Updated October 2026
Album of the Year alternatives: critic scores in an app
Album of the Year is where you go to see what the critics gave a record next to what everyone else gave it. It is also a website with no app and a lot of ads. Here is every option that replaces it in 2026, including the app I make, and the honest answer is that only one of them actually shows critic scores.
By Ben, the creator of Rate.fm. I’ve tried to keep this fair.
TL;DR
- Critic scores on your phone: Rate.fm. 18 publications, 80,000 reviews, next to the community score and yours.
- All-time user charts: Rate Your Music.
- A diary with friends, no critics: Record Club or Echo, free on iPhone and Android.
- Release-day arguing: stay on AOTY, or try Peak’s release-night rooms.
The comparison
| App | iPhone app | Android app | Website | Rating scale | Written reviews | Lists | Follow friends | Critic scores | Rate from the Lock Screen | Play what you’re reading | Imports Musicboard | Listening stats | AI you can talk to | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate.fm | ✓ | – | ✓ | 0 to 10 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Free, no ads; optional badge |
| Album of the Year | – | – | ✓ | 0 to 100 | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | Free with ads |
| Rate Your Music | – | – | ✓ | 0.5 to 5 stars | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | – | – | – | – | – | – | Free with ads |
| Musicboard | ✓ | – | ✓ | 0.5 to 5 stars | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – | Free; $1.99 to $4.99 a month |
| Record Club | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Stars | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – | Free |
| Echo | ✓ | ✓ | – | Rankings | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – | Free |
| Peak Music Reviews | ✓ | – | ✓ | 0 to 10.0 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – | Free |
| Kora | ✓ | – | – | Stars | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – | – | ~ | – | Free |
| Last.fm | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | None | – | – | ✓ | – | – | – | – | ✓ | – | Free; Pro tier |
✓ yes · – no · ~ partly. Checked against each app’s store listing and website in October 2026. RYM and AOTY let you follow people but have no real feed of what they’re playing.
The full field of 17 apps is at rate.fm/letterboxd-for-music.
Each one, honestly
What AOTY does well
Album of the Year is the only big site that puts the critic consensus and the user consensus on the same page, out of 100, for every notable release, and it has the liveliest comment section on release day. Its year-end lists are the reference. The complaints are the same every year: no app, ads everywhere, and a mobile site that is a chore.
Rate.fm
The one I make, and the only app in the field that does the AOTY thing: 80,000 critic reviews from 18 publications on the album pages, with the critic average next to the community score and your own. A native iPhone app plus a website. Ratings out of 10, reviews, lists, friends, a feed, and it connects to Apple Music and Spotify so you can rate what is playing from the Lock Screen. Free, no ads; a badge subscription is optional. Falls short on: no Android app yet, no user-score coverage as deep as AOTY’s for older releases, and the comment culture is friendlier and quieter.
Rate Your Music
No critic scores, but the biggest user-rating database on earth and the charts that come with it. Website only, ads. The right pick if you use AOTY for the all-time lists more than for critics.
Musicboard
An iPhone app with ratings, reviews, lists and friends, no critic scores, and a bad 2026: long outages, the Android app pulled, no update since May 2025. Export your data at rate.fm/musicboard if you are there.
Record Club
Free on iPhone, Android and the web, on the MusicBrainz catalog. A diary with lists and friends, no critics, no streaming connection. The Android answer.
Echo
Free on iPhone and Android. Ranks albums against each other, charts among friends. No critics, no website.
Peak Music Reviews
Web and iPhone, free, ratings out of 10.0 and release-night chat rooms, which is the one AOTY-ish social feature none of the others copied. No critic scores.
Kora
A free, clean iPhone app with ratings, reviews, lists, release alerts and the widest streaming support (Apple Music, Spotify, Last.fm, Tidal, Deezer). No critics.
Last.fm
Not a rating site; a scrobbler with stats. No critics, no reviews. Mentioned because every thread mentions it.
Questions people ask
Is there an Album of the Year app?
No. Album of the Year is a website only, and the mobile site is ad-heavy. Rate.fm is the closest thing to an AOTY app: critic reviews from 18 publications on every album page next to the community score, with the critic average and your own rating side by side.
Which apps show critic scores?
Only two of the serious options aggregate critics: Album of the Year on the web, and Rate.fm in an app, with 80,000 reviews from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NME, AllMusic, The Line of Best Fit, Sputnikmusic, Metacritic and others. Every other rating app shows user scores only.
What is the best Album of the Year alternative?
For critic scores on your phone: Rate.fm. For the deepest database: Rate Your Music. For a diary with friends and no critics: Record Club or Echo, free on every platform.
Does Rate.fm show Pitchfork scores?
Yes. Every Pitchfork review, 32,000 of them, with the score, on the album page. Rate.fm also keeps a browsable archive at rate.fm/pitchfork.
Which alternatives are free?
Rate.fm, Record Club, Echo, Peak and Kora are free to use. Rate Your Music is free with ads, like AOTY. Musicboard and Last.fm sell a paid tier.
Critic scores, user scores, and yours. In an app.
Get Rate.fm for iPhoneFree, no ads. Also on the web at Rate.fm.