swmpc vs Sortwave
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Fast library browsing
- Sane queue management
- Full playlist support
- Favorites access
- AI-powered smart fill
- Open source
- Universal purchase
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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.
Sortwave
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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
Verdict
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
Sortwave is free to download; swmpc costs $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
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.
| Parameter | swmpc | Sortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 1.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 27.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Camille Scholtz | Sooraj Sambasivam |
In-app purchases
swmpc
No in-app purchases
Sortwave
No in-app purchases









