Comparison

PhaseShift vs PMDA

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

Head to head
About

PhaseShift

Features
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PhaseShift is a private, high-fidelity music player built for the music you own. Import your collection, organize it your way, and enjoy detailed playback without accounts, ads, tracking, or reliance on streaming services. PLAY YOUR COLLECTION Import music from Files, iCloud Drive, USB storage, your computer over Wi-Fi, or folders on WebDAV and SMB network shares. Use folders in place or copy tracks into PhaseShift. Browse songs, albums, artists, genres, playlists, recently added music, and pinned favorites. Customize your library shelves and artwork sizes to suit your collection. HIGH-FIDELITY AUDIO Play MP3, AAC, M4A, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSF, and DFF files. See the active signal path, sample rate, bit depth, and output route while listening. Native DSD decoding and optional DSD over PCM support help you get more from compatible audio hardware. MAKE PLAYBACK YOURS Build and edit the queue, enjoy gapless playback, view synced or plain lyrics, set a sleep timer, and use A-B repeat or track bookmarks. Choose from customizable themes and visualizers, scrub with a real waveform, and fine-tune sound with a 10-band equalizer, ReplayGain, crossfade, headphone crossfeed, and correction profiles. ORGANIZE AND EDIT Create regular and smart playlists, sort and filter your library, edit tags and artwork, apply batch changes, and import CUE sheets as individual tracks. PhaseShift can write supported ratings and play counts back to your audio files, helping your collection remain portable. YOUR LIBRARY ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Pair your own devices with a QR code or pairing code, then sync music, playlists, artwork, ratings, play history, and tag changes over your local network. Sync your whole library or selected artists and playlists, and choose the audio quality stored on each sub device while keeping the primary library in control. Back up and restore library data whenever you choose. MORE WAYS TO LISTEN Control playback from Apple Watch, use Now Playing and Recently Added widgets, follow playback with a Live Activity, and start common actions with Siri and Shortcuts. On Mac, choose an audio output device directly in PhaseShift. PRIVATE BY DESIGN PhaseShift is designed to work offline. Your listening history and library stay under your control, and local transfer and device sync do not require an internet account. PhaseShift includes a capable free experience. PhaseShift Pro is available as a one-time in-app purchase and unlocks advanced features including the equalizer, ReplayGain, crossfade, waveform overview, A-B repeat, bookmarks, listening statistics, premium themes and visualizers, Apple Watch control, CUE import, batch find and replace, backups, and multi-device sync.

About

PMDA

Features
Read full description

PMDA (pronounced "pimda") is one music lover's take on building the music library of his dreams โ€” and now yours. Point the app at your own self-hosted PMDA server and enjoy your entire collection, beautifully organized, anywhere you go. WHY PMDA Most music apps lock you into a subscription and their catalog, or leave your carefully-built library a mess of mismatched tags and missing covers. PMDA is different: 100% self-hosted, private, and it actually understands your music. WHAT YOU GET โ€ข Your whole library, everywhere โ€” browse artists, albums, genres and labels, with rich, clickable artist pages. โ€ข Real listening โ€” gapless playback, history, cross-user recommendations, synced lyrics and waveforms. โ€ข Lossless, your way โ€” stream bit-perfect FLAC or save data with smart transcoding; download albums for offline, even on a plane. โ€ข Clean and yours โ€” your files, your server, your rules. No cloud lock-in, no ads, no tracking, no AI. HOW IT WORKS PMDA mobile is a companion to the PMDA server (a free, self-hosted music library app you run on your own machine or NAS). Enter your server's address, sign in, and your library is in your pocket. Nothing is stored on our servers โ€” the app talks only to the server you point it at. Built for people who are in love with music. Welcome.

Screenshots

PhaseShift4 screens
PMDA4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PMDA at none against PhaseShift's 1. PhaseShift's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. PhaseShift sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PMDA asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PhaseShift ships an update every 2 days, PMDA every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
PhaseShift versus PMDA: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhaseShiftPMDA
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 days โ€” betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size33 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNevv Atlantis LLCRaphael Vael

In-app purchases

1 purchases

PhaseShift

One-time1
  • PhaseShift Pro$4.99
None

PMDA

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PhaseShift free?
PhaseShift is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PMDA free?
PMDA is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do PhaseShift or PMDA have ads?
Neither PhaseShift nor PMDA shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PhaseShift or PMDA?
PhaseShift ships an update every 2 days, and PMDA every 3 weeks. Most recently, PhaseShift was updated on October 11, 2026 and PMDA on October 5, 2026.

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