Comparison

Plinth Music vs Sortwave

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

Head to head
About

Plinth Music

This app is a local music player for users who own their music files. It offers album browsing with full artwork, AI-powered playlist generation based on listening history, and automatic metadata enrichment. It supports various audio formats and file transfers over Wi-Fi.

Highlights
  • Local music playback
  • Album browsing with full artwork
  • AI-powered playlist generation
  • Automatic metadata enrichment
  • Gapless playback and crossfade
  • CarPlay support
  • Wi-Fi file transfer
Features
Read full description

Plinth is a local music player for people who actually own their music. Buy it once — no subscription, no account, no cloud required. ALBUM BROWSING Browse your library as albums were meant to be seen. Full artwork, flip through your collection with a swipe. The way music discovery should feel. AI DJ Plinth builds your next queue from your actual listening history. Five providers to choose from: Claude, OpenAI, and Grok with your own API key, or Apple Intelligence and Ollama fully on-device. You pick who's listening. LIBRARY Plinth scans your tags — ID3, FLAC, ALAC — then fills the gaps automatically from multiple music databases. Missing artwork, artist photos, genre? Found and fixed. Duplicate tracks and incomplete albums surface in one place so your library stays clean. PLAYBACK Gapless playback, crossfade, lockscreen controls, and CarPlay support. IMPORT Transfer files from Mac over Wi-Fi — no cable, no drama. FORMATS FLAC · ALAC · WAV · AIFF · MP3 · M4A · AAC Your library. Your hardware. Your rules.

About

Sortwave

Features
Read full description

Swipe music into place. Sortwave is a focused playlist-curation companion for Apple Music. Choose a playlist, listen to each full song, and decide what belongs without breaking your flow. Swipe right to keep a song. Route it up or down into playlists you already use. Mark favorites, shuffle your session, scrub through playback, undo a decision, or stop whenever you want. Sortwave queues your choices locally and applies them together when you choose Finish & Sync. Apple Music doesn’t allow third-party apps to directly delete arbitrary library songs. When you mark songs for removal, Sortwave places them in a clearly labeled Deleted Songs playlist and shows a short guide for completing deletion safely in Apple Music. Your original library stays under your control. Features: • Full-song Apple Music playback • Fast, gesture-first playlist decisions • Two configurable quick-route playlists • Favorite and unfavorite controls • Interactive playback scrubber • Shuffle, previous, next and undo controls • Batched sync with a clear summary • Session history and resilient local queueing • Secure connection restoration • No advertising or tracking An active Apple Music subscription may be required for full-song playback and library access. Sortwave is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple.

Screenshots

Plinth Music4 screens
Sortwave3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sortwave at Free against Plinth Music's $9.99. Plinth Music's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

Sortwave is free to download; Plinth Music costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Plinth Music ships an update every 10 days, Sortwave every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Plinth Music versus Sortwave: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlinth MusicSortwave
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperArtem TrukhanovSooraj Sambasivam

In-app purchases

None

Plinth Music

No in-app purchases

None

Sortwave

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Plinth Music free?
Plinth Music costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sortwave free?
Sortwave is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Plinth Music or Sortwave have ads?
Neither Plinth Music nor Sortwave shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Plinth Music or Sortwave?
Plinth Music ships an update every 10 days, and Sortwave every 5 days. Most recently, Plinth Music was updated on October 14, 2026 and Sortwave on October 13, 2026.

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