A little disappointed.
Response from developer
Your songs and favorites are safe. They live on your UkuTabs account, they are still there and opening any of them is free, both in the app and on ukutabs.com. Lyrics are not behind the paywall. Paying does not unlock them, for anyone. I do not have a license to publish song lyrics in an iOS app, so every song shows chords only. You can add your own to any song in a few taps: tap "Add lyrics", copy the song from its page on ukutabs.com, paste it in, and the app lines the words up under the chords and keeps them there. The old app was the website in a wrapper, so autoscroll and the instrument switcher came free with the site. This one is a native app that I built from scratch and supported by me alone, and those tools are what pays for it. The $50 you saw is the one-time option, there is a monthly one too and the website itself is unchanged and still completely free, in your phone browser as well. Sorry for the frustration. If you would consider revisiting the review after another look, I would appreciate it, and if something is genuinely not working, do reach out personally please. I answer every message. Happy strumming! Jonas
Stick to web browser, use an ad blocker
Three stars because I absolutely love the web browser version minus the ads and I’m hoping that they find a way to make the app as seamless. I assumed the app was going to be the same with ads and paid for ad-less. But you do get to favorite songs which is easier than having multiple tabs open.
Response from developer
Every song in the app is free to open, read and play with its chord diagrams. Over 20,000 of them, no ads, no sign-up, fully private. That has not changed and it will stay that way. The website is 100% free, yes, and it pays for itself with ads. The app carries no ads at all, so the performance tools pay for it instead: autoscroll, stage mode, transpose, the tuner, offline, unlimited favorites. Same bills, covered a different way through a small monthly sub or a one-time payment for lifetime access. If you would rather keep using the site without ads, support through Patreon removes them there and there is also a dedicated tier that covers both the site and the app. You read the lyrics part correctly and I appreciate the care. It is not a UkuTabs+ feature and paying does not unlock it. I do not have a licence to publish song lyrics in an iOS app, so pasting your own is the way and it sticks once you have done it for a song. I have tried to make it as seamless as possible to copy them from the website. Thank you for acknowledging that. ukutabs.com is unchanged and built for phones. I have run UkuTabs on my own for over a decade and kept every song free that whole time, which is what the ads and the subscriptions are for. Sorry it was not what you expected and my apologies for the frustration. If you would consider revisiting the review after another look I would appreciate it and if something is genuinely not working, do reach out please, I answer every message. Happy strumming! Jonas.
Just don’t.
Please don’t pay for this, don’t show the creators that this behavior is okay.
Response from developer
Your songs and favorites are safe. They live on your UkuTabs account, they are still there and opening any of them is free, both in the app and on ukutabs.com. Lyrics are not behind the paywall. Paying does not unlock them, for anyone. I do not have a license to publish song lyrics in an iOS app, so every song shows chords only. You can add your own to any song in a few taps: tap "Add lyrics", copy the song from its page on ukutabs.com, paste it in, and the app lines the words up under the chords and keeps them there. The old app was the website in a wrapper, so autoscroll and the instrument switcher came free with the site. This one is a native app that I built from scratch and supported by me alone, and those tools are what pays for it. The $50 you saw is the one-time option, there is a monthly one too and the website itself is unchanged and still completely free, in your phone browser as well. Sorry for the frustration. If you would consider revisiting the review after another look, I would appreciate it, and if something is genuinely not working, do reach out personally please. I answer every message. Happy strumming! Jonas
