A Soft Murmur vs Noisli

A Soft Murmur

• Masking noise in a library, coffee shop or shared office
• People who want ambient sound in a browser tab at no cost
• Falling asleep to rain or waves with a fade-out timer

Noisli

• Masking office, traffic or household noise while working
• People who prefer mixing their own ambient sound to playing music
• Writers who want background sound, a timer and an editor in one tab

A Soft Murmur

• The free web app has 10 sounds; the other 15 in its list need Pro at $14.99 a year.
• The mobile apps include four sounds free, and the rest are in-app purchases.
• The site's upgrade screen says Pro's extra sounds work on the web and Android only; the iOS release notes say Pro accounts get its added sounds, and others buy packs.
• There is no desktop app. The App Store's latest version is dated 10/13/2023 and Google Play shows the Android app as updated on Aug 23, 2023.

Noisli

• The Free plan limits streaming to 1.5 hours a day and includes 16 of the 28 sounds.
• Oscillation, Shuffle, the advanced Timer and the advanced Text Editor need Pro or Business.
• Noisli says plan features are intended for desktop browsers on Mac or Windows; the iPhone and iPad app is a separate $1.99 purchase.
• The site also names an Android app and a Chrome extension, but its Google Play link returned Not Found and its Chrome Web Store link showed the item as not available.

A Soft Murmur

Sound mixer

Each sound has its own volume slider. The free web app carries rain, thunder, waves, wind, fire, birds, crickets, a coffee shop, a singing bowl and white noise, and up to 10 sounds can be active at once.

Meander

With Meander switched on, the volume of every active sound drifts up and down at random, so the mix keeps changing instead of looping at fixed levels.

Timers

A timer can stop the sounds after a set period, start them after a delay, or fade them out gradually, which the site suggests for falling asleep.

Saved and shared mixes

Mixes can be named, saved and switched between. A mix can be shared as a link, and the web app has share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr.

Extra sounds with Pro

The web app lists 15 Pro sounds, among them brown and pink noise, two fan speeds, air conditioning, a city, a stream, a waterfall, three more rain recordings, cicadas and frogs.

Offline mobile apps

The iPhone, iPad and Android apps store their sounds on the device, play without a connection and keep running in the background alongside music or podcasts.

Noisli

Sound mixer

28 background sounds, each with its own volume control, can be layered into a mix that Noisli calls a Combo. The Free plan includes 16 of them.

Curated Playlists

Playlists group suggested Combos for situations such as focus, study, writing and sleep. Free accounts get 3 Playlists and paid plans 10.

Favorites

Save your own Combos to replay later and share them with other people. The Free plan stores up to 5 and paid plans up to 10.

Session Timer

Set the length of work sessions and breaks, with optional auto-start and a daily count of finished sessions. Sounds stop when the time is up.

Text Editor

A minimal writing space with Markdown formatting and a word counter. Text is saved to the account and can be downloaded or sent to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Oscillation and Shuffle

On paid plans, Oscillation slowly varies the volume of sounds within a Combo, and Shuffle moves between Combos at a frequency you set.

A Soft Murmur

• Free$0

  Ten sounds on the website with the mixer, Meander, timers and saved mixes; four sounds in the iPhone and Android apps.

• iOS sound packs$1.99 to $3.99

  per pack, US App Store in-app purchase

  Unlock all default sounds is $3.99, described as a one-off purchase, and adds the six sounds beyond the free four. Six themed packs cost $1.99 to $3.99 each.

• Android in-app purchases$2.49 to $14.99

  per item on Google Play (US); the basis is not shown

  The listing says a single in-app purchase unlocks six of the app's ten sounds, and shows only a price range for its in-app items.

• A Soft Murmur Pro$14.99

  per year, or local currency equivalent

  A yearly license bought on the website through Paddle: the 15 extra sounds in the web app's list, plus any web sounds released later.

Noisli

• Free$0

  1 user, 16 sounds, 1.5 hours of streaming a day, 3 curated Playlists, up to 5 Favorites, simple Timer and Text Editor.

• iOS app$1.99

  one-time purchase, US App Store

  The iPhone and iPad app, bought separately from the web plans: offline sounds, saved Combos and a timer with fade-out.

• Pro$10

  per month, billed yearly ($120)

  1 user, 28 sounds, unlimited streaming, 10 Playlists, advanced Timer and Text Editor, Oscillation and Shuffle. $12 if billed monthly.

• Business$24

  per month for 2 users, billed yearly

  Pro features plus team management and centralised billing. The page's plan data prices it at $144 per user a year, or $14 per user monthly.

A Soft Murmur

No public discounts listed.

Noisli

• Annual discount

  Yearly Pro billing costs about 17% less

  The pricing page's plan data lists Pro at $120 billed yearly against $12 billed monthly, which comes to $144 over twelve months.

• Education

  Discount for students and teachers

  Noisli offers students, teachers and educational institutions a special discount on its yearly plan. The page does not state the amount.