Comparison

Sound Effects Board vs PartyLight

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

Head to head
About

Sound Effects Board

Transform your phone into a versatile soundboard with a vast library of effects. Create custom boards, layer sounds, and even record your own audio. Control playback from your lock screen, widgets, or Siri.

Highlights
  • Instant sound playback
  • 6,000+ sound effects
  • Customizable sound boards
  • Record and import audio
  • Voice changer
  • Lock screen and widget control
  • Multi-language support
Features
Read full description

Sound Effects Board turns your phone into a real sound board. Tap a pad and the sound fires instantly — no loading, no delay — and it plays even on silent, so a prank never dies because your ringer switch was off. Meme, Prank & Funny Sounds are just the beginning. Browse 7,500+ professional sound effects across 20 categories — Comedy, Gaming, Podcast, Action, Voices, Animals, Engines, Sci-Fi, Sports, Cinematic, Ambiance, Music, DJ, Loops, Stream Alerts, Reactions, Transitions, Halloween, Christmas and New Year. Air horn blasts, cartoon boings, buzzers, applause, movie-style booms and stream alerts, all one tap away. Fire up to four sound buttons at once and layer them: an air horn over a drum loop, laughter under a rimshot. 100 NEW SOUNDS EVERY MONTH This soundboard app doesn't stand still. Every month has its own themed pack — Halloween Horror, Cinematic Trailer, Christmas, New Year Party, April Fools, Retro Arcade — 100 fresh sounds that open week by week, every Thursday. New sounds wear a NEW badge for a week, so you always know what just dropped. FULL SOUND CONTROL, FREE Every pad has real pitch and speed control, adjustable volume, loop and fade. No paywall on the fun part. LOOP STATION Build loops on the beat. Set a tempo, turn on the metronome and record 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars — recording starts on the next bar and every loop closes without a gap. Stack up to 8 layers, undo or mute any of them, and your pad hits snap to the grid. Save the loop to My Sounds and it lands on your board as a new pad. BUILD YOUR OWN BOARDS Be your own soundboard maker. Create boards with your own names, icons, colors and animated backgrounds. Give every button a label and an icon, drag pads into the order you want, and add pages as your board grows. Or start from a ready-made template for podcasting, streaming, theater or parties. RECORD, IMPORT, TRANSFORM Record your own audio, import files from your library, or run a clip through the built-in voice changer. Turn any sound into a custom ringtone in seconds. Record your board while you play it — every pad, every layer — and it lands in My Sounds as a new pad. Play it back, stack more pads on top and record again to build a full track. BUILT FOR YOUR WHOLE SETUP Control playback from the Lock Screen — free, always. Watch a loop run in Live Activity and Dynamic Island, trigger pads from a Home Screen widget without opening the app, or fire a sound with Siri. Plug into a TV or projector with HDMI or AirPlay and your board fills the screen, every hit lighting up as you play it from your phone. SHARE & SYNC Send any sound to a friend straight from the library or from a pad, export a board and share it, or sync every board across your devices with optional Apple sign-in. No account is ever required to use the app. SPEAKS YOUR LANGUAGE Fully localized in 35 languages — from English, German, French and Spanish to Turkish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Pro also unlocks performance recording and Big Screen. FREE VS PREMIUM Free gives you 2 boards, 9 sound buttons per board, 80 offline sounds, 2 simultaneous sounds and every sound control — with no ads, ever. Premium unlocks unlimited boards and buttons, the full 7,500+ library plus 100 new sounds every month, 4 simultaneous sounds, loop station, recording and import, voice changer, widgets, Siri, sound chaining, custom haptics, board sharing and device sync. No forced login. No ads. Just tap and it plays — even on silent. Build your first board free in under a minute. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://rsndijital.com/link/sound/privacy-policy.html

About

PartyLight

Features
Read full description

WARNING - FLASHING LIGHTS: This app flashes bright light rapidly, which can trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy, even with no history of seizures. It starts at a gentle 3 flashes per second and asks you to confirm before going faster. Stop immediately and see a doctor if you feel dizzy, nauseous, disoriented, or notice twitching or altered vision. Do not use around anyone who may be sensitive to flashing light. PartyLight turns your phone into a light that moves with the music. It listens through the microphone, finds the beat, and flashes the whole screen - and the camera flash - right on it. EIGHT MODES - Strobe: hard white flash on every beat - Pulse: colour swells and falls with the beat - Rainbow: hue sweeps while the beat pulses - Fire: warm flicker with a beat kick - Police: red and blue alternating - Slow Fade: gentle colour drift for chill sets - Bass Drop: only the heavy low hits trigger - Manual: your own saved look WORKS WITHOUT THE MICROPHONE Don't want to grant microphone access? PartyLight runs on a steady beat you set yourself, from 60 to 200 BPM. Every mode still works. THE MICROPHONE IS NEVER RECORDED Audio is analysed in real time to find the beat and immediately discarded. Nothing is recorded, saved, or uploaded. BUILT FOR ACTUAL PARTIES - Rear camera flash synced to the beat, with an automatic cut-off so your phone doesn't overheat - Screen stays awake and goes to full brightness - No ads on the light screen itself - No account, no sign-up PartyLight is free and supported by ads.

Screenshots

Sound Effects Board4 screens
PartyLight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PartyLight at none against Sound Effects Board's 3. PartyLight also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Sound Effects Board's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence and device support 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. Sound Effects Board sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. PartyLight asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sound Effects Board ships an update monthly, PartyLight every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Sound Effects Board versus PartyLight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSound Effects BoardPartyLight
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB39 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAdem UresinByung Kwon Jeon

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Sound Effects Board

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$5.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$59.99
None

PartyLight

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sound Effects Board free?
Sound Effects Board is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PartyLight free?
PartyLight is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Sound Effects Board or PartyLight have ads?
PartyLight shows ads; Sound Effects Board does not.
Which is updated more often, Sound Effects Board or PartyLight?
Sound Effects Board ships an update monthly, and PartyLight every 3 weeks. Most recently, Sound Effects Board was updated on October 31, 2026 and PartyLight on October 31, 2026.

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