Comparison

Pulse Vinyl vs mikMPD

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

Head to head
About

Pulse Vinyl

Features
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Turn your Apple Music library into a personal vinyl and CD collection. PulseVinyl scans the albums in your music library and helps you discover which releases are available on physical media. Keep track of what you own, build your wantlist, scan barcodes, and view estimated market values in one beautifully designed app. FEATURES β€’ Scan your Apple Music library for vinyl and CD availability β€’ Track records and CDs you own β€’ Create and manage a personal wantlist β€’ Scan barcodes to quickly find physical releases β€’ Recognize music with Shazam and check the single and album β€’ View estimated collection values using available Discogs market data β€’ Follow upcoming releases from artists in your library with Release Radar β€’ Browse your collection with artwork, filters, sorting, and detailed release information β€’ Keep your collection synchronized across your Apple devices with iCloud β€’ Access helpful widgets from your Home Screen PulseVinyl is made for music lovers who want to connect their digital library with their physical collection. Some availability and market-value information depends on third-party data and may not be available for every release. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://pulseos.eu/privacy

About

mikMPD

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This requires a running MPD server on your network. More information about MPD and how to configure it can be found here: https://www.musicpd.org. mikMPD should work with other MPD implementations as Mopidy, OwnTone, Chord Poly etc. Album art (fetched from MusicBrainz/CoverArtArchive), synced lyrics (via LRCLIB). Browse by albums, artists, genres, or playlists with search filtering. Album and artist detail views include Wikipedia summaries. Play or enqueue entire albums/artists with one tap. Playlists β€” Full stored-playlist support: browse, rename, and delete playlists. Radio β€” Built-in Swedish Radio streams (SR P1–P4 GΓΆteborg) plus custom station management with persistent storage. CD β€” Play audio CDs directly via cdda:/// URIs with per-track control. File Browser β€” Navigate the MPD directory tree. Single-tap enters directories, double-tap plays files. Swipe actions for add/play. Search β€” Concurrent search across songs, artists, and albums with debounced input, batch selection, and album art thumbnails. Queue β€” View and manage the current playlist. Double-tap to jump to a song, drag to reorder, swipe to delete, clear all, toggle consume mode. Outputs & Partitions β€” Toggle audio outputs on/off, switch between MPD partitions, create and delete partitions, move outputs between partitions via long-press context menu. Multiple Servers β€” Save any number of MPD servers and switch between them with one tap. Nearby servers advertising over Bonjour/Zeroconf are discovered automatically and can be added directly. Passwords are stored in the Keychain, and the last-used partition is remembered per server. Listen on Phone β€” Stream audio from an MPD httpd output directly to the device via AVPlayer. Configure the stream URL per server, then toggle "Listen on phone" in Now Playing. Supports background playback with lock screen metadata (song title, artist, album art) and lock screen transport controls. Snapcast β€” Control a Snapcast multiroom server from the More tab

Screenshots

Pulse Vinyl4 screens
mikMPD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: mikMPD at none against Pulse Vinyl's 4. mikMPD also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). Pulse Vinyl's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.2). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Pulse Vinyl sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. mikMPD asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pulse Vinyl ships an update fortnightly, mikMPD weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Pulse Vinyl versus mikMPD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPulse VinylmikMPD
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 β€” better26.2
Further details β€” not scored
Size42 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKuno BoersMIKAEL PER JOHAN OSTERDAHL

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Pulse Vinyl

Subscriptions2
  • PulseVinyl Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • PulseVinyl Pro Yearly7 Days trial$22.991 Year
One-time2
  • PulseVinyl Pro – Lifetime$39.99
  • PulseVinyl Pro Lifetime$49.99
None

mikMPD

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pulse Vinyl free?
Pulse Vinyl is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is mikMPD free?
mikMPD is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pulse Vinyl or mikMPD have ads?
Neither Pulse Vinyl nor mikMPD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pulse Vinyl or mikMPD?
Pulse Vinyl ships an update fortnightly, and mikMPD weekly. Most recently, Pulse Vinyl was updated on October 31, 2026 and mikMPD on October 31, 2026.

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