Perfect Loops vs Endel
This page describes the difference. It doesn’t declare a winner: everything below about Endel was read off its own pages on October 18, 2026, not lived with for a month. We make Perfect Loops, so read our column accordingly; its gaps are listed at the bottom.
They’re different kinds of thing. Endel is closest to generative and adaptive soundscapes: Apps whose sound is produced by the company’s own system, in real time or from its own composers, shaped for focus, relaxation or sleep. It never ends because it is being generated. Perfect Loops is seamless loops cut from real artists’ tracks, with the artist paid from your own fee.
| Endel | Perfect Loops (ours) | |
|---|---|---|
| Does the music end? | Yes: “Endless soundscapes,” generated as you listen. Scenarios run through predefined phases for the timer you set. | Yes: a loop repeats sample-exactly, with no gap and no click, until the timer fades it out. |
| Who made it | Endel’s own system (“patented technology”). It has released collaborations with named musicians (the site names James Blake and Ta-ku) as streaming releases, which it says “might not be personalized or adaptive.” | Named artists, from their own finished tracks; each loop links to the artist and their platforms. Our own collections (made with Jam, and with AI music tools) are labelled as such and listed after the artists. |
| How the makers are paid | Not stated for the collaborations. The soundscapes themselves have no outside artist to pay. | User-centric: half of each subscriber’s $5 goes to the artists that subscriber played, split by that subscriber’s own seconds, so a listener who only plays one artist sends their whole half to that artist. Paid monthly from $20 and quarterly from $5, with us covering the payment fees. An artist who brings a fan through their link also earns 20% of that fan’s payments for as long as they stay. |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, Apple Watch, Amazon Alexa and Fire devices, Apple TV and Fire TV, Mac, Windows, a web player, and streaming platforms | Any browser; installs to the home screen as an app on iPhone and Android, with lock-screen controls. A Loops button in the header of every HiveJournal page starts one in a tap. |
| Pricing | No prices on endel.io. The App Store listing shows in-app purchases from $2.99 to $19.99 for 1 month, $34.99 to $119.99 for 12 months, and a $124.99 lifetime, without naming which is the current plan. A free tier includes Focus, Sleep, Relax and Move soundscapes. | $5 a month or $48 a year for the artists’ loops. Our own collections are free to play. Streamers and video makers may use the loops as background music free with credit. |
Where Endel is ahead
Runs on a watch, a TV and a speaker; adapts to your heart rate and the weather; sleep and relaxation modes with a published study behind them; and it never repeats, because it is never the same twice.
What Perfect Loops doesn’t do
- Small. As of October 2026 the catalog is our own two collections plus one human artist’s loops awaiting his approval and agreement; more artists are being invited. Every product above has more music.
- A loop is seconds of a track, not the track. If you want to hear the song, this is the wrong place; the artist’s links are there for that.
- The first artist payout has not run yet: the pipeline is built and the terms are set, but no statement has been paid.
- Browser-based. It installs as an app, but there is no native app, no offline mode, and on a locked phone a scheduled switch (Blend, a Path) can be delayed until you unlock.
- No sleep or health claims: the energy levels describe tempo and feel, nothing about you.
- The artists’ loops need a subscription; only our own collections are free.