Amperfy

Self-hosted music streaming, honestly reviewed. What you actually get when you run your own music server and point Amperfy at it.

TL;DR

• What it is: A free, GPL-3.0 native iOS/iPadOS/macOS app for playing music from Ampache or Subsonic-compatible servers — the “Spotify app” half of a self-hosted music setup, where you bring the server [1].
• Who it’s for: Apple-ecosystem users who already run (or want to run) a self-hosted music library on Navidrome, Airsonic, or Jellyfin, and need a polished iOS client with real CarPlay and Siri integration.
• Cost savings: Spotify costs $9.99–$17.99/month. Apple Music runs $10.99–$16.99/month. A Navidrome server on a $5–10/month VPS plus Amperfy (free on the App Store) handles unlimited personal streaming with no recurring fees and no licensing removals.
• Key strength: The deepest Apple platform integration of any Subsonic client — native CarPlay, Siri play commands, App Intents, and Shortcuts — alongside gapless playback and a proper equalizer [1].
• Key weakness: iOS and macOS only, and it requires a separately running Ampache or Subsonic-compatible server. Amperfy is a client, not a server. Without the server half, it does nothing.

---

What is Amperfy

Amperfy is a native Swift app for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS that browses and streams music from a self-hosted Ampache or Subsonic server [1]. It is not a music server. It does not store your files. It does not index your library. It is the client half of a two-part system.

This distinction is the most important thing non-technical users miss when they encounter it. To use Amperfy, you need two things running in parallel:

1. A server running Ampache or a Subsonic-compatible alternative — Navidrome is the current community standard; Airsonic, Gonic, Jellyfin with its Subsonic plugin, and Ampache itself all work. This server reads your music files and serves them over the Subsonic or Ampache API.
2. Amperfy on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, pointed at that server’s URL.

The reason this two-part setup is worth considering: your music is on your hardware. It doesn’t disappear when Spotify loses a licensing deal. No monthly subscription. Your listening history stays on your server, not in an ad-targeting database. If you own the files, they stay.

Amperfy is licensed under GPL-3.0 and free on the App Store for both iOS and macOS [1]. As of this review it has 1,435 GitHub stars, 94 forks, and 22 releases — the latest (v2.1.0, focused on multi-account, Home tab, CarPlay, and App Intent rework) shipped March 19, 2026 [1]. Written in Swift by a solo maintainer going by BLeeEZ, with occasional pull requests from contributors, it’s a smaller project than the platform-scale self-hosted tools but has been actively maintained across 1,083 commits.

---

Why people choose it

The comparison isn’t Amperfy versus another music player. It’s “self-hosted music library + Amperfy” versus paying Spotify or Apple Music every month. That reframe matters.

Licensing removals don’t exist on your own server. Anyone who’s had an album disappear mid-playlist on Spotify knows the frustration. Self-hosted music doesn’t have this problem. If you own the file legally, it stays in your library permanently.

No recurring fee for playback. Spotify Family costs $17.99/month — $215.88/year for a household. Apple Music Family is $16.99/month. A Navidrome instance on a $6 Hetzner VPS serves your entire household with no per-stream charges. Amperfy is free to download [1]. The math over three years is substantial.

CarPlay and Siri that actually work. This is where Amperfy specifically earns its place over other Subsonic iOS clients. The app has full CarPlay support, Siri play media commands, Siri Shortcuts, and App Intents [1]. Competing clients in the Subsonic ecosystem vary widely in how deeply they integrate with Apple’s platform stack. Amperfy goes all the way.

Native audio quality controls. Gapless playback (the kind that matters for live albums and classical recordings), a real per-band equalizer, and replay gain normalization are first-class features, not afterthoughts bolted onto a web wrapper [1]. Streaming apps either don’t expose these or gate them behind premium tiers.

Data stays local. Your listening patterns, library preferences, and what you play at 2am don’t go to Spotify’s data team. The server logs what you decide to log, accessible only to you.

---

Features

Playback engine:

• Gapless playback for compatible file formats [1]
• Per-band equalizer [1]
• Replay gain (prevents volume lurching between tracks recorded at different levels) [1]
• Sleep timer [1]
• Scrobbling to Last.fm and compatible services [1]

Library:

• Multi-account support — connect to multiple Subsonic or Ampache servers simultaneously [1]
• Offline mode: sync albums locally for listening without network access [1]
• 5-star song rating that syncs back to the server [1]
• Favorite song marking [1]
• Music, Podcast, and Radio stream support — not just albums, the full Subsonic content model [1]

Apple platform integration:

• CarPlay — full browse-and-control from your dashboard [1]
• Siri play media command (“Hey Siri, play Radiohead on Amperfy”) [1]
• Siri Shortcuts and App Intents for automation [1]

What Amperfy does not do:

• It does not transcode. If your server doesn’t handle format conversion, Amperfy streams whatever format the server sends.
• It does not manage your music files or library metadata. That’s the server’s responsibility.
• There is no Android version. iOS and macOS only [1].
• There is no web interface. Native app access only.

---

Pricing: SaaS vs self-hosted math

Amperfy is free to download and has no in-app purchases or subscription tiers [1]. The recurring cost is the server.

Server options (all free software):

• Navidrome: free, single Go binary, Docker-ready
• Airsonic-Advanced: free, Java, more complex
• Jellyfin with Subsonic plugin: free, full media server
• Ampache: free, PHP-based, the original Amperfy target

VPS to host it: $5–10/month on Hetzner, Contabo, or DigitalOcean for a small instance that handles one household without issue. Add object storage (Backblaze B2, ~$5/month per TB) if you want off-site music backup.

Total recurring cost: $5–15/month depending on storage needs.

What streaming services cost:

Service	Individual	Family
Spotify	$9.99/mo	$17.99/mo
Apple Music	$10.99/mo	$16.99/mo
Tidal HiFi Plus	$19.99/mo	$29.99/mo

Concrete savings math:

A household paying $17.99/month for Spotify Family moves to Navidrome on a $7/month VPS plus $5/month Backblaze backup. Monthly cost: $12. Monthly savings: $5.99. Annual savings: $71.88 — plus the library no longer has a rotating door of licensing removals. Over five years and accounting for Spotify’s annual price increases, the gap widens considerably.

The math changes if you’re buying music files you don’t currently own. At roughly $10–15 per album (Bandcamp, Qobuz, HDtracks), rebuilding a 500-album library costs real money up front. Most people who self-host already have a library — ripped CDs, purchased downloads, or files from before streaming dominated.

Important caveat: Self-hosting doesn’t replace streaming for discovery. If you primarily use Spotify’s algorithmic recommendations (Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes), self-hosting doesn’t replicate that. The realistic pattern: keep a free Spotify account for finding new music, run Navidrome and Amperfy for the library you actually care about.

---

Deployment reality check

Getting Amperfy running is a two-stage process. Stage one — the server — is where most of the friction lives.

Stage 1: Server setup

Navidrome is the current community recommendation. It’s a single binary that runs inside Docker, scans a music folder, and exposes a Subsonic API. The official documentation is decent. Realistic time estimate: 30–90 minutes to a working Navidrome instance on a fresh VPS with HTTPS configured. For someone following a guide with no Linux background: 2–4 hours, including the domain and reverse proxy (Caddy is easier than nginx for this). Ampache is more complex — plan for significantly more setup time.

What you actually need:

• A Linux VPS or a home server with a reachable address
• Docker and docker-compose
• A domain name and reverse proxy (Caddy recommended)
• Your music files accessible to the server (local path, NFS, SMB mount)
• An SMTP provider only if you want email-based user invites; otherwise skip it

Stage 2: Amperfy setup

Once the server is live: download Amperfy from the App Store, enter your server URL, username, and password, wait for the library to sync. This takes 5–15 minutes. Substantially simpler than the server half.

What can go sideways:

The README notes that real-device testing of CarPlay and Siri requires a developer certificate with specific entitlements — com.apple.developer.playable-content and com.apple.developer.siri [1]. For end users installing from the App Store, Apple has handled this. It’s mentioned here because it explains why some community builds or TestFlight beta builds may behave differently from the App Store release.

Format mismatch is a common early issue: if your library is in ALAC, FLAC, or WAV and your server isn’t configured to transcode, playback may fail on older iOS devices that don’t natively support the codec. Navidrome handles transcoding cleanly with ffmpeg; configure it before pointing Amperfy at the server.

Offline sync on large libraries requires upfront planning. Amperfy supports local downloads [1], but a 500GB music library doesn’t fit on an iPhone. You’ll need a sync strategy — favorite albums only, recent additions, or specific playlists.

Android users in your household: There is no Amperfy for Android. Symfonium (Android, ~$5 one-time purchase) is the community’s preferred complement — also Subsonic-compatible, polished, actively maintained. A mixed-device household needs both apps, which means two setups, not one.

---

Pros and cons

Pros

• Free download, no IAP, no subscription. The app itself costs nothing [1].
• GPL-3.0 open source. Code is public and auditable [1].
• Best Apple platform integration in the Subsonic client category. CarPlay, Siri, App Intents, Shortcuts — native, not web views [1].
• Gapless playback for albums designed to flow between tracks [1].
• Offline mode for listening without connectivity [1].
• Multi-account — connect to personal and shared servers simultaneously [1].
• Subsonic API compatibility means server flexibility: Navidrome, Airsonic, Gonic, Jellyfin, Ampache — you’re not locked to one implementation [1].
• Scrobbling for Last.fm integration [1].
• Equalizer and replay gain — audio controls streaming apps hide or omit [1].
• Actively maintained — 22 releases, last one March 2026, 1,083 commits [1].

Cons

• iOS and macOS only. No Android client. Mixed-device households need a second app [1].
• Requires a running server. Without an Ampache or Subsonic-compatible server, Amperfy is a zero-utility app [1].
• Small community. 1,435 stars puts it well below top-tier self-hosted projects. Fewer guides, less Stack Overflow coverage, smaller issue tracker.
• GPL-3.0, not MIT. Copyleft affects anyone embedding it commercially.
• No web interface. No browser-based playback on borrowed devices.
• Setup friction is real. The server half requires command-line comfort. Not a “click install and go” experience.
• Solo maintainer risk. A project this size maintained primarily by one person carries bus-factor risk that larger teams don’t.
• Thin third-party review coverage. Unlike major self-hosted tools, Amperfy has little independent long-form review writing. This review is working primarily from the GitHub README and community observations.

---

Who should use this / who shouldn’t

Use Amperfy if:

• You already run Navidrome, Airsonic, or Ampache and need a capable iOS client.
• You’re paying $10–18/month for streaming and own (or can acquire) music files you want to escape recurring fees with.
• CarPlay is important — this is the strongest specific argument for Amperfy over competing clients.
• You’re an Apple-only household. The platform fit is clean when everyone is on iOS or macOS.
• You want offline music without paying a streaming service for that privilege.

Skip Amperfy, solve the server problem first, if:

• You don’t have and aren’t willing to set up a Subsonic or Ampache server. The app is useless without it.
• You have Android users who also need access. You can solve this with Symfonium alongside Amperfy, but it complicates the setup.

Skip self-hosting entirely and stay on Spotify/Apple Music if:

• You don’t own music files and aren’t interested in building a library.
• Algorithmic discovery (Discover Weekly, radio stations) is a core part of how you use music.
• You or your household has no technical person willing to do a one-time server setup and occasional maintenance.

---

Alternatives worth considering

Server alternatives (you need one of these regardless of client):

• Navidrome — current community standard for Subsonic-compatible servers. Fast, Docker-friendly, actively maintained. Most Amperfy users pair with this.
• Airsonic-Advanced — older codebase, less actively developed than Navidrome, still functional.
• Jellyfin — full media server handling music, video, and photos. Subsonic-compatible via plugin. More features, more complexity.
• Ampache — the original server Amperfy was designed for. PHP-based, feature-rich, steeper setup.
• LMS (Lightweight Music Server) — GPL-3.0, C++ based, operates on the Logitech/Squeezebox protocol. Listed alongside Amperfy in the AlternativeTo self-hosted music category [2]; different architecture and client ecosystem, but serves the same audience of people who want music off Spotify’s servers.

Client alternatives (for the iOS/Android gap):

• Symfonium (Android, ~$5 one-time) — polished Subsonic client for Android. The complement to Amperfy for mixed-device households.
• Ultrasonic (Android, free, open source) — functional, less refined than Symfonium.
• Substreamer (iOS, paid) — another Subsonic iOS client; less actively maintained than Amperfy.
• Finamp (iOS/Android, free) — Jellyfin-specific, not Subsonic. Clean option if your server is Jellyfin.

If self-hosting isn’t right:

• Spotify — best catalog and discovery, $9.99–$17.99/month, fully closed source.
• Apple Music — deeper iOS integration without self-hosting, $10.99–$16.99/month.
• Plex — sits between self-hosted and SaaS. Hosts your files but the app is closed-source, and useful features require a Plex Pass subscription.

---

Bottom line

Amperfy is a well-built native iOS and macOS client for self-hosted music — no more, no less. If you’re already running Navidrome or Ampache, it’s the obvious choice for the Apple side of your household: free, GPL-3.0, with the best CarPlay and Siri integration of any Subsonic client available. The constraints are equally clear — iOS-only, useless without a server you run yourself, and carrying real setup friction for anyone unfamiliar with a Linux command line. For a non-technical founder who owns a music library and is tired of Spotify’s monthly fee and catalog surprises, the path works — but it involves a one-time server deployment that’s worth doing with guidance. If you want someone to handle that deployment without the afternoon of troubleshooting, that’s exactly the kind of setup that upready.dev’s parent studio handles for clients as a one-time fee.

---

Sources

1. Amperfy — GitHub Repository, README, and releases (1,435 stars, GPL-3.0, 22 releases, Swift). https://github.com/BLeeEZ/amperfy
2. AlternativeTo — LMS (Lightweight Music Server) — community-sourced alternative listings for self-hosted music players including Amperfy. https://alternativeto.net/software/lightweight-music-server/about/