Comparison

Complete Ear Trainer vs Ear Training University

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Complete Ear Trainer

Develop your musical ear and music theory knowledge with this comprehensive training app. It offers progressive drills, various sound options, and a gamified learning experience to improve improvisation, composition, and performance skills.

Highlights
  • 150+ progressive drills
  • 11 drill types
  • 24 intervals, 36 chord types
  • Melodic dictations and chord progressions
  • Gamified learning with star system
  • Custom drill and program creation
  • Cloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

The ultimate ear training app for musicians. Develop your relative pitch to the full by improving your aural skills and your music theory knowledge. This will better many aspects of your life as a musician, be it regarding improvisation, composition, arrangement, interpretation, singing, or playing in a band. Designed like a video game and with strong pedagogical concepts in mind, this app will make you truly master each interval, chord, scale, etc. before taking you to the next one. Features • 150+ progressive drills arranged over 4 levels / 28 chapters • 11 drill types, 24 intervals, 36 chord types, chord inversions, 28 scale types, melodic dictations, chord progressions • Easy mode: 50+ progressive drills arranged over 12 chapters especially designed for beginners • Play a selection of 21 drills in arcade mode • 5 octaves of actual recorded grand piano sounds • 7 additional sound banks are available, all with actual recorded sounds: vintage piano, Rhodes piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, concert harp, strings and pizzicato strings • In each chapter, a theory card will introduce you to the concepts you will need to know • No need to know how to read music on a staff • Designed like a video game: earn 3 stars in each drill of a chapter to unlock the next one. Or will you be able to obtain perfect 5-star scores? • Don't want to follow the preestablished path of progression? Create and save your own custom drills and rehearse them at your own convenience • Create full custom training programs and invite friends or students to join them. If for example you're a teacher you can create custom programs for your students, add drills every week and view their scores on private leaderboards • Never lose any progress: cloud sync across your various devices • 25 achievements to unlock • Worldwide leaderboards (global, per level, per chapter, easy mode, arcade mode) • Nice and clean user interface with 2 display themes: light and dark • Designed by a musician and music teacher with a Royal Conservatory master's degree Full Version • Download the app and try out the first chapter of each mode for free • One-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version on all your devices Having a problem? Got a suggestion? You can reach us at hello@completeeartrainer.com Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Ear Training University

This app systematically builds your relative pitch by combining video instruction with interactive singing and listening drills. It tracks your progress, offers customizable settings, and can send reports to your music teacher.

Highlights
  • Interval and chord identification drills
  • Singing and listening exercises
  • Video instruction
  • Progress tracking
  • Teacher progress reports
  • On-screen piano keyboard
Features
Read full description

The goal of Relative Pitch ear training is to learn to follow the flow of music, *effortlessly* by ear. The Ear Training University (ETU) app was carefully designed to take all the guess work out of how to learn this skill. Whether you’re a complete beginner in ear training or have done ear training before, ETU’s approach is sure to find any weaknesses your ears may have and systematically build your sense of Relative Pitch from the ground up. Rather than presenting a “Grab Bag” of drills, we have designed a series of lessons that teach you how to do ear training the right way. These lessons include both video instruction and interactive drills. Most of the settings --including tempo changes-- are already programmed into the drills to keep things interesting and challenging. All you need to do is follow along! Progress is easy to visualize simply by viewing the Lesson Cards which keep track of your stats, for example: when you started a lesson, the percentage completed, when you last visited a lesson and when you completed it. You can enter your music teacher’s email address and they will receive progress reports every time you complete an activity as well! The videos explain how to properly do the drills which include listening drills, singing drills and spelling drills. They will encourage you along the way! The best way to learn Relative Pitch is to do both singing drills and listening drills. Singing is active learning. Listening is passive. Learn first by singing and then test your knowledge by listening. ETU’s interactive drills make learning Relative Pitch with this method easy and doable for everyone! (We realize that watching videos is not for everyone. However, if you only watch one video, watch “The Discernment Drill – The Key to Discerning Harmonic Relationships!” This video discusses one type of interactive drill called "The Discernment Drill." This drill really opens up the ear so that it can perceive harmonic intervals and chords *instantly* even when played lightning-fast during Speed Rounds.) Features: ⁃ Interval training drills (up, down, harmonic), both Singing and Listening Drills. - Professionally recorded voice-over cues for drills. - Interval and Chord Spelling drills. ⁃ Chord Identification drills (arpeggios and harmonic) ⁃ Chord Inversion drills (harmonic and arpeggiated) ⁃ Give your responses with on-screen piano keyboard or large easy to push buttons. ⁃ Change instruments at any time during drills ⁃ Interval singing and chord singing drills ⁃ Setup your correct vocal range ⁃ Slow self-paced drills and “Speed Rounds” which test whether you’re ready to move on! ⁃ Video instruction ⁃ Teacher Reports (these reports even include spelling test questions and the student’s responses) Please check in with us frequently as we have a lot of new content planned for ETU. We’re excited to bring you this app and will be updating frequently!

Screenshots

Complete Ear Trainer4 screens
Ear Training University4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Complete Ear Trainer at Free against Ear Training University's $0.99. Complete Ear Trainer also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 53%). Ear Training University's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.5). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Complete Ear Trainer is free to download; Ear Training University costs $0.99 up front. Complete Ear Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Ear Training University asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Complete Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 200 and 76 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Complete Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 53% of Ear Training University's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Complete Ear Trainer ships an update fortnightly, Ear Training University monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Complete Ear Trainer versus Ear Training University: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterComplete Ear TrainerEar Training University
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.7 (200 ratings) — better4.6 (76 ratings)
Positive reviews85.1% of reviews — better53.3% of reviews
Number of ratings200 — better76
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.512.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB91 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBinary GuiltSean Thomas

Customer experience

Complete Ear Trainer

All ratings199 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral7.5%
Negative7.5%

Ear Training University

All ratings76 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.9%
Negative6.6%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive53.3%
Neutral13.3%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Complete Ear Trainer

Subscriptions2
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Full Version$6.99
None

Ear Training University

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Complete Ear Trainer free?
Complete Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ear Training University free?
Ear Training University costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Complete Ear Trainer or Ear Training University?
Complete Ear Trainer is rated higher. Complete Ear Trainer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 200 ratings, while Ear Training University averages 4.6 from 76 ratings.
Do Complete Ear Trainer or Ear Training University have ads?
Neither Complete Ear Trainer nor Ear Training University shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Complete Ear Trainer or Ear Training University?
Complete Ear Trainer ships an update fortnightly, and Ear Training University monthly. Most recently, Complete Ear Trainer was updated on October 26, 2026 and Ear Training University on October 22, 2026.

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