Pulse Vinyl vs Penta
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pulse Vinyl
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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 • Scan your Apple Music library for vinyl and CD availability • Track records and CDs you own • Create and manage a personal wantlist • Scan barcodes to quickly find physical releases • Recognize music with Shazam and check the single and album • View estimated collection values using available Discogs market data • Follow upcoming releases from artists in your library with Release Radar • Browse your collection with artwork, filters, sorting, and detailed release information • Keep your collection synchronized across your Apple devices with iCloud • 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
Penta
Experience your Apple Music library with a virtual five-disc CD carousel player. Browse albums, load discs, and control playback with a realistic interface, complete with tactile sounds and a retro display.
- Five-disc carousel simulation
- Apple Music library integration
- Realistic tactile interface
- Customizable display
- Save and reload disc sets
- iCloud sync for favorites
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Penta turns your iPhone, iPad or iPhone Duo into a five-disc CD changer — the hi-fi component you grew up with, rebuilt for your Apple Music library. Open a jewel case, drop the disc into the carousel, and play. Every detail is here: the fluorescent display, the motorized carousel, the power-on self-test, a disc winding up to speed before it plays, and the clunk as it comes to a stop. ON IPHONE DUO The phone is the jewel case. Close it and you're holding the album; open it and the case opens with it. Open flat for the whole deck, or fold it like a laptop for your CD wallet above the tray. FEATURES • A real five-disc carousel — load, spin, and swap discs by hand • Real sounds, recorded from a five-disc changer: key clicks, the tray, the platter turning and a disc set down • A different deck each way up: the full carousel sideways, a CD wallet over the tray upright • Jewel-case browser — open the case and drag the disc out, or drop it straight into any of the five slots • Plays your Apple Music library in full, with real album art on every disc • Keys you can feel — on iPhone every key clicks under your thumb • Magazines — save a set of five discs and reload the whole cartridge later • Favorites, whole-library search, and Apple Music catalog search • A vacuum-fluorescent display with track, time, and format readouts • Any way up on iPad, and in resizable windows • Favorites and saved magazines sync across your devices via iCloud PENTA PRO A one-time unlock: Real CD Artwork (beta) shows the actual printed disc instead of the album cover, plus the full phosphor-colour set, the analog needle and VU meters, a gentle readable spin, the minimal readout, and unlimited saved magazines. The free deck plays your whole library with no limits. Albums you own play without a subscription. Streaming from the Apple Music catalog needs an Apple Music subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
Pulse Vinyl and Penta are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Pulse Vinyl sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Penta sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Pulse Vinyl ships an update fortnightly, Penta weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pulse Vinyl | Penta |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kuno Boers | John Seubert |
In-app purchases
Pulse Vinyl
- PulseVinyl Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
- PulseVinyl Pro Yearly7 Days trial$22.991 Year
- PulseVinyl Pro – Lifetime$39.99
- PulseVinyl Pro Lifetime$49.99
Penta
- Penta Pro$0.99








