Comparison

swmpc vs Sortwave

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

Head to head
About

swmpc

A fast and elegant music player client for Apple devices. It offers seamless library browsing, intuitive queue management, and full playlist support. Features AI-powered smart fill for playlist generation and is open source.

Highlights
  • Fast library browsing
  • Sane queue management
  • Full playlist support
  • Favorites access
  • AI-powered smart fill
  • Open source
  • Universal purchase
Features
Read full description

Tired of janky MPD clients? Same. `swmpc` is a fast, elegant MPD client built exclusively for iOS, iPadOS & macOS. A clean, native interface that feels right at home on your Apple devices. What you get: • Fast library browsing: Search artists, albums, and tracks instantly • Sane queue management: Add, remove, reorder. Drag and drop. No friction. • Full playlist support: Create, edit, delete, and populate playlists without fighting the UI • Favorites: Quick access to tracks you actually listen to • AI-powered smart fill: Generate playlists or queue tracks by genre or mood • Open source: Inspect it, fork it, contribute. It's your app too. • Universal purchase: One price. Get it for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Done.

About

Sortwave

Features
Read full description

Swipe music into place. Sortwave is a focused playlist-curation companion for Apple Music. Choose a playlist, listen to each full song, and decide what belongs without breaking your flow. Swipe right to keep a song. Route it up or down into playlists you already use. Mark favorites, shuffle your session, scrub through playback, undo a decision, or stop whenever you want. Sortwave queues your choices locally and applies them together when you choose Finish & Sync. Apple Music doesn’t allow third-party apps to directly delete arbitrary library songs. When you mark songs for removal, Sortwave places them in a clearly labeled Deleted Songs playlist and shows a short guide for completing deletion safely in Apple Music. Your original library stays under your control. Features: • Full-song Apple Music playback • Fast, gesture-first playlist decisions • Two configurable quick-route playlists • Favorite and unfavorite controls • Interactive playback scrubber • Shuffle, previous, next and undo controls • Batched sync with a clear summary • Session history and resilient local queueing • Secure connection restoration • No advertising or tracking An active Apple Music subscription may be required for full-song playback and library access. Sortwave is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.

Screenshots

swmpc3 screens
Sortwave3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sortwave at Free against swmpc's $8.99. Sortwave also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 27.0). swmpc's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On 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

Sortwave is free to download; swmpc costs $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

swmpc ships an update every 2 months, Sortwave every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
swmpc versus Sortwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterswmpcSortwave
Price$8.99Free — better
Rating1.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS27.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCamille ScholtzSooraj Sambasivam

In-app purchases

None

swmpc

No in-app purchases

None

Sortwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is swmpc free?
swmpc costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sortwave free?
Sortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do swmpc or Sortwave have ads?
Neither swmpc nor Sortwave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, swmpc or Sortwave?
swmpc ships an update every 2 months, and Sortwave every 5 days. Most recently, swmpc was updated on November 4, 2026 and Sortwave on October 31, 2026.

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