Comparison

Dreamwave Radio vs RunTrace

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

Head to head
About

Dreamwave Radio

Create personalized soundscapes for sleep by mixing up to three ambient sounds. Enjoy unique, non-repeating audio with customizable noise colors and a fading sleep timer. Integrates with Siri and Shortcuts for easy control.

Highlights
  • Mix up to three sounds
  • Non-repeating, generative audio
  • Seven noise color options
  • Fading sleep timer
  • Siri and Shortcut integration
  • Night mode and dynamic background
Features
Read full description

Most sleep apps hand you a fixed playlist and a monthly bill. Dreamwave Radio hands you a mixing desk. Layer rain over a fireplace. Put a fan under a night train. Set the level of each sound independently until it sounds like the room you actually want to fall asleep in. Thirty-one sounds, and every one of them is included. MIX UP TO THREE SOUNDS AT ONCE Not a playlist, a mix. Pin up to three stations and set each level on its own fader. Rain on a tent over distant thunder. Night wind under a fireplace. Or Slow Drift on its own: thirty unbroken minutes that stay even from the first minute to the last, for nights when nature sounds are too busy. The combination is the point. SOUNDS THAT NEVER REPEAT Most sleep apps play a recording on a loop, and at 3am you hear the join. Night Wind gusts on three cycles that never line up. Distant Rain places every drop somewhere new. Cat Purr pauses when a cat would. The app builds these sounds as it plays them, so there is no join to hear. The recorded ones are cut to run seamlessly, so a long night is one continuous sound rather than a track that keeps starting over. SEVEN NOISE COLORS White, Pink, Deep Hush, Grey, Green, Blue and Violet. Which one works is personal, especially for masking tinnitus, so the whole set is here rather than the usual three. JUST ASK "Play rain in Dreamwave Radio." "Set a sleep timer." "Give me fifteen more minutes." Siri starts a sound, adds one to the mix, or moves the timer without the app ever coming to the screen. Everything Siri can do is also a Shortcut, so a sound can start as part of your bedtime routine. A SLEEP TIMER THAT FADES Presets for the usual nights, or drag the scale to any duration from 1 to 120 minutes. The mix fades out instead of stopping dead, so the timer never wakes you on its way out. While it runs it sits on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so a glance tells you how long is left. BUILT FOR THE DARK Night mode dims the interface to almost nothing without disabling it. Every control stays reachable, so you are never poking at a black screen trying to turn the volume down. THE ROOM REACTS The background responds to what you are playing, so a glance tells you what is running without reading a single label. WORKS EVERYWHERE Plays in the background, over the lock screen, through AirPlay and Bluetooth, and mixes politely with other audio. iPhone and iPad, with a full-screen sound library on iPad. Available in nine languages, sound names included. PRIVACY IS ARCHITECTURAL, NOT A POLICY No account. No sign-in. No analytics SDK. No advertising SDK. No server component of any kind. Your pinned sounds and levels are stored on your device and nowhere else. There is nothing to collect, so nothing is collected. BUY IT ONCE One purchase, and the app is yours. No subscription, no renewals, no "premium" tier appearing later. Every sound is included from the first launch, and every sound added later comes with it. TERMS https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

RunTrace

Features
Read full description

Install RunTrace and your running history is already there. Every run in Apple Health — the ones from your Apple Watch, the ones from whatever app you used before — is on the first screen, with its route, splits and heart rate intact. No account to make, no import to wait for, nothing to set up. Then it records new runs too. GPS route, live pace, splits as you pass each kilometre or mile, auto-pause when you stop at a light, and spoken split announcements so you don't have to look. Distance and pace stay on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, with a pause button you can reach without unlocking. FREE, AND IT STAYS FREE • Your whole Apple Health running history, imported on first launch • GPS recording with live pace, auto-pause and spoken splits • The Apple Watch app — it records on its own, so you can leave the phone at home • Route map, plus a profile of pace, elevation or heart rate along the distance • Splits chart showing your fastest and slowest laps • Time in five heart-rate zones, and a note for how it felt • This week day by day, and a calendar of every day you ran • Weekly volume and pace trend over the last three months • Records: longest run, longest time, best pace, biggest week, week streak • A weekly distance goal, with optional reminders on the days you plan to run • A share card built for someone else's feed: one big number and the shape of your route, no street map of your neighbourhood • GPX export of any run, or all of them at once, with heart rate and cadence • Home Screen widget with this week's distance and your last run RUNTRACE PRO: KNOW WHAT EVERY RUN IS DOING FOR YOU • Fitness, Fatigue and Form — training load that tells you whether you're fresh, building, or overreaching • VO₂ Max, resting heart rate and HRV, each against where it was three months ago • Running form measured by Apple Watch: power, cadence, stride length, ground contact and vertical oscillation • Best efforts at 1 km, 1 mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon, found inside runs you've already done • Volume and pace trends across a year, or every year you've run Pro cards are drawn from your own runs, so before you subscribe you can see that the numbers are yours, not a sample. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No account, no ads, no analytics, no servers of ours. Purchases go through the App Store and nowhere else. Runs you record sync through your own private iCloud, so they follow you between devices. What RunTrace reads from Apple Health stays on the device it read it from. ALREADY BOUGHT RUNTRACE? If you paid for RunTrace before it became free, you already have Pro — for life, including everything new. Nothing to restore, nothing to tap. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS RunTrace Pro is available as: • Yearly subscription, with a 2-week free trial for eligible new subscribers • Monthly subscription • Lifetime — a single payment that never renews Prices are shown in the app and may vary by region. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; renewal is charged within 24 hours before the period ends. Any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: https://www.mzjpg.com/policy/runtrace/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Dreamwave Radio4 screens
RunTrace4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: RunTrace at Free against Dreamwave Radio's $4.99. Dreamwave Radio's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On ads, device support 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

RunTrace is free to download; Dreamwave Radio costs $4.99 up front. RunTrace sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Dreamwave Radio asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dreamwave Radio ships an update weekly, RunTrace every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 5 level
Dreamwave Radio versus RunTrace: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDreamwave RadioRunTrace
Price$4.99Free — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlexander LothDajiale

In-app purchases

None

Dreamwave Radio

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

RunTrace

Subscriptions2
  • RunTrace Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • RunTrace Pro Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • RunTrace Pro Lifetime$69.99

Questions

Is Dreamwave Radio free?
Dreamwave Radio costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is RunTrace free?
RunTrace is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Dreamwave Radio or RunTrace have ads?
Neither Dreamwave Radio nor RunTrace shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dreamwave Radio or RunTrace?
Dreamwave Radio ships an update weekly, and RunTrace every 2 months. Most recently, Dreamwave Radio was updated on October 25, 2026 and RunTrace on October 25, 2026.

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