Comparison

Narjo vs SUB/WAVE

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

SUB/WAVE

Experience radio reborn with a single, shared audio stream. An AI DJ curates the music, provides commentary, and announces station IDs, creating a communal listening experience without playlists or algorithms. Enjoy seamless playback across devices and even request songs.

Highlights
  • AI DJ curates music and commentary
  • Single shared audio stream for all users
  • No playlist building or algorithmic personalization
  • Seamless playback with lock screen and CarPlay controls
  • Create and tune into custom SUB/WAVE broadcasts
  • Live visualizer and song information
  • Song and mood requests
Features
Read full description

Remember radio? One signal, everyone hearing the same song at the same moment. SUB/WAVE is that. No playlist to build, no algorithm studying you. You press play and join whatever's already on the air. A DJ runs the station. It's an AI, but it does what a good DJ does: picks the next track, reads the station ID, checks the weather, says something on the way into the song. It never just cuts between tracks in silence. Start it and you're live. Lock the phone, switch apps, get in the car, and it keeps playing, with controls on the lock screen, your headphones, and CarPlay. POINT IT AT ANY STATION It opens on the public station, but it'll play any SUB/WAVE broadcast. Run your own off your music library and paste the address to tune in. Saved a few? Switch between them whenever you like. WHAT'S IN IT • Now playing, with cover art and a live visualiser • The booth — every pick, station ID, and segment as it goes out • Timeline — scroll back through what's played • Requests — send the DJ a track or a mood, hear it answered on air • Schedule — what's coming up • Themes that recolour the whole app to match the station One stream. No skip. It's radio, not a playlist.

Screenshots

Narjo4 screens
SUB/WAVE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: SUB/WAVE at 5.0 against Narjo's 4.4. SUB/WAVE also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (100% vs 82%). Narjo's advantage is ratings volume (31 vs 4) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and iOS requirement 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. Narjo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. SUB/WAVE asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SUB/WAVE 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 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Narjo's written reviews are positive against 100% of SUB/WAVE's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Narjo ships an update every 11 days, SUB/WAVE weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Narjo versus SUB/WAVE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNarjoSUB/WAVE
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (31 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews82.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings31 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size74 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperArturo YumpoPerminder Singh Klair

Customer experience

Narjo

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

SUB/WAVE

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
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

SUB/WAVE

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Narjo free?
Narjo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SUB/WAVE free?
SUB/WAVE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Narjo or SUB/WAVE?
SUB/WAVE is rated higher. Narjo averages 4.4 out of 5 from 31 ratings, while SUB/WAVE averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Narjo or SUB/WAVE have ads?
Neither Narjo nor SUB/WAVE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Narjo or SUB/WAVE?
Narjo ships an update every 11 days, and SUB/WAVE weekly. Most recently, Narjo was updated on September 25, 2026 and SUB/WAVE on September 13, 2026.

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