Comparison

Narjo vs Crate for Plex

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

Head to head
About

Narjo

Stream your personal music library from various servers or local storage. Enjoy lossless playback, synced lyrics, and extensive library exploration. Cast to multiple devices and customize your listening experience with a powerful equalizer and offline downloads.

Highlights
  • Connect to Navidrome, Subsonic, Jellyfin, Emby, Plex
  • Lossless playback and gapless support
  • Real-time synced lyrics with translation
  • Browse by artist, album, genre, decade, folder
  • UPnP/DLNA casting and Sonos support
  • 10-band graphic equalizer
  • Offline downloads and full offline mode
Features
Read full description

Your music. Your server. Brought to life. Narjo is a beautiful, powerful player for the music you already own. Connect directly to Navidrome, Subsonic, Jellyfin, Emby, or Plex and enjoy lossless playback, synced lyrics, deep customization, and immersive animated artwork wherever you listen. No Narjo account. No ads. No behavioral tracking. Just your collection, your way. CONNECT YOUR LIBRARY • Navidrome, Subsonic, Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex • Add multiple servers and switch between them instantly • Automatically switch between home and remote addresses as your network changes • Client certificates (mTLS), custom headers, reverse proxies, Cloudflare Tunnels, and self-signed certificates • No server? Local Library mode plays music stored directly on your device ARTWORK THAT MOVES • Bring covers to life with animated artwork in Now Playing and album views • Display animated artwork on the Lock Screen on supported devices and system versions • Play animated WebP covers from your library • Add custom video artwork to individual songs or complete albums • Dynamic interface colors inspired by the current artwork PLAYBACK, DONE RIGHT • Lossless FLAC and ALAC, plus MP3, AAC, WAV, and AIFF • Gapless playback and customizable crossfade • BPM-aware AutoMix transitions with a smooth adaptive fallback • ReplayGain normalization with clipping protection • Separate streaming and download quality for Wi-Fi and cellular • Smart pre-caching for smooth, responsive playback • 10-band equalizer with 18 presets, custom presets, Simple and Advanced modes, and Equalizer APO import LYRICS THAT KEEP UP • Synced lyrics with real-time, line-by-line highlighting • Lyrics from your server, embedded tags, LRC files, and LRCLIB • On-device translation into your preferred language • Adjustable timing, text size, and alignment REDISCOVER YOUR COLLECTION • Browse artists, albums, songs, genres, decades, and folders • Recently Played, Recently Added, Most Played, and Time Capsule • Song, Artist, and Album Radio • Smart playlists, favorites, hearts, and 5-star ratings • Fast library-wide search • Optional AudioMuse-AI for similar songs and Song Path • Optional Lidarr integration for discovering and adding music OFFLINE AND AROUND THE HOME • Download songs, albums, and playlists • Auto-download and smart playlist downloads • Full Offline Mode when no connection is available • Favorites, ratings, play counts, and scrobbles sync when you reconnect • AirPlay, Sonos, and speaker groups • Bit-perfect UPnP/DLNA casting with native DSD passthrough on compatible renderers • Navidrome Jukebox mode MAKE NARJO YOURS • Dark, Light, and System themes with customizable accent colors • Personalize the player, Home screen, tab bar, and artwork presentation • Sleep timer and configurable swipe gestures • Sport Mode can match playback to your target running BPM EVERYWHERE YOU LISTEN • iPhone and iPad • Apple TV for big-screen listening • Apple Watch with volume and playback controls, library browsing, Up Next, and offline playback • CarPlay • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets • Siri and Shortcuts • Available in 11 languages PRIVATE BY DESIGN Narjo connects directly to your server. Your credentials stay securely stored in the Keychain. Narjo contains no advertising and does not use your activity for cross-app behavioral tracking. A compatible server account is required for server features. Availability may vary by server, configuration, device, operating system, and audio renderer. Your collection deserves a player as expressive as the music itself. Download Narjo and hear—and see—your music in a new way. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use: https://narjomusic.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://narjomusic.com/privacy

About

Crate for Plex

A native, unofficial music player for your Plex Media Server, designed for iPhone and Apple Watch. Enjoy your owned music library with features like offline listening, crossfade, and queue management without subscriptions or ads.

Highlights
  • Plex music library browsing
  • Offline listening
  • Apple Watch app
  • Crossfade playback
  • Queue management
  • Smart caching
Features
Read full description

Your Plex music library, finally given the iOS music player it deserves. Crate is a native, unofficial music player for your Plex Media Server, built for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay. Pay once. No subscription. No ads. No tracking. Just your music, played beautifully. ON IPHONE - Browse your entire library — albums, artists, playlists - Now Playing reimagined with crossfade, queue, and hearts - Discover view to rediscover albums you'd forgotten you loved - Download albums for offline listening - Smart caching keeps recently-played tracks ready offline - Light and dark modes that actually look like iOS ON APPLE WATCH - A real watchOS app — browse, download, and play from your wrist - Doubles as a remote when your iPhone is the one playing - Download albums directly to your watch - Phone-optional playback with AirPods THE FUNDAMENTALS, DONE RIGHT - Crossfade between tracks - Shuffle with no repeats - Hearts to track what you love - Queue management you can actually use - Lossless playback on iPhone (Apple Watch auto-transcodes for compatibility) WHAT'S NOT INSIDE - No subscription - No ads - No tracking - No login wall to a service that isn't yours Crate connects directly to your own Plex Media Server. Your music. Your server. Your player. REQUIREMENTS Crate requires a Plex Media Server with a music library and a free Plex account. Plex Pass is not required. Crate is an unofficial third-party application and is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Plex Inc.

Screenshots

Narjo4 screens
Crate for Plex4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Narjo at Free against Crate for Plex's $3.99. Narjo also leads on update cadence (every 11 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (31 vs 2). Crate for Plex's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads and device support 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

Narjo is free to download; Crate for Plex costs $3.99 up front. Narjo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Crate for Plex asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Crate for Plex holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Narjo has 31 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Narjo ships an update every 11 days, Crate for Plex every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Narjo versus Crate for Plex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNarjoCrate for Plex
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating4.4 (31 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings31 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size74 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperArturo YumpoDarren Ebbing

Customer experience

Narjo

All ratings31 ratings
Positive83.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.1%
Written reviews34 reviews
Positive82.4%
Neutral5.9%
Negative11.8%

Crate for Plex

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Narjo

Subscriptions1
  • Narjo Pro Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
One-time1
  • Narjo Lifetime$29.99
None

Crate for Plex

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Narjo free?
Narjo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Crate for Plex free?
Crate for Plex costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Narjo or Crate for Plex?
Crate for Plex is rated higher. Narjo averages 4.4 out of 5 from 31 ratings, while Crate for Plex averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Narjo or Crate for Plex have ads?
Neither Narjo nor Crate for Plex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Narjo or Crate for Plex?
Narjo ships an update every 11 days, and Crate for Plex every 2 months. Most recently, Narjo was updated on September 29, 2026 and Crate for Plex on September 27, 2026.

Other comparisons