plugdata vs SoundShader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
SoundShader
Transform sound into dynamic, colorful light displays. Choose from various visual presets or customize your own to match any audio, from live microphone input to your music library. Optimized for stunning visuals on modern displays.
- Live microphone audio input
- Audio file playback with equalizer
- Apple Music integration
- Eight built-in visual presets
- Customizable color and motion
- HDR display support
- 120Hz ProMotion support
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SoundShader turns sound into moving light. Each band of the music, from the deepest bass to the brightest cymbal, drives its own ribbons of color, so a quiet ballad and a dense electronic track, combined with a variety of visual presets, create wildly different looks. Every feature in SoundShader is totally free. LISTEN TO ANYTHING • Microphone: the visuals are totally live, following what your device hears, as it happens. • Audio files: open a song from Files and the visuals follow it exactly, with a 10-band equalizer to shape how it sounds and looks. • Apple Music: play a song from your library. On iPhone and iPad, it plays through the speaker while SoundShader listens through the microphone. MAKE IT YOURS • Eight built-in looks: Rainbow, Aurora, Violet, Flame, Moss, Embers, Party and Shadow. Save your own as presets. • Color: hue, saturation, brightness, and where the warm colors hand over to the cool ones. • Motion: speed, density and size, each of which can follow the music by itself with Auto Speed, Auto Density and Auto Size. • A flowing backdrop and a live waveform. BUILT FOR GREAT DISPLAYS • Extended Dynamic Range lets the brightest light go past white on HDR displays. • Runs up to your display's full refresh rate, including 120 hz ProMotion. • Performance Mode for less power usage and higher frame rates on older devices. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no ads, no tracking. Everything SoundShader hears is analyzed on your device and never leaves it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SoundShader at 5.0 against plugdata's 4.4. SoundShader also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 63%) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months). plugdata's advantage is ratings volume (17 vs 3) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.5). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SoundShader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: plugdata has 17 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of plugdata's written reviews are positive against 100% of SoundShader's.
plugdata ships an update every 3 months, SoundShader every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | plugdata | SoundShader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (17 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 17 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 26.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 147 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Timothy Schoen | Andreas Beyer-Bowden |
Customer experience
plugdata
SoundShader
In-app purchases
plugdata
No in-app purchases
SoundShader
No in-app purchases









