Comparison

Spindles vs Particle Chimes

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

Head to head
About

Spindles

Experience a curated sound environment designed for sleep, focus, and calm. Featuring analog music, soundscapes, and auditory patterns, it supports gradual transitions and sustained states for better rest and reduced anxiety. Enjoy a refined listening experience with intelligent playback controls.

Highlights
  • Purpose-composed analog and acoustic music
  • Immersive soundscapes
  • Gentle auditory patterns
  • Supports sleep, focus, and calm
  • Gradual transitions and sustained states
  • Intelligent playlist flow
  • Flexible playback controls
Features
Read full description

Created by Dudadius—composer Bryan Rheude—Spindles is original music and handcrafted sonic environments for focus, sleep, calm, and movement. Acoustic piano, analog and modular instruments, field recordings, custom noise, and binaural sound are composed and shaped by hand. Research informs the craft. The music leads. TODAY’S ATMOSPHERES Four fresh daily starting points—Mellow Focus, Beat Focus, Sleep, and Soothe. One tap to begin in the app or from a Home Screen widget. FOCUS COLLECTION Three paths into sustained attention: expansive Harmonic Fields, evolving Melodic Focus, and rhythmic ADHD Beats. SLEEP SPINDLES A guided journey through Fall Asleep, Stay Asleep, and an optional Wake Transition. Choose your own combination or begin with today’s rotating selection. EXPLORE Browse by state, sound, or intention—from acoustic piano and natural environments to custom noise, binaural sound, meditation, movement, and more. 14 DAYS OF FULL ACCESS Create a free profile and listen for 14 days. No payment information is required. Subscription options appear only after the trial ends. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Particle Chimes

Create generative ambient music and captivating visualizers with this sonic instrument. Explore diverse soundscapes, from gentle strings to glass bells, and customize your experience with various visual themes. Easily record and share your creations, or use it for relaxation and focus.

Highlights
  • Generative soundscapes
  • Diverse instrument tones
  • Interactive visualizers
  • Performance ribbon control
  • Auto-evolving melodies
  • High-resolution audio/video export
  • Sleep timer
Features
Read full description

Particle Chimes is an instrument for your iPhone and iPad that is designed for touch, with sounds ranging from gentle strings to glass bells to cathedral organs. Press Auto and start an evolving melody in the key of your choice. Select visualizations like ink swirls, starfields, koi ponds, or stark black and white patterns to match your mood. Play notes or strum the performance ribbon to create a wide range of tones. It's easy to capture your performances with high resolution audio and video exports to share with friends. Set the sleep timer to relax and drift off to your own personal lullaby, or keep it playing in the background for focus time. Connect the app to your TV or projector and create your own personal interactive art installation. Under the hood, Particle Chimes has a deep generative synthesizer engine. The sound is the real Rings physical-modeling resonator and Clouds granular engine, the same open-source Mutable Instruments algorithms inside two of the most-loved Eurorack modules ever built. Play with the built-in performance ribbon or with external keyboards and sequencers within your favorite AUv3 host such as GarageBand or AUM. SOUNDS TO START FROM Thirty-nine sounds, from plucked strings and glass bells to choirs, organs, and slow, stretched washes. The sound browser is a doorway to a wide range of presets. THE RIBBON Particle Chimes has three distinct performance ribbons: note mode, texture board, and, in Studio, a theremin-like free mode. Drag across the textured ribbon and notes ring out in whatever scale and tuning you've set: 23 scales from pentatonic to Hungarian minor, tunings from standard 12-tone to Just, Pythagorean, and Bohlen-Pierce, or your own imported .scl file. PARTICLES Everything you play is saved in the recording buffer, and the particle engine plays it back in three different ways. GRAINS scatters it into a granular cloud. LOOP repeats a slice of it and can sync to the clock. STRETCH plays it as a slow, pitched loop, with speed and pitch set separately. Up to three playheads read the buffer at once, each at its own pitch. AUTO Turn on AUTO and Particle Chimes will begin playing a unique evolving melody. Use one of the three modes to fit your goals: a Turing-machine sequencer, an arpeggiator, and a slow drift generator all help to create soundscapes that don't become repetitive. MANY WAYS TO SEE THE SOUND Every visualizer skin responds to what's actually playing, 46 in all. Five are free to start, including Signal Flow, a living schematic that shows you how the instrument works underneath. The rest, including a new set of eight black and white looks, open up with Studio. USE IT IN YOUR HOST Particle Chimes loads as an instrument plugin (AUv3) in AUM, Loopy Pro, and Logic for iPad. Play it from a MIDI keyboard or a host piano roll, with parameters exposed for automation and MIDI learn, locked to your host's tempo. AUTO can also start and stop with your host's transport. FREE TO PLAY, ONE UNLOCK The full resonator, the full granular engine, reverb, AUTO sequencers, all 39 sounds, five visualizer skins, MIDI, and the AUv3 are included in the free version. One purchase unlocks Studio: the full editing surface for both engines, including the LOOP and STRETCH controls, laid out on a single screen on a full-screen iPad. Studio also brings a tempo-syncable ping-pong delay, a sleep timer that fades the whole mix to silence, your own saved presets, recording and exporting a performance as video, Hi-Res Visuals on supported devices, and every visualizer skin. No subscription. No account required.

Screenshots

Spindles4 screens
Particle Chimes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Particle Chimes at 16.0 against Spindles's 18.0. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

Both are free to download. Spindles sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and Particle Chimes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Spindles against 5.0 for Particle Chimes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 12 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Spindles versus Particle Chimes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpindlesParticle Chimes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (10 ratings)5.0 (12 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1012 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRedsquared IncPlastic Factory LLC

Customer experience

Spindles

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Particle Chimes

All ratings12 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Spindles

Subscriptions4
  • Individual Renews Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Family Access Renews Monthly$10.991 Month
  • Individual Renews Annually$69.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Family Access Renews Annually$110.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Access to Spindles$299.99
1 purchases

Particle Chimes

One-time1
  • Unlock Everything$9.99

Questions

Is Spindles free?
Spindles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Particle Chimes free?
Particle Chimes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spindles or Particle Chimes?
Spindles and Particle Chimes are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 10 and 12 ratings respectively.
Do Spindles or Particle Chimes have ads?
Neither Spindles nor Particle Chimes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spindles or Particle Chimes?
Spindles ships an update every 5 days, and Particle Chimes every 5 days. Most recently, Spindles was updated on October 30, 2026 and Particle Chimes on November 7, 2026.

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