Comparison

Jam vs Spindle

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

Head to head
About

Jam

This app is a music player designed for users who own their music collection and want to experience it in its original quality. It supports various lossless and hi-res audio formats, offers intuitive joystick control, and allows for personalized customization of its interface and sound.

Highlights
  • Plays lossless and hi-res audio formats
  • Supports local music library
  • Integrates with Apple Music catalog
  • Podcast playback and offline downloads
  • Intuitive joystick navigation
  • Customizable color schemes and equalizer
Features
Read full description

Jam-Pod is a music player for people who still keep their own music collection — and want it to sound exactly the way it was meant to. YOUR MUSIC, AT ITS BEST Import the songs you already own — FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and more — and Jam-Pod plays them in full, original quality. No compression, no shortcuts, no squeezing through Apple's library first. If a track is lossless or hi-res, that's exactly how you'll hear it. Turn your own collection into playlists that make sense to you, or let Jam-Pod quietly build a few for you — the songs you've played most, the ones you added recently, the ones you keep coming back to. FOUR WAYS TO LISTEN, ONE SIMPLE SCREEN • Your own local library, hi-res and lossless, exactly as you imported it • The Apple Music library already on your phone • The full Apple Music catalog, to search and stream anytime (subscription required) • Podcasts — search, follow your favorite shows, and download episodes to listen offline ONE JOYSTICK. NOTHING ELSE TO THINK ABOUT. No sprawling menus, no touchscreen full of icons. Just a small joystick: scroll, click, play — each move confirmed with a gentle tap so you barely need to look. The screen stays black and white on purpose, so nothing competes for your attention. MAKE IT FEEL LIKE YOURS Pick a color scheme in black and white, switch the screen between light and dark, and fine-tune your sound with a simple built-in equalizer. NO ADS. NO FEED. JUST YOUR MUSIC. Jam-Pod isn't trying to recommend anything or keep you scrolling. It's just there to play the music you chose, the way it was meant to sound.

About

Spindle

Rediscover your owned music with a dedicated player that prioritizes your curation and control. Enjoy a tactile jog wheel interface, support for all lossless formats, and seamless integration with your existing library. No algorithms, no accounts, just your music, your way.

Highlights
  • Tactile jog wheel for navigation
  • Support for all lossless audio formats
  • No algorithmic feed or account required
  • Import music via Wi-Fi, AirDrop, or Files
  • Gapless playback and AirPlay 2 support
  • Customizable themes
Features
Read full description

The dedicated music player you miss, rebuilt for iPhone — and it plays your own server. For those with a spot of nostalgia for click wheels and MiniDiscs: those little machines played the music you owned, in the order you chose. No feed. No account. No algorithm deciding what came next. Spindle brings that back. Your whole server, in your pocket. Run Navidrome, or any Subsonic-compatible server? Point Spindle at it and your entire collection is there — thousands of albums, browsable and playable, without filling up your phone. A library far bigger than your storage, on a device that fits in a pocket. It stays your server. There is no Spindle account and no cloud of ours in the middle: your phone talks to your machine, and nobody else is involved. If you don't run a server, none of this appears — Spindle is a local player first, and stays one. Take it offline. Download any album to keep it on the phone. Offline Mode then shows only music that plays with no connection at all — on a plane, on the subway, off-grid — and quietly collapses duplicates when you own a copy of something you also stream. A player you hold. A real jog wheel: drag to scroll, flick to coast, spin to scrub. Hold a scrub and it accelerates, the way a proper transport does. Eyes-up and thumb-driven. Not another screen of flat buttons. Your collection, one turn away. Albums, artists, songs, genres, and folders: on a shelf you can spin through. Loved and most-played stay close to hand. You bring the curation. The music you own, in the order you meant it. Spindle just plays it back. And it plays it properly. FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF and MP3, played through Spindle's own engine at the file's native sample rate. Gapless playback for albums that were meant to run together. A 10-band EQ if you want to shape it. CarPlay, AirPlay, and Last.fm scrobbling if you use it. Free for 7 days, then buy it once. The whole app for a week, nothing withheld. After that it's a one-time purchase — not a subscription. No account. No subscription to us. No feed. Your library, your order.

Screenshots

Jam4 screens
Spindle4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Jam at none against Spindle's 1. Jam also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Spindle sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Jam 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 Jam against 5.0 for Spindle. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Jam ships an update every 3 days, Spindle every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Jam versus Spindle: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJamSpindle
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB8 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperGianpaolo CampoliRaindog LLC

In-app purchases

None

Jam

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Spindle

One-time1
  • Unlock Spindle$6.99

Questions

Is Jam free?
Jam is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Spindle free?
Spindle is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Jam or Spindle?
Jam and Spindle are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do Jam or Spindle have ads?
Neither Jam nor Spindle shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Jam or Spindle?
Jam ships an update every 3 days, and Spindle every 2 weeks. Most recently, Jam was updated on October 31, 2026 and Spindle on October 31, 2026.

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