Compare
Side by side. Public facts, dated.
Competitor prices and features come from their own pages, checked 2026-09-14, and are listed in the notes below. Where we could not verify something we say "not published" instead of guessing. What is still on the way is marked Coming.
Cost over three years
EUR. Dollar prices converted at 1 USD = 0.92 EUR for the chart only; the actual prices are in the notes.
Feature by feature
● Yes◐ Partly, see note○ No◔ Coming to Verity– Not published
| Feature | Verity | Roon | Maestro | Audirvāna | JRiver MC | foobar2000 | Plexamp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | €69 once, or €39 a year | $14.99/mo, $12.49/mo yearly, $829.99 lifetime | $99/yr or $10/mo (€89/yr EU), plus Qobuz | Studio €79.99/yr; Origin $119.90 once | $99.98 per OS, $124.98 master, per major version | Free | Plex Pass $70/yr or $749.99 lifetime |
| Honesty | |||||||
| Signal path per track with a bit-perfect verdict | ●Every stage, its format, a touch class, and what the endpoint reported | ●Signal path | ◐Never touches the stream; no per-stage view | ◐Output info only | ◐Audio Path window | ○No | ○No |
| Bit-perfect by default, no resampling unless you ask | ●Yes | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Upsampling options on by choice | ◐Configurable | ◐Depends on output plugin | ○No |
| No cloud in the signal path | ●Yes | ◐Core needs periodic login; metadata is cloud | ○Qobuz front end | ◐Account login required | ●Yes | ●Yes | ○Plex account required |
| Library never leaves home; lookups opt-in and itemised | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ●Yes | ●Yes | ○No |
| Works offline (no internet at home) | ●14-day signed token, renewed when online | ◐Partly | ○No | ◐Partly | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Partly |
| Price | |||||||
| One-time purchase available | ●€69; Founder €99 for everything, for life | ●$829.99 | ○No | ●Origin $119.90, local library only | ●$99.98 per major version | ●Free | ●$749.99 lifetime Plex Pass |
| Bug fixes free for the version you bought | ●Yes | –Subscription only | –Not published | ●Yes | ●Yes | ●Yes | –Not published |
| New features: pay only if you want them | ●Update Pass €19/yr or €29 per major | ○Subscription | ○Subscription | ○Studio subscription | ●Upgrade price per version | ●Yes | ○Plex Pass |
| Cost over 3 years (see chart) | ●€69 to €126 | ○about €414 | ○about €273 plus Qobuz | ○€240 Studio | ◐about €92 plus upgrades | ●€0 | ○about €193 |
| Library | |||||||
| 300,000+ files | ●Measured at 100k: 22 s first scan, 0.85 s rescan, 8 ms album list | ●Needs a capable Core | –Not published | ●Yes | ●Yes | ●Yes | ●Yes |
| Local, SMB, NFS, WebDAV, SFTP, S3 and UPnP sources | ●Cloud drives coming | ◐Local and network shares | ◐NAS | ◐Local and network shares | ◐Local and network shares | ◐Local and network shares | ◐Through a Plex server |
| Loudness, true peak, dynamic range, file health per track | ●Yes | ◐Loudness only | ○No | ○No | ◐Analyzer | ◐Plugins | ◐Loudness |
| Acoustic fingerprint identification (AcoustID) and MusicBrainz credits | ●Opt-in | ◐Own cloud metadata | ○No | ○No | ◐Lookup | ◐Plugins | ○No |
| Fix tags from MusicBrainz with preview and restorable backup | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ◐Partly | ◐Plugins | ○No |
| Duplicates by tags and by sound | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ◐Partly | ◐Partly | ○No |
| CD ripping with read-twice verification | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ●Yes | ●Yes | ○No |
| Outputs | |||||||
| UPnP AV / DLNA and OpenHome renderers | ●Yes | ○RAAT and Roon Ready only | ●Yes | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Plugin | ○No |
| Sonos, including groups | ●Yes | ●Yes | –Not published | ○No | ○No | ○No | ●Yes |
| AirPlay 2 with HomeKit pairing (HomePod, Apple TV) | ●Own sender; Apple TV coming | ◐AirPlay | –Not published | ◐AirPlay | ○No | ○No | ◐From the phone |
| Chromecast | ●Yes | ●Yes | –Not published | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ●Yes |
| WASAPI exclusive and ASIO, integer pipeline | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Exclusive mode | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐ASIO plugin | ○No |
| DSD (DoP, native) | ●DoP; native ASIO next | ●Yes | ○24/192 max | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Plugin | ○No |
| Spotify Connect (be a speaker) | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No |
| Every output is a zone with its own queue | ●Yes | ●Yes | –Not published | ○No | ●Yes | ○No | ◐Per device |
| Grouped zones in sync across brands | ◔Coming: AirPlay receivers first, then the Verity Bridge | ◐Same protocol only | –Not published | ○No | ◐Same protocol only | ○No | ○No |
| You choose which network interfaces it uses | ●Discovery, streaming, callbacks: one setting | –Not published | –Not published | –Not published | –Not published | ○No | ○No |
| Fixed-volume and offline outputs shown as what they are | ●Yes | ◐Partly | –Not published | ◐Partly | ◐Partly | ◐Partly | ◐Partly |
| Sound | |||||||
| DSP is opt-in and always visible in the path | ●PEQ, convolution, crossfeed, headroom, tilt | ●Yes | ○No DSP by design | ◐Studio only | ●Yes | ◐Plugins | ◐EQ, loudness |
| AutoEq and REW import | ●Yes | ◐Convolution | ○No | ○No | ◐Convolution | ◐Plugins | ○No |
| Volume levelling from measured loudness, off by default | ●Yes | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ●Yes | ◐ReplayGain | ●Yes |
| Listening | |||||||
| Stations from your own library with every pick explained | ●Vera | ◐Roon Radio, unexplained | ◐Ella Radio | ○No | ○No | ○No | ◐Sonic stations |
| Offline voice control | ●Windows speech, grammar from your library | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No |
| AI playlists with your own key or local model | ●Yes | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No | ○No |
| Streaming services | ◐Spotify Connect today; TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer and Napster coming | ●TIDAL, Qobuz, KKBOX | ●Qobuz (required) | ●TIDAL, Qobuz, HRA | ○No | ○No | ◐TIDAL |
| Web remote from any phone on the LAN | ●Yes | ○No | –Not published | ●Yes | ●Yes | ○No | ●Yes |
| Native phone apps | ◔Coming: iPhone, iPad, Android; they connect to a Verity Server or Player | ●Yes | ◐Announced | ●Yes | ●Yes | ◐Separate app | ●Yes |
| Ahead | |||||||
| Headless server with one shared library | ◔Verity Server, coming | ●Yes | ◐Partly | ○No | ●Yes | ○No | ●Yes |
| Endpoint software you can run on a Raspberry Pi | ◔Verity Bridge, coming | ●Roon Bridge | ○No | ○No | ◐Id | ○No | ○No |
| Remote access without opening a port | ◔Verity Relay, coming | ●ARC | ◐Partly | ○No | ○No | ○No | ●Plex relay |
What each player is known for
- Roon: TIDAL and Qobuz integration, ARC for remote listening, Roon Ready hardware from 200 brands, native phone apps. Verity's TIDAL, Qobuz, Relay and apps are coming, and the table says so.
- Maestro: a Qobuz front end with a beautiful browse experience, built on the principle of never touching the stream. Verity applies the same principle to your own files and every output, and shows each stage.
- Audirvāna: streaming services in Studio, years of DAC support, and Origin as a one-time option for a local library.
- JRiver: deep, fast, with an audio path window and pay-per-major-version terms of the same shape as Verity's.
- foobar2000: free and endlessly extensible for people who like to assemble a player from plugins. Verity is the assembled player, with the network side built in.
- Plexamp: a polished phone app on top of a Plex server and a Plex Pass.
And Verity
One core that plays everything you own to everything you have, shows every stage the audio passes and gives a verdict with its reason, keeps your library at home, lets you choose the network it uses, and costs one payment. The community orders what comes next.
Sources
Roon: roon.app/en/pricing (monthly $14.99, yearly $12.49/mo, lifetime $829.99). Maestro: stereonet.com and alpha-audio.net launch coverage ($99/yr, $10/mo, €89/yr EU, Qobuz required, 24/192 max). Audirvāna: audirvana.com/price (Studio €79.99/yr from 2026-01-06; Origin $119.90). JRiver: jriver.com/purchase.html ($99.98 Windows or Mac, $79.98 Linux, $124.98 master; one major version). Plex: plex.tv/blog/new-lifetime-plex-pass-pricing ($749.99 lifetime from 2026-07-01, $70/yr, $7/mo). foobar2000: foobar2000.org. Feature cells reflect public documentation as of the same date; corrections are welcome and will be applied with the date noted.