Comparison

Pulse vs mikMPD

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

Head to head
About

Pulse

Features
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Pulse helps you keep up with new music from the artists already in your Apple Music library. Instead of checking manually or missing releases, Pulse scans your saved artists and organizes their recent and upcoming drops into simple, focused lists. See what is new, what is coming next, and open releases directly in Apple Music when you are ready to listen. Track your favorite artists, browse releases by date, and use Home Screen widgets to keep upcoming music visible at a glance. Features: Discover recent releases from artists in your music library Track upcoming albums, EPs, and singles View your artists ranked by your listening history Search and filter release lists quickly Open releases directly in Apple Music Home Screen widgets for upcoming releases Hide artists you do not want included Clean, native iOS design built for quick checking Pulse is made for Apple Music listeners who want a better way to stay on top of the artists they already care about. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

mikMPD

Read full description

This requires a running MPD server on your network. More information about MPD and how to configure it can be found here: https://www.musicpd.org. mikMPD should work with other MPD implementations as Mopidy, OwnTone, Chord Poly etc. Album art (fetched from MusicBrainz/CoverArtArchive), synced lyrics (via LRCLIB). Browse by albums, artists, genres, or playlists with search filtering. Album and artist detail views include Wikipedia summaries. Play or enqueue entire albums/artists with one tap. Playlists β€” Full stored-playlist support: browse, rename, and delete playlists. Radio β€” Built-in Swedish Radio streams (SR P1–P4 GΓΆteborg) plus custom station management with persistent storage. CD β€” Play audio CDs directly via cdda:/// URIs with per-track control. File Browser β€” Navigate the MPD directory tree. Single-tap enters directories, double-tap plays files. Swipe actions for add/play. Search β€” Concurrent search across songs, artists, and albums with debounced input, batch selection, and album art thumbnails. Queue β€” View and manage the current playlist. Double-tap to jump to a song, drag to reorder, swipe to delete, clear all, toggle consume mode. Outputs & Partitions β€” Toggle audio outputs on/off, switch between MPD partitions, create and delete partitions, move outputs between partitions via long-press context menu. Multiple Servers β€” Save any number of MPD servers and switch between them with one tap. Nearby servers advertising over Bonjour/Zeroconf are discovered automatically and can be added directly. Passwords are stored in the Keychain, and the last-used partition is remembered per server. Listen on Phone β€” Stream audio from an MPD httpd output directly to the device via AVPlayer. Configure the stream URL per server, then toggle "Listen on phone" in Now Playing. Supports background playback with lock screen metadata (song title, artist, album art) and lock screen transport controls. Snapcast β€” Control a Snapcast multiroom server from the More tab

Screenshots

Pulse4 screens
mikMPD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: mikMPD at none against Pulse's 2. mikMPD also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). Pulse's advantage is iOS requirement (18.5 vs 26.2). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Pulse sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. mikMPD asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pulse ships an update every 3 weeks, mikMPD weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Pulse versus mikMPD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPulsemikMPD
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad β€” better
Requires iOS18.5 β€” better26.2
Further details β€” not scored
Size27 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrett du PlessisMIKAEL PER JOHAN OSTERDAHL

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Pulse

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$14.991 Year
None

mikMPD

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pulse free?
Pulse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is mikMPD free?
mikMPD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pulse or mikMPD have ads?
Neither Pulse nor mikMPD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pulse or mikMPD?
Pulse ships an update every 3 weeks, and mikMPD weekly. Most recently, Pulse was updated on October 17, 2026 and mikMPD on October 10, 2026.

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