ULTIMIDI vs DAW Controller
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ULTIMIDI
Design custom MIDI touch control surfaces with a free-form canvas. Assign gestures, physics, and automation to faders, knobs, and more. Connect to any MIDI-capable app or hardware for a personalized music creation experience.
- Customizable MIDI touch control surfaces
- Free-form canvas for layout design
- Assign gesture bindings and automation
- Connect to MIDI apps and hardware
- Advanced control logic and routing
- Cloud saving for controller layouts
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Design custom MIDI touch control surfaces with ease. Assign gesture bindings, physics behaviors, automation, visual design, and more on the fly. ----- Make your instrument feel like YOU. ULTIMIDI lets you build your perfect controller layout on a free-form canvas. Add faders, knobs, XY pads, buttons, joysticks, step sequencers, and MUCH more, then arrange and connect them together exactly how you want. Advanced Connectivity: - Connect to any MIDI-capable app, hardware synth, DAW, or Bluetooth MIDI enabled device. (Network connectivity features coming soon!) Automation Capabilities: - Hand draw your LFO curves or instantly adjust a step sequencer. ULTIMIDI prioritizes ZERO menus when in performance mode. Set up your automation targets ahead of time, and adjust them instantly with your own UI layout. Powerful control logic: - Need that fader to push to 75% only when button A and button B are pressed at the same time? No problem. - Chain actions, build logic gates, bind global gestures, and sync them all with with an internal or external MIDI clock. - Complex routing is made simple with zero coding knowledge required. Other Goodies: - Keep multiple controller layouts locally or save them to the cloud - Cross platform capabilities - Map anything with an external MIDI controller - Loop your control devices - Show photos / video on your canvas - Much more Designed for YOU, the creative musician who wants to connect all of their gear together for ease of use in performance or studio workflows without kneeling down to the manufacturer's idea of a "convenient" layout. ----- ULTIMIDI is a growing platform empowering musicians with simple to use MIDI tools that pack a punch under the hood. Music production can be a highly technical pursuit. For some of us that's part of the enjoyment of the activity, and for others, we just want to play. ULTIMIDI seeks to find a balance between complex routing / logic behaviors, and a no-code, open canvas interface that is fun and enjoyable to use. So whether you just want a few knobs with custom emoji cursors, or you want to create a full control surface brain to connect your entire studio together, ULTIMIDI does it all. Inject your soul and creative eye into your control surface, without abandoning technical complexity. ----- ULTIMIDI is in active development, we are actively adding in new features and control devices. Any future additions to the standard version or the currently available add-on packs will be automatically applied to purchases made today. Join the touch control movement!
DAW Controller
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Your sleeping iPhone becomes a wheel and fader controller for your DAW. Digital pianos and synths often have no Pitch Bend or Modulation wheel. Dedicated hardware is hard to find, and small keyboards with wheels tend to feel awkward or fiddly to set up. DAW Controller is a pure MIDI controller built to fill exactly that gap. ■ Six controls Pitch Bend / Modulation / Expression / Main Volume / Breath / Custom CC. Big wheels let you send nuance with a fingertip. ■ Three ways to your DAW Network MIDI, Bluetooth MIDI, and USB. No OSC bridge, no extra conversion — it reaches your Mac DAW (Cubase and others) directly. ■ Haptics you can feel on a desk Solid haptic feedback that comes through even with the phone lying flat. ■ Fits your hands Manual portrait/landscape switch, a left- or right-side control panel in landscape, and fader looks (metal / color / matte). ■ Nothing extra No ads. No subscription. Buy once. Try it first, and if you like it, pay once — for good. DAW Controller — to be your obbligato.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: DAW Controller at every 6 days against ULTIMIDI's every 5 weeks. ULTIMIDI's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. ULTIMIDI sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and DAW Controller sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ULTIMIDI ships an update every 5 weeks, DAW Controller every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ULTIMIDI | DAW Controller |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicholas Hogan | Yasuhiro Misawa |
In-app purchases
ULTIMIDI
- Performance Pack$25.00
- Stepped Controls Pack$25.00
- Automation Pack$25.00
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- Standard Upgrade$50.00
DAW Controller
- DAW Controller (Buy Once)$11.99








