Comparison

Scarlet>Fire vs The Dead Archive

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

The Dead Archive

Features
Read full description

Find your next Grateful Dead show, and the tape you want to hear. • On This Day: revisit shows played on today's date. • The 1965-1995 show catalog: browse every cataloged show and stream available Archive.org recordings. Community-rated sources help you find the best soundboard fast or compare audience tapes. • Setlists, songs and venues: follow a song through the years, explore venue histories and read each show's setlist. • Heady Picks: discover curated jams and community-favorite performances. • The Board: talk about the jams and see who is listening now when listeners choose to share. • Keep listening: background audio, lock-screen controls, AirPlay and Bluetooth let the music travel with you. • Tribute bands: explore Dark Star Orchestra (DSO) and Joe Russo's Almost Dead (JRAD) recordings. The Dead Archive is an independent fan app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Grateful Dead. Free, with no ads and no account needed to listen.

Screenshots

Scarlet>Fire4 screens
The Dead Archive4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Scarlet>Fire at 17 against The Dead Archive's 1. The Dead Archive's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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 The Dead Archive. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Scarlet>Fire has 17 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scarlet>Fire ships an update weekly, The Dead Archive every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Scarlet>Fire versus The Dead Archive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScarlet>FireThe Dead Archive
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (17 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings17 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJESSE JOHNSTON BISIGNANOJohn D'Attoma

In-app purchases

None

Scarlet>Fire

No in-app purchases

None

The Dead Archive

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Scarlet>Fire free?
Scarlet>Fire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Dead Archive free?
The Dead Archive is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Scarlet>Fire or The Dead Archive?
The Dead Archive is rated higher. Scarlet>Fire averages 4.9 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while The Dead Archive averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Scarlet>Fire or The Dead Archive have ads?
Neither Scarlet>Fire nor The Dead Archive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scarlet>Fire or The Dead Archive?
Scarlet>Fire ships an update weekly, and The Dead Archive every 3 days. Most recently, Scarlet>Fire was updated on October 24, 2026 and The Dead Archive on October 25, 2026.

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