Crate for Plex vs Side A
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Crate for Plex
A native, unofficial music player for your Plex Media Server, designed for iPhone and Apple Watch. Enjoy your owned music library with features like offline listening, crossfade, and queue management without subscriptions or ads.
- Plex music library browsing
- Offline listening
- Apple Watch app
- Crossfade playback
- Queue management
- Smart caching
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Your Plex music library, finally given the iOS music player it deserves. Crate is a native, unofficial music player for your Plex Media Server, built for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay. Pay once. No subscription. No ads. No tracking. Just your music, played beautifully. ON IPHONE - Browse your entire library — albums, artists, playlists - Now Playing reimagined with crossfade, queue, lyrics, and hearts - Stations built from your own library — Hits, Heart Beats, On Repeat, and more - Discover view to rediscover albums you'd forgotten you loved - Download albums for offline listening - Smart caching keeps recently-played tracks ready offline - Pick up where you left off — Crate restores your last session on launch - Light and dark modes that actually look like iOS IN THE CAR - Full CarPlay app — Home, Library, Discover, Stations, and Search - Top Picks and recent albums the moment you connect - Hands-free with Siri: "Hey Siri, play House in Crate" - Ask Siri for a playlist, an artist, or a station, or say "I like this song" to heart it ON IPAD - A layout built for the big screen, in both orientations - Lyrics alongside the artwork, the way they should be ON APPLE WATCH - A real watchOS app — browse, download, and play from your wrist - Doubles as a remote when your iPhone is the one playing - Download albums directly to your watch - Phone-optional playback with AirPods THE FUNDAMENTALS, DONE RIGHT - Gapless playback with crossfade between tracks - Volume matching, so quiet albums and loud ones sit at the same level - Lossless FLAC playback on iPhone (Apple Watch auto-transcodes for compatibility) - Stream quality control, with Data Saver and Low Data Mode respected automatically - Shuffle with no repeats - Hearts to track what you love - Queue management you can actually use WHAT'S NOT INSIDE - No subscription - No ads - No tracking - No login wall to a service that isn't yours Crate connects directly to your own Plex Media Server. Your music. Your server. Your player. REQUIREMENTS Crate requires a Plex Media Server with a music library and a free Plex account. Plex Pass is not required. Crate is an unofficial third-party application and is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Plex Inc.
Side A
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Side A plays your music as cassettes. **Requires an Apple Music subscription.** See what's playing right now on a beautifully detailed cassette tape: spinning reels, worn labels, and a cassette player frame around it, powered by your Apple Music. But Side A isn't just a pretty player. It's a full tape deck. DESIGN YOUR OWN TAPES Pick a shell, write on the label in retro fonts, choose your ink color, and drop a photo behind the jewel case. Every tape is yours. MAKE MIXTAPES Build a mixtape from your Apple Music, name it, add handwritten liner notes, and give it a cover. Just like the old days. SEND A TAPE TO A FRIEND Text someone a mixtape. If they have Side A it opens right up and plays; if they don't, they get a gorgeous web page with the tracklist and your liner notes. "I made you a tape". SHARE THE SONG YOU'RE ON One tap turns your now-playing song into a clean, tappable card you can send anywhere. RECORD OFF THE RADIO Tape songs as they play: grab the last few tracks and turn them into a mixtape, just like catching a song off the radio. A note from us: We're a small team of Gen X kids who grew up on cassette tapes and Walkmans. Instead of lugging an actual tape deck to the gym, we wanted to glance at our phones and see our music spinning on cassettes again. Side A is our love letter to that era. It's a passion project, and we hope you enjoy it. If you have feedback, issues, or ideas, we'd genuinely love to hear them. Rewind your music. — Your tapes, mixtapes, and recordings are stored on your device — content is only uploaded when you choose to share it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Side A at weekly against Crate for Plex's every 2 months. Side A also leads on chart position (#178 vs unranked) and price ($2.99 vs $3.99). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Crate for Plex costs $3.99 and Side A $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Crate for Plex ships an update every 2 months, Side A weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Crate for Plex | Side A |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | — | #178 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.4 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Darren Ebbing | FREDERICK AARON GOODIN |
In-app purchases
Crate for Plex
No in-app purchases
Side A
No in-app purchases









