Comparison

Vinyl Catalog vs Spindle

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

Head to head
About

Vinyl Catalog

Organize, value, and track your music collection with barcode scanning and up-to-date market data. Manage your vinyl, CDs, and cassettes, view collection stats, and even share with a partner. Works offline for convenience.

Highlights
  • Barcode scanning for instant addition
  • Real-time market value tracking
  • Millions of releases database
  • Offline collection access
  • Listening history and stats
  • Wishlist with priority levels
  • Shared collection management
Features
Read full description

Vinyl Catalog is the ultimate collection manager for serious vinyl collectors (works with CDs and cassettes as well!). Whether you own 50 albums or 5,000, keep your entire collection organized, valued, and in your pocket, with barcode scanning, up-to-date market values, and millions of releases built right in. No ads, and we never sell your data. BARCODE SCANNING Point your camera at any record's barcode to instantly find and add it. The fastest way to catalog your collection. COLLECTION VALUE TRACKING Track what you paid, see current marketplace values, and watch your collection's total worth over time. Know your most valuable records and your overall gain or loss at a glance. MILLIONS OF RELEASES Look up any release by title, artist, or barcode, and Vinyl Catalog pulls in the full album details: tracklist, credits, genres, and cover art. YOUR OWN PHOTOS (PLUS) Add up to 10 of your own photos to any album in your collection, and pick one to show as that album's picture throughout your collection. Your photos stay private to your collection. LISTENING HISTORY Log a play with one tap and see what you actually spin: your most played albums and artists, when you listen, and the records you haven't touched in a while. WISHLIST Keep track of records you're looking for with priority levels and target prices. When you find one, move it to your collection with a swipe. FOLDERS & ORGANIZATION Create color-coded folders to organize your collection however you like: by genre, room, mood, or anything else. Sort and filter within any folder. COLLECTION STATS See your collection broken down by genre, decade, and condition. View total value, investment summary, and your most valuable record. WORKS OFFLINE Your collection, wishlist, and stats live on your phone too, so they work with no signal. At the record shop, scan a barcode to check whether you already own it. BROWSE & DISCOVER Explore artists, labels, and master releases with rich detail pages. Browse an artist's discography and a label's catalog, and discover the different pressings of your favorite albums. SHARE A COLLECTION WITH YOUR PARTNER Link accounts with your significant other and manage one collection together. If the partner whose collection you share has Plus, you both get the benefits. POWERFUL SORT & FILTER Sort by date added, title, artist, year, rating, or value. Filter by genre, decade, condition, or whether you've rated it. Search finds any record instantly. IMPORT YOUR EXISTING COLLECTION Already cataloged elsewhere? Import from Discogs right in the app, or upload a CSV file on our website. With Plus, your collection stays in two-way sync with Discogs. PREVIEW ALBUMS ON APPLE MUSIC Are you an Apple Music subscriber? Listen to entire albums right from the album page in your collection. Not a subscriber? No worries! You still get 30-second samples of each song. DARK & LIGHT MODE SUPPORT Dark mode by default, with the option to switch to light mode at any time. PLUS MEMBERS NOTE: We're a small team that built this app out of love for music and record collecting. A Plus membership is fully optional, but it directly supports keeping the app alive and improving. Unlike most apps, ours is built around your privacy. We will never sell your data or run ads, and your support is what keeps that promise possible. Thank you. Privacy: https://vinylcatalog.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Spindle

This app helps you journal your vinyl listening experience, tracking hours spun, sides played, and forgotten records. It allows importing collections, noting thoughts during playback, and participating in community challenges. It also integrates with Last.fm for automatic scrobbling.

Highlights
  • Log every spin from Lock Screen
  • Import collection from Discogs
  • Track multiple turntables
  • Real-time listening stats
  • Private journal for thoughts
  • Community listening challenges
  • Automatic Last.fm scrobbling
Features
Read full description

The vinyl listening journal. You drop the needle. Spindle does the rest — counting hours, tracking sides, remembering what you played, and quietly building a picture of your year in records. It's built around the act of spinning a record. Not around cataloging what you own. — Log every spin — Tap once when the needle drops. Spindle keeps tracking from the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island so you can flip the record without unlocking your phone. — Bring your collection — Import from Discogs in seconds, or add records by hand. Track multiple turntables, each with its own cartridge wear and needle hours. — Real stats — Hours spun. Top artists, labels, decades. Listening streaks. Records you've quietly forgotten you owned. No formulas. No spreadsheets. — A private journal — Write down what came up while the record played — thoughts, moods, memories. Stays private unless you choose to share. — Challenges — Short series of daily prompts hosted by other record heads. Each day, pick one record from your collection that answers the prompt. See what everyone else picked. React. The good ones make you walk to a record you haven't played in years. — Last.fm scrobble — Every spin scrobbles automatically. Spindle complements Last.fm — it doesn't try to replace it. Questions: support@joinspindle.com Community: joinspindle.com

Screenshots

Vinyl Catalog4 screens
Spindle4 screens

Verdict

The call

Vinyl Catalog and Spindle are too close to call on the numbers: across 10 compared parameters — price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Vinyl Catalog sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Spindle sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Vinyl Catalog against 5.0 for Spindle. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 24 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vinyl Catalog ships an update every 8 days, Spindle every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Vinyl Catalog versus Spindle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVinyl CatalogSpindle
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (12 ratings)5.0 (24 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1224 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoseph CondonMichael Warner

Customer experience

Vinyl Catalog

All ratings12 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Spindle

All ratings24 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Vinyl Catalog

Subscriptions2
  • Vinyl Catalog + Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Vinyl Catalog + Annual$29.991 Year
3 purchases

Spindle

One-time3
  • Small Tip$1.99
  • Medium Tip$4.99
  • Large Tip$9.99

Questions

Is Vinyl Catalog free?
Vinyl Catalog is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Spindle free?
Spindle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Vinyl Catalog or Spindle?
Vinyl Catalog and Spindle are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 12 and 24 ratings respectively.
Do Vinyl Catalog or Spindle have ads?
Neither Vinyl Catalog nor Spindle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vinyl Catalog or Spindle?
Vinyl Catalog ships an update every 8 days, and Spindle every 4 days. Most recently, Vinyl Catalog was updated on November 7, 2026 and Spindle on November 9, 2026.

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