SoundSource Alternative: When All You Need Is Per-App Volume
You are probably here with one specific problem: a Mac has a single volume for everything, and you want the browser quieter than the call without turning the whole machine down. SoundSource solves that. So does SoundTune. They are not the same size of tool, and which one you should buy depends entirely on what else you need.
This page is written by the developer of SoundTune, so read it accordingly. The prices and requirements below were checked in September 2026, and where SoundSource is the better purchase, it says so plainly.
The short version
Buy SoundSource if you need any of this
SoundSource is a larger, older and more capable application, and there is a long list of things it does that SoundTune does not do and is not going to. Buy it without hesitating if you want:
If any of those are on your list, stop reading. The extra $20 is the cheapest part of the decision.
Buy SoundTune if the volume slider was the whole point
A great many people install SoundSource, move some sliders, and never open the equaliser once. If that is the honest description of your needs, here is what $19 buys instead.
No audio driver, and nothing left behind
SoundTune uses the audio tap support Apple added in macOS 14.4. It asks macOS for a private tap on an app output, mixes it at the level you chose, and plays it back through a private aggregate device. Nothing is installed at the system level and there is no restart. Dragging the app to the Trash removes it completely.
Apps at 100% are never touched
If an app sits at full volume, SoundTune does not tap it at all. Its audio takes the normal path to the output device, untouched. The app only enters the signal path when there is actually something for it to do, which is the opposite of how a system-wide driver works.
The mixer follows the app sample rate
SoundTune runs at whatever rate the app is producing. Playing 48 kHz audio through a 44.1 kHz stream sounds slowed down and robotic, and a mixer that ignores this is a mixer you can hear.
Boost that does not distort
Sliders run to 200%, which is where a per-app mixer earns its place: a recorded meeting with a quiet speaker, a video with weak audio, a game that mixes dialogue too low. A limiter sits at the end of the chain, so a boost squashes the loudest peaks instead of clipping them into distortion.
It runs on macOS 14.4
SoundSource 6 requires macOS 15. If you are on Sonoma and not ready to move, that is a real consideration rather than a marketing point.
What about the free option?
Background Music is free, open source, and has close to twenty thousand stars on GitHub. If it works on your Mac, use it and keep your money. It installs a virtual audio device to do its job, it is still labelled alpha by its own author, and it carries several hundred open issues. Try it first. Plenty of people find it works fine, and the ones who come back are the ones it did not work for.
And Loopback?
Loopback is $99 and is a different category of tool: it builds virtual audio devices for routing audio into recording and streaming software. If that is what you are trying to do, neither SoundSource nor SoundTune is the answer. SoundTune is a volume mixer, not a routing tool, and pretending otherwise would only waste your afternoon.
So, which one
SoundTune is a single download with a README and the licence inside the zip. It is a universal app for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, needs macOS 14.4 or later, and has no account, no tracking and no network access of any kind. Get SoundTune for $19.
Prices and system requirements checked September 2026. SoundSource and Loopback are products of Rogue Amoeba; this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.