.
ShowMIDI holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 18 and 17 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of ShowMIDI's written reviews are positive against 63% of plugdata's.
ShowMIDI ships an update every 2 months, plugdata every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ShowMIDI | plugdata |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (18 ratings) — better | 4.4 (17 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 87.5% of reviews — better | 63.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 147 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Uwyn, LLC | Timothy Schoen |
Customer experience
ShowMIDI
plugdata
In-app purchases
ShowMIDI
No in-app purchases
plugdata
No in-app purchases
