Comparison

Crankshaft vs AlgoRythm

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

Head to head
About

Crankshaft

This music app learns your taste by analyzing how you listen, not through manual input. It creates personalized music stations based on your volume adjustments, skips, and playback duration, offering a unique way to explore your library and discover new music.

Highlights
  • Learns taste from listening behavior
  • Personalized music stations
  • Explores Apple Music catalog
  • Discovery dial for new music
  • On-demand album picks
  • Parent Mode for separate profiles
Features
Read full description

Crankshaft learns your taste from how you actually listen — how you move the volume, when you skip, what you let run to the end. Full CarPlay support, which is where it makes the most sense: hands busy, eyes on the road, so what you do to a song actually means something. Requires an active Apple Music subscription — Crankshaft plays through your existing Apple Music library. No separate account, no sign-up, and Crankshaft never sends your listening data anywhere. It stays on your device unless you choose to export it. Most music apps only know what you tell them. Crankshaft takes that too — crank a song you love, freeze one you never want to hear again — and then it reads everything else: the volume you reach for, the song you kill at four seconds, the one you let run all the way to the end. Those signals cost you nothing to give, and nearly every other app throws them away. Every session shapes a living profile of your taste that gets sharper over time. Give it real sessions and you'll feel the difference within a week. The app is free, you just bring your own Apple Music. The data is all yours, so there's no risk to you. HOW IT WORKS Crankshaft sits on top of your Apple Music library. Hit Ignite and it plays from your personal affinity ledger: a behavioral map of every song, scored by how you actually interacted with it. Crank the volume on a song you love and it learns. Skip something in the first ten seconds and it learns that too. Let a song play to the end and that quiet signal counts. Five behavioral zones, from instant skip to full completion, score every track on a curve. Buttons when you want them, physics the rest of the time. IT PLAYS LIKE A STATION YOU CAN STEER Crankshaft doesn't shuffle. It holds a mood — an era, a genre, an energy — the way a great radio station does, and keeps it there until you signal you want to move. Skip to steer: nudge it toward a different sound and it follows you down the rabbit hole; leave it alone and it holds the vibe. It's built to walk you around your own library, not loop your ten favorites. REACH BEYOND WHAT YOU OWN Declare the artists you love — even ones your library never captured — and Crankshaft opens their catalog and works them into your rotation. A single discovery dial sets how adventurous the engine gets, from comfortable and familiar to wide-open exploration. FEATURES The Crank — Turn up the volume with intent and Crankshaft feels it. That one gesture tells it more than a like ever could. Affinity Ledger — Every song earns a score from real listening behavior. Scores rise and fall with your habits, not just your clicks. CarPlay — Full CarPlay integration with Crank, Freeze, Up Next and Parent Mode controls on the dash. Station & Drift — Crank a song and Crankshaft builds a station around that vibe, holding it and drifting naturally through your library and the Apple Music catalog. Declared Artists — Name the artists you love and Crankshaft reaches their whole catalog, even music you don't own yet. Discovery Dial — Blend new and unfamiliar music into your rotation at exactly the level you choose. Pick an Album — On-demand album picks drawn from your affinity ledger, weighted toward what you love with a wildcard from deep in your library. Parent Mode — A completely separate universe with its own ledger, scoring, and visual theme. Your kids' listening never touches your profile. Road Trip Mode — A pre-cached 60-track queue built for long drives. Works offline. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Your data stays on your device. Crankshaft has no cloud sync, no ad targeting, no social graph, and no tracking pixels. Your affinity ledger lives in your app's local storage and never leaves your phone. Built on Apple MusicKit.

About

AlgoRythm

Take control of your music listening habits with this advanced toolkit for Apple Music users. Precisely teach the algorithm your preferences, shield your taste from unwanted influences, and visualize your listening history. Discover music that truly resonates with your unique style.

Highlights
  • Precision rating to teach algorithm
  • Shield listening taste from external influences
  • Track rotation weight and skip velocity
  • Curated music discovery based on habits
  • Visualize listening history with album grids
  • Integrate Last.fm scrobble history
Features
Read full description

AlgoRythm is a high-precision dashboard for Apple Music listeners who want to understand and shape their own taste. It turns your play counts, ratings, and listening history into clear music stats, shareable album grids, and personalized Liner Notes. No passive feed. Just your data, explained. SHUFFLE ON YOUR TERMS Meet Smart Shuffle: queues built from your actual listening history. Pick a recipe like Rotation, weighted by your RF-Index, Rediscovery for tracks you have not played in weeks, or Deep Cuts for the ones you barely touched. Album Shuffle rebuilds the ritual of playing records front to back, in disc order. Set a window, choose a duration from 30 minutes to 8 hours, and optionally blend in your Last.fm scrobbles. Play instantly or save as an Apple Music playlist. Pro members can filter by genre. PLAY WITHOUT LEAVING Hit Play on any album or artist page, tap a tracklist row to start there, or shuffle an artist's top songs. A Now Playing bar docks above your tabs while music plays, and opens a full-screen player with seekable progress, transport controls, and quick Love or Suggest Less tuning for the song, album, and artist currently on. TUNE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS Rate tracks, albums, and artists with Love or Suggest Less to send stronger signals to Apple Music. Surface the gems, skip the filler, and make your personalized mixes feel more like you. PROTECT YOUR TASTE Mark artists or albums as disliked to keep them out of your grids and personal reports. Long-press any shuffle row for Never Suggest Again and block songs, albums, or artists from your queues without touching your Apple Music ratings. Great for keeping one-off listening, like children's music, from shaping your overall picture. THE LINER NOTES Dive into your listening stats. Track Rotation Weight, Skip Velocity, and deep-dive artist and album insights to see who dominates your airtime. Generate beautiful, shareable Liner Notes and high-fidelity album grids from your history. CURATE YOUR DISCOVERY Go Crate Digging or look Behind the Counter for daily music recommendations pulled from your deepest listening habits. Choose how often they appear: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or a single growing Master playlist. SYNC YOUR HISTORY Connect your Apple Music library, and optionally link your Last.fm scrobble history to restore years of taste the native app has forgotten. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Your Apple Music data is processed on your device. No ads, no analytics, no required account. One single purchase unlocks AlgoRythm Pro for life.

Screenshots

Crankshaft4 screens
AlgoRythm4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Crankshaft at none against AlgoRythm's 1. Crankshaft also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.5 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. AlgoRythm sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Crankshaft asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Crankshaft against 5.0 for AlgoRythm. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Crankshaft ships an update every 8 days, AlgoRythm every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Crankshaft versus AlgoRythm: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCrankshaftAlgoRythm
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings34 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB13 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperCrankshaft LLCAlexander van Rie

Customer experience

Crankshaft

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

AlgoRythm

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Crankshaft

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

AlgoRythm

One-time1
  • AlgoRythm Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Crankshaft free?
Crankshaft is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is AlgoRythm free?
AlgoRythm is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Crankshaft or AlgoRythm?
Crankshaft and AlgoRythm are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 4 ratings respectively.
Do Crankshaft or AlgoRythm have ads?
Neither Crankshaft nor AlgoRythm shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Crankshaft or AlgoRythm?
Crankshaft ships an update every 8 days, and AlgoRythm every 3 weeks. Most recently, Crankshaft was updated on October 16, 2026 and AlgoRythm on October 9, 2026.

Other comparisons