Endel and Topline overlap on one thing: sound while you work. Endel generates that sound and carries it to your phone, your watch, and your sleep. Topline does not. Topline is a bar on a Mac for the song already playing in Spotify or Apple Music, with a timer beside it. If you searched for an Endel alternative because you wanted Endel without the subscription, these are not the same product at a lower price.
Endel makes personalized soundscapes for focus, rest, and sleep. The sound changes with the circumstances Endel reads, including the time of day, and on devices that can supply it, motion and heart rate. It runs far past the Mac: phone, watch, and other screens. It has its own focus timer inside that system. People who want a sound that follows them out of the office, or a sleep sound on the nightstand, should stay.
Endel cites research on its own focus sound. Topline has not run that study. This page does not repeat Endel's number, and Topline does not inherit it. A result measured on Endel's audio is a result about Endel's audio.
Endel does not publish one price. A September 2026 read of the US App Store listing found several offers at once: monthly at $2.99, $7.49, and $19.99, yearly from $34.99 up to $119.99, and a lifetime offer around $124.99. A price tracker on October 26, 2026 still showed $119.99 a year in the US, and about $10.69 a year in Egypt. The country changes the bill. Check the store you would actually pay in. Topline is $4.99 once, Mac only, and that comparison is only honest if you wanted the Mac bar.
Undertone is a fixed set of recordings and a few generated tones, shipped in the app. Places: Coffee Shop, Waterfall, Jungle, Ocean, Fireplace, Storm. Loops with no words: Deep, Drift, Glow, Rain. Three tones, Focus, Calm, and Drift, play a binaural beat inside noise. You pick one. It does not read your heart rate, the weather, your location, or the hour. There is no sleep mode and no phone app.
You set the volume. The coffee shop is not a calibrated 70 decibel tone. The research behind that level, and what it does not prove, is on the focus soundscapes page. Short version: moderate noise helped a creative lab test, louder noise hurt, and none of it is a fixed percent of a workday.
The Pomodoro timer does not start Undertone. Click the waveform, then click the timer if you want the 25 minutes. While Undertone plays, Spotify or Apple Music pauses. Press play in that app and the room stops. The song on the bar is your song, from the Spotify app or the Music app, not a generated stream.
| Job | Endel | Topline |
|---|---|---|
| Sound while you work | Generated, and it can follow time, motion, and heart rate. | A coffee shop, nature places, wordless loops, and three optional tones. You press play. |
| Sleep, phone, watch | Yes. That is a large part of the product. | No. Mac only. No sleep soundscape. |
| Your own music | Endel's sound is the point. It is not a remote for Spotify or Apple Music. | The bar controls the Spotify app and the Music app already on the Mac. |
| Timer | A focus timer inside Endel. | 5 to 90 minutes, then a break that is always 5. The timer does not start the sound. |
| Price | Subscription. Several US prices at once, and different prices by country. | $4.99 once. No Topline account. |
Checked October 29, 2026. Endel's prices are from a September 10, 2026 read of the US listing (slonoise.com) and an October 26, 2026 country tracker (opentherank.com). Both can be stale by the time you open the store. Topline is not affiliated with Endel.
Stay with Endel if the problem is sleep, a phone, a watch, or a sound that changes without you picking a track. The subscription is the price of that system. Topline will not grow into it.
Look at Topline if the problem is the Mac on the desk: the song is already in Spotify or Apple Music, you want it visible, and you want a timer you can see without opening another app. The room sounds are there if you want a café instead of lyrics. They are not a substitute for Endel's generator.
Plenty of people can use both. Endel on the phone at night. Topline on the Mac during the day, playing the record they actually queued. That is a boring recommendation, and it fits the products.
On a Mac, and only for the overlap. Endel generates soundscapes for focus, rest, and sleep, and it runs on phones, watches, and more. Topline does not build a sound from your heart rate, the weather, or the time of day. It plays a coffee shop, a few nature places, and some loops you start yourself, next to the song in Spotify or Apple Music and a Pomodoro timer. If you want sleep sound on a phone, stay with Endel.
Topline is $4.99 once. Endel is a subscription, and the store shows more than one price. In September 2026 a writeup of the US App Store listing found monthly prices of $2.99, $7.49, and $19.99, yearly prices from $34.99 to $119.99, and a lifetime offer around $124.99. An October 26, 2026 price tracker still showed a US yearly figure of $119.99, and much lower yearly prices in other countries. Check Endel's own listing. A lower bill does not make Topline the same product.
No. Endel cites research on its own soundscapes. Topline has not run that study and does not claim the result. The studies Topline does cite are about moderate noise, nature sound, and lyrics. They are summarized on the focus soundscapes page, with the limits attached.
No. You start Undertone from the waveform button. The timer does not start it, stop it, or pause your music when the break begins. While an Undertone sound is playing, Spotify or Music pauses. Press play in Spotify or Music and Undertone stops.
If you want the generated sound on more than a Mac, stay with Endel.