Comparison

Coax vs tofa

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

Head to head
About

Coax

Experience your Plex media library like a traditional cable TV experience. This app automatically generates channels from your existing content, allowing you to randomly discover movies and shows without the pressure of choosing.

Highlights
  • On-device Plex library channel surfing
  • Zero-setup integration
  • Automatic channel guide generation
  • Customizable channel categories (genre, decade, actor, etc.)
  • Create channels from Plex Collections
  • Unify TV and movie libraries
  • Adjustable number of channels
Features
Read full description

Demolish the tyranny of too much choice, say "NO" to BigAlgo, and just Relax with Coax. Within seconds, you'll be flipping through a schedule made entirely of your own home media server content. Jump right in with the on-screen cable guide and watch whatever's on, just like the old days. You can't pause, you can't skip forward, you can't rewind - all you can do is change the channel. Experience the joy of randomly happening upon a great scene in a movie you forgot you had, or a TV show marathon for an old favorite. Coax requires no setup at all - it uses the metadata your media library already has. If you want, you can create your own custom Lineups, with all sorts of simple yet powerful scheduling rules - create a Saturday Morning Cartoons Lineup for your inner (or actual) child, or a Late Night Thrillers Lineup for date night. Important: This app requires a Plex account and access to a Plex Media Server (or Jellyfin, or Emby). Coax does not provide or distribute any media; it only connects to content you already own. How to configure your Lineups: • Coax scans your home media libraries and generates a channel guide based on your content’s metadata. • Select which channel categories you want: Genre, Decade, Recent Additions, Actor, Studio, Director, and Collections. • Create 100% custom channels using Collections. • Unify your libraries to mix TV and movie channels. • Adjust the number of channels you want to generate. •  Customize the time between your programs with Gap Content - play Trailers, or content from another Library if you want! Coax is your personal “cable box” for your own content — no extra accounts, no third-party streaming, just your Plex library organized in a fun, nostalgic way. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

tofa

Access your personal media library on any device. Stream movies and shows you own, with progress syncing across screens. Organize and enjoy your collection with rich metadata and advanced playback features.

Highlights
  • Stream owned movies and shows
  • Cross-device progress syncing
  • Automatic media organization
  • High-quality picture and sound
  • Subtitle support
  • Share libraries with trusted users
Read full description

tofa plays the movies and shows you already own. You run a tofa server on a computer at home and point it at your media folders. Sign in to this app with your tofa account and your server is there, with your libraries, your artwork, and your place in every episode. WATCH ON EVERY SCREEN Your progress follows you. Start a film on Apple TV, finish it on your phone on the train. There is nothing to copy across and nothing to sync by hand. BUILT FOR YOUR LIBRARY Movies and shows are organized automatically, with posters, backdrops, descriptions, and cast. Seasons and episodes land in the right order. When something is named unusually, you can correct the match yourself and it stays corrected. PLAYS YOUR FILES AS THEY ARE Most of your library plays exactly as it sits on disk, which means the best picture your device can show. When a file needs converting, your server handles it and playback keeps up. PICTURE AND SOUND Dolby Vision, HDR10, and 4K on the hardware that supports them. Surround audio passes through to your receiver. Pick the audio track and subtitles you want, and tofa remembers the choice. SUBTITLES THAT WORK Text and image subtitles both render, including styled subtitles. Sidecar files sitting next to your media are picked up automatically. SHARE WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST Give family or friends access to some or all of your libraries. Everyone gets their own profile, their own watch history, and their own place in each show. YOUR MEDIA STAYS YOURS tofa does not host any content. It plays the files on the server you run. We do not track you across apps or websites, we do not serve ads, and we do not sell your data. You need a tofa server to use this app. Setting one up takes about ten minutes.

Screenshots

Coax4 screens
tofa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: tofa at 5.0 against Coax's 4.5. tofa also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3). Coax's advantage is ratings volume (68 vs 6) and device support (5 vs 3). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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. Coax sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. tofa asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

tofa holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Coax has 68 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Coax ships an update every 8 days, tofa every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Coax versus tofa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCoaxtofa
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (68 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings68 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple TV
Requires iOS18.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB68 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperOut to Lunch Productions, LLCTofa Software ehf.

Customer experience

Coax

All ratings40 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews26 reviews
Positive76.9%
Neutral3.8%
Negative19.2%

tofa

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Coax

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly - 1st Week Free7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Annual - 1st Week Free7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$74.99
None

tofa

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Coax free?
Coax is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is tofa free?
tofa is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Coax or tofa?
tofa is rated higher. Coax averages 4.5 out of 5 from 68 ratings, while tofa averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Coax or tofa have ads?
Neither Coax nor tofa shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Coax or tofa?
Coax ships an update every 8 days, and tofa every 4 days. Most recently, Coax was updated on November 12, 2026 and tofa on November 13, 2026.

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