Comparison

Spectati vs tofa

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

Head to head
About

Spectati

Consolidate your media from Plex, Jellyfin, and IPTV into a single, organized library. Enjoy live TV with a comprehensive guide, seamless playback of high-bitrate content, and personalized recommendations across all your Apple devices.

Highlights
  • Unified media library
  • Live TV with EPG
  • Direct playback of 4K HDR content
  • Cross-device watch history
  • Personalized recommendations
  • Sports league and team following
  • Offline downloads (subscription)
Features
Read full description

Plex, Jellyfin and your IPTV playlist in one app. Spectati puts your media servers and your live channels in one library on Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac. Your XMLTV data becomes a full guide, and files reach your display and your receiver without re-encoding. ONE LIBRARY Connect Plex, Jellyfin, IPTV playlists, SMB shares and Emby at the same time. A film that sits on two servers shows up once, and Spectati plays the better copy, judged by resolution, codec, HDR and audio. Search covers titles, episodes and live channels from every source. Spectati writes your progress back to the server, so you can stop on one device and pick up on another. LIVE TV WITH A REAL GUIDE Paste an M3U, M3U8 or JSON playlist, or connect an Xtream provider. You get now and next, categories and a timeline you can scroll. SD, HD and 4K feeds of the same channel group under one entry. Hide, rename, sort and pin channels, and your changes survive a playlist refresh. On Apple TV you can zap up and down without leaving the player. On iPad, Mac and Apple TV, Multiview plays up to four channels at once. SPORTS Follow leagues and teams in football, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, motorsport and more, and Spectati finds their matches in your IPTV source's XMLTV guide. Subscribers get kickoff reminders, Watch from Kickoff on catch-up channels and Matchday Multiview. PLAYBACK High-bitrate 4K remuxes direct-play, with no server transcoding. Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG go to the display. Dolby Atmos, TrueHD, E-AC-3 and DTS go to the receiver. Adjust audio delay and subtitle timing. Subtitles come from OpenSubtitles, live channels carry DVB teletext, and IntroDB skips the intro. NATIVE ON EVERY APPLE DEVICE Written in Swift for tvOS, iOS, iPadOS and macOS 26 or later. Spectati follows the current Apple TV user, so everyone in the house keeps their own watch history. Families get a PIN lock and age-rating caps. FREE TO USE No ads and no card. Connect up to two sources and you get live TV with the full guide, 4K remuxes in SDR and channel curation. Four Blender open movies on Home let you try the player before you connect anything. FEATURES • Continue Watching, watch history, watchlist and favorites • Like or Not For Me on anything, and Home rows that follow your ratings • Chapters, playback speed and audio modes • AirPlay and Picture in Picture BRING YOUR OWN CONTENT Spectati is a player and organizer. It does not provide media, channels, IPTV subscriptions, playlists, accounts, metadata, subtitles, storage or internet access. Connect your own supported providers and only stream content you're authorized to access. SUBSCRIPTION Browsing, live TV and playback need no account and no subscription, with up to two sources connected. The subscription is optional. It lifts the two-source limit and adds full quality playback with HDR and surround sound, offline downloads, IPTV catch-up and on-demand, bulk channel tools, program reminders, iCloud sync of your sources, lists and watch state, Multiview, Sports, automatic subtitles and SIMKL and Trakt watch-history sync. It renews automatically and is billed through the App Store, with a free trial when available. You can also choose a one-time lifetime purchase. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac, and Family Sharing is supported. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings.

About

tofa

Access your personal media library on any device. Stream movies and shows you own, with progress syncing across screens. Organize and enjoy your collection with rich metadata and advanced playback features.

Highlights
  • Stream owned movies and shows
  • Cross-device progress syncing
  • Automatic media organization
  • High-quality picture and sound
  • Subtitle support
  • Share libraries with trusted users
Read full description

tofa plays the movies and shows you already own. You run a tofa server on a computer at home and point it at your media folders. Sign in to this app with your tofa account and your server is there, with your libraries, your artwork, and your place in every episode. WATCH ON EVERY SCREEN Your progress follows you. Start a film on Apple TV, finish it on your phone on the train. There is nothing to copy across and nothing to sync by hand. BUILT FOR YOUR LIBRARY Movies and shows are organized automatically, with posters, backdrops, descriptions, and cast. Seasons and episodes land in the right order. When something is named unusually, you can correct the match yourself and it stays corrected. PLAYS YOUR FILES AS THEY ARE Most of your library plays exactly as it sits on disk, which means the best picture your device can show. When a file needs converting, your server handles it and playback keeps up. PICTURE AND SOUND Dolby Vision, HDR10, and 4K on the hardware that supports them. Surround audio passes through to your receiver. Pick the audio track and subtitles you want, and tofa remembers the choice. SUBTITLES THAT WORK Text and image subtitles both render, including styled subtitles. Sidecar files sitting next to your media are picked up automatically. SHARE WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST Give family or friends access to some or all of your libraries. Everyone gets their own profile, their own watch history, and their own place in each show. YOUR MEDIA STAYS YOURS tofa does not host any content. It plays the files on the server you run. We do not track you across apps or websites, we do not serve ads, and we do not sell your data. You need a tofa server to use this app. Setting one up takes about ten minutes.

Screenshots

Spectati4 screens
tofa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: tofa at none against Spectati's 3. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Spectati sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. tofa 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 Spectati against 5.0 for tofa. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectati ships an update every 5 days, tofa every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Spectati versus tofa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectatitofa
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple TV
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size99 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob SøndergaardTofa Software ehf.

Customer experience

Spectati

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

tofa

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Spectati

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$22.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$99.99
None

tofa

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spectati free?
Spectati is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is tofa free?
tofa is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spectati or tofa?
Spectati and tofa are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Spectati or tofa have ads?
Neither Spectati nor tofa shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectati or tofa?
Spectati ships an update every 5 days, and tofa every 4 days. Most recently, Spectati was updated on November 5, 2026 and tofa on November 5, 2026.

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