Comparison

Scarlet>Fire vs Dead Shows

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

Head to head
About

Scarlet>Fire

Access a vast archive of live Grateful Dead performances. Organize your favorite shows and songs, discover curated lists, and share your listening journey with friends. Enjoy seamless playback and explore the band's entire catalog.

Highlights
  • Stream every Grateful Dead show
  • Organize favorite shows and songs
  • Powerful sorting and filtering
  • Discover curated lists and radio mode
  • Track listening history
  • Share shows and collections
  • Seamless gapless playback
Features
Read full description

Stream Every Grateful Dead Show Ever Recorded Dive into 30 years of live Grateful Dead performances. Every show. Every venue — right in your pocket. EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE - Browse: Listen to thousands of shows from the Internet Archive, organized and ready to stream. Explore top-rated shows and discover the best individual song performances across the entire catalog. - Curate: Playlists and Shows Collections let you organize and save your favorite songs and shows - Powerful sorting & filtering: Find exactly what you're looking for with powerful filters for year, era, or official release series (i.e. Dave's Picks), or sort by popularity or date. - Explore each song: See every performance of a song in one place, go through them in chronological order, or sort by rating to find the very best versions. TRACK & SHARE YOUR JOURNEY - Your library: Save your favorite shows and songs to your library - Play counts: See your play counts and listening history for individual shows and song performances - Share: Send your friends shows, songs, collections, and playlist via text message, link, and more - Public profiles: Let your friends see your recent listens, top 10 lists, and saved shows/songs. Follow them back to see what they're into. - Activity feed: See what your friends are listening to, saving, and creating DISCOVER - Show of the day: A fresh classic to explore daily - Classic shows: A curated list of legendary performances - Radio mode: An endless stream of top-rated performances, handpicked from across the band's entire catalog. Just press play and let the Dead take the wheel. - Shuffle mode: Shuffle play your saved songs and shows. - Popular collections & playlists: View the most saved Show Collections and Playlists from across the community BUILT FOR LISTENING - Gapless playback for seamless song transitions - Choose your favorite archive source - Background video visualizers - No account required, only sign in if you want to back up your favorites to the cloud or use social features Whether you're a longtime Deadhead or just discovering the magic, this is your gateway to the greatest band in history.

About

Dead Shows

Discover and stream Grateful Dead concerts from the Internet Archive. Explore shows by date, venue, or song, and compare setlists. Enjoy gapless playback and offline listening options.

Highlights
  • Today in Grateful Dead History feature
  • Search by date, venue, city, song, or guest
  • View and compare setlists
  • Choose recording quality (soundboard, matrix, audience)
  • Gapless playback
  • Offline listening
  • Favorite shows and songs
Features
Read full description

I built Dead Shows for myself, for the way I listen to the Grateful Dead. Most days I don't want to pick a show. I just want something fresh. So the app opens to Today in Grateful Dead History: every concert the band played on this date, going back to 1965. Tap one and you're listening. It's the easiest way I've found to hear something different every day, and it never runs out. Some days I do want to nerd out. Track down a specific MSG, chase a particular Scarlet > Fire, see who sat in on a given night. So there's real search too, by date, venue, city, song, or guest. Expand any show to read its full setlist without leaving the list, and compare setlists side by side. Everything streams free from the Internet Archive's Grateful Dead collection, the same tapes traders have passed around for decades. For each show you can pick your recording, soundboard, matrix, or audience, or let the app choose the best-rated one. Playback is gapless, so the segues stay intact. It runs in the background with lock-screen controls, and you can download shows to listen offline. Favorite the shows and songs you keep coming back to. Whatever you played last is always a tap away. Dead Shows is an independent app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Grateful Dead or the Internet Archive. Recordings stream from the Internet Archive under the band's longstanding taping policy.

Screenshots

Scarlet>Fire4 screens
Dead Shows4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Scarlet>Fire at 17 against Dead Shows's 2. On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Scarlet>Fire against 5.0 for Dead Shows. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Scarlet>Fire has 17 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scarlet>Fire ships an update weekly, Dead Shows fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Scarlet>Fire versus Dead Shows: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScarlet>FireDead Shows
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (17 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings17 — better2
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJESSE JOHNSTON BISIGNANOChristopher Johnston

Customer experience

Scarlet>Fire

All ratings15 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Dead Shows

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Scarlet>Fire

No in-app purchases

None

Dead Shows

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Scarlet>Fire free?
Scarlet>Fire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dead Shows free?
Dead Shows is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Scarlet>Fire or Dead Shows?
Dead Shows is rated higher. Scarlet>Fire averages 4.9 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while Dead Shows averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Scarlet>Fire or Dead Shows have ads?
Neither Scarlet>Fire nor Dead Shows shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scarlet>Fire or Dead Shows?
Scarlet>Fire ships an update weekly, and Dead Shows fortnightly. Most recently, Scarlet>Fire was updated on October 31, 2026 and Dead Shows on November 5, 2026.

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