Comparison

Icarus vs ABS Admin

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

Head to head
About

Icarus

Consolidate all your media management services into a single, intuitive application. Monitor requests, track releases, and view live streams from various connected platforms. Access and manage your media setup remotely with real-time notifications.

Highlights
  • Unified dashboard for requests and releases
  • Seamless integration with Sonarr, Radarr, Overseerr, Tautulli
  • Real-time notifications for media events
  • Discover and manage trending titles
  • Remote access to media setup
Features
Read full description

Your media. Your rules. Free to use. Every feature included. Icarus brings your movies, TV shows, music, and books together in one native app for Apple devices. Find a familiar favorite, discover your next obsession, and keep your media organized without jumping between apps. Divine by name. Unreasonably useful by nature. • Your library, together Browse media, requests, and activity from your connected servers and services in one place. • Discover more Explore recommendations, browse collections, and search for movies, shows, and people. Meet the cast and get the details behind the poster. • A little divine order See what’s available, upcoming, or requested. Manage supported library details and requests, and keep track of what comes next. • Press play Enjoy movies, music, and audiobooks through compatible connected services. Check playback activity and use supported playback controls from your device. • Stay in the loop Get push notifications for supported events, including media availability, requests, and playback activity. • Your setup, your choice Connect Icarus directly to supported services, or pair it with Hades, our optional self-hosted server. Access your setup away from home when your services are configured for remote access. FREE TO USE No subscriptions. No paid feature tiers. No ads. Every Icarus feature is included. HADES Icarus for iOS includes optional support for 'Hades - Media Server' which includes more robust features and permissions. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your media and server data stay with the devices and systems you control. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising. Essential account, connection, and notification-routing data are handled as described in our Privacy Policy. BRING YOUR OWN MEDIA Icarus is a client for your existing media servers and services. It does not provide or host movies, TV shows, music, books, or other media. You need your own media library and compatible services. Some connected services may require their own accounts or subscriptions. Features vary by platform and integration. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://myicarus.app/privacypolicy.html

About

ABS Admin

Manage your personal audiobook and ebook server, play and read content, and organize your entire library. This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for server administration, including metadata editing, library cleanup, and user management.

Highlights
  • Manage audiobook and ebook libraries
  • Built-in audiobook player
  • EPUB, PDF, and CBZ reader
  • Edit metadata and fix covers
  • Organize series, collections, and playlists
  • Upload media from cloud storage
  • Podcast management
  • User and permission management
Features
Read full description

ABS Admin is the app your Audiobookshelf server was missing. Manage your whole library, read your ebooks, and press play, all from your phone. Try it right now with no server: tap "Explore a Demo" and the entire app works with sample data. LISTEN & READ - A clean home that opens on your books, not on menus - Search every library and tap to play or read - Continue Listening and Continue Reading pick up exactly where you left off - Browse any library as a wall of covers - Built-in player: play, skip, chapters, speed, bookmarks, lock screen, background audio, progress synced to your server - Built-in reader for EPUB, PDF, and comics (CBZ): themes, fonts, size and spacing, search, bookmarks, and a Dyslexia mode with wider spacing and ragged edges for easier reading - Want downloads, CarPlay, Apple Watch, or a sleep timer? A quiet link hands the book to Lull, our full audiobook player MANAGE YOUR SERVER - Edit metadata: title, author, narrator, series, genres, tags, description - Quick match and fix missing covers, one book or the whole library - Clean Up: rename or delete a genre, tag, or narrator across every book at once, and split messy imported labels like "Paranormal, Contemporary, Urban" into separate genres in one tap - Series, collections, and playlists - Move a book between libraries, something even the web app cannot do - Upload audiobooks and ebooks from iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, or anywhere the Files app reaches - Podcasts: add shows by search or feed, import OPML, download old episodes, clean up the back catalog - Users: create, edit, set passwords, roles, permissions, and per library access - Backups: create, download, restore, and schedule - Send an ebook straight to your Kindle - Listening dashboard: who is listening now, full session history, daily hours, top listeners, and a Year in Review - Create and configure libraries, run scans, open RSS feeds, and set up notifications SAFE BY DESIGN - Destructive actions are guarded: file deletion is off by default and asks you to type to confirm - Moving a book copies it first and removes the original only after the copy succeeds PRIVATE BY DESIGN - Talks only to your own server with your own account - No analytics, no tracking, no data collected ABS Admin is an independent companion app and is not affiliated with the Audiobookshelf project. It needs your own Audiobookshelf server, or use the demo to look around.

Screenshots

Icarus4 screens
ABS Admin4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ABS Admin at 5.0 against Icarus's 4.0. ABS Admin also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Icarus's advantage is ratings volume (6 vs 1) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Icarus sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and ABS Admin sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ABS Admin holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Icarus has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Icarus ships an update weekly, ABS Admin every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Icarus versus ABS Admin: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIcarusABS Admin
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLantea LLCCorey FELDMAN

Customer experience

Icarus

All ratings6 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive77.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative22.2%

ABS Admin

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Icarus

Subscriptions5
  • Basic Access$0.991 Month
  • Supporter$0.991 Month
  • Supporter Family Access$1.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Supporter - Yearly$9.991 Year
  • Supporter Family Access - Yearly$14.991 Year
3 purchases

ABS Admin

One-time3
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
  • Large Tip$4.99

Questions

Is Icarus free?
Icarus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ABS Admin free?
ABS Admin is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Icarus or ABS Admin?
ABS Admin is rated higher. Icarus averages 4.0 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while ABS Admin averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Icarus or ABS Admin have ads?
Neither Icarus nor ABS Admin shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Icarus or ABS Admin?
Icarus ships an update weekly, and ABS Admin every 5 days. Most recently, Icarus was updated on October 24, 2026 and ABS Admin on October 25, 2026.

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