Comparison

Sight Reading Factory vs Functional Ear Trainer

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

Head to head
About

Sight Reading Factory

Instantly compose unlimited sight-reading music exercises for any instrument. Customize difficulty and levels to suit musicians of all ages and abilities. Includes classroom management for educators to assign and assess student performance.

Highlights
  • Unlimited sight-reading material
  • On-demand music composition
  • Customizable difficulty levels
  • Supports all instruments
  • Classroom management
  • Assignment creation and grading
Features
Read full description

Sight Reading Factory makes practicing the important skill of sight reading quick, easy, effective and fun! This app composes music instantly and on-demand, providing musicians with a virtually unlimited supply of sight reading material. There are multiple levels of difficulty and the exercises can even be customized exactly to the needs of the musician. Sight Reading Factory is very versatile and can be used by musicians of all ages and abilities including music educators, music students, casual musicians and even professional musicians. Sight reading exercises can be generated for piano, guitar, voice, woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion and even full ensembles. Teachers and students can also use the built-in classroom management and assignments feature for assessment. Teachers can organize students into classes/groups and create assignments for them. Students complete assignments by generating a sight reading exercise and recording themselves performing the exercise. The assignment can then be submitted back to the teacher to grade and leave feedback.

About

Functional Ear Trainer

Develop your musical ear by learning to recognize tones within the context of a specific musical key. This app helps you understand the function of each note, improving your ability to transcribe, improvise, and play music by ear. Suitable for all ages and skill levels, with just 10 minutes of daily practice.

Highlights
  • Recognize tones in musical key context
  • Understand note function
  • Improve transcription skills
  • Enhance improvisation
  • Develop perfect pitch
  • Daily 10-minute practice
Features
Read full description

Have you (or maybe one of your friends) ever wanted to learn to transcribe or play music by ear? It is so important for a musician to know what you are hearing. A good musical ear helps when you are composing, improvising, transcribing melodies, or playing with others. Most likely you have already tried different programs to learn to recognize intervals or even to acquire perfect pitch. However, although such programs develop your ear, but can you actually play any melody you hear as soon as you listen to it? Imagine you could understand music... It is like when somebody is talking to you, you not only hear pleasant sounds, but you recognize words and their meaning. One day I came across Alain Benbassat's program called "Functional Ear Trainer" and have been using it ever since. It is based on Alain's method to learn to recognize tones. The main difference between the Functional Ear Trainer and other methods is that it teaches you to distinguish between tones in the context of a particular musical key. You begin to recognize the role (or function) of each tone in this key, which is incredibly similar to its role in other keys of the same scale. And it is *guaranteed* anyone can gradually develop this skill. It does not matter: - who you are - an absolute beginner in music or a virtuoso professional musician; - how old you are - a 3 yo kid or a 90+ adult; - what musical instrument you play (you don't even have to play one). The only requirement is to practice for 10 minutes a day. I was so excited about this ear trainer that I have developed a mobile app based on the Alain Benbassat method. I hope you will find it useful.

Screenshots

Sight Reading Factory4 screens
Functional Ear Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Functional Ear Trainer at 96% against Sight Reading Factory's 33%. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.7) and ratings volume (3.8K vs 391). Sight Reading Factory's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On price, ads and device support 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

Both are free to download. Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sight Reading Factory asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.8K ratings behind it against 391, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Sight Reading Factory's written reviews are positive against 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sight Reading Factory ships an update every 2 months, Functional Ear Trainer every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Sight Reading Factory versus Functional Ear Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSight Reading FactoryFunctional Ear Trainer
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.7 (391 ratings)4.9 (3.8K ratings) — better
Positive reviews32.5% of reviews96.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3913.8K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGraceNotes LLCSerhii Korchan

Customer experience

Sight Reading Factory

All ratings371 ratings
Positive39.9%
Neutral5.7%
Negative54.4%
Written reviews123 reviews
Positive32.5%
Neutral6.5%
Negative61.0%

Functional Ear Trainer

All ratings3,749 ratings
Positive98.1%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews627 reviews
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.9%
Negative1.9%

User reviews

Sight Reading Factory

From 391 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great for sight reading practice
  • 👍 Customizable options
  • 🚀 Generates new melodies on demand
  • 👍 Helpful for improving sight reading skills
  • 👍 Good for teachers to use with students

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Login/account creation issues
  • 💰 Expensive subscription required
  • 🔍 Limited features in the app compared to website
  • 🐛 Viewing/zooming issues on larger devices
  • 🐛 Metronome issues and inconsistencies

Functional Ear Trainer

From 3.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Effective ear training
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 💡 Customizable exercises
  • 🎉 Noticeable improvement with regular practice
  • 🎨 Visually appealing design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional audio glitches
  • 💡 Lack of support for other instruments besides piano
  • 💡 Desire for more advanced features (e.g. chord recognition)

Bugs and requests

Sight Reading Factory

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or has rendering errors on older iOS versions
  • Unable to create account within the app
  • Inconsistent behavior when selecting certain options

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more advanced sight reading options (e.g. modulations, accidentals)
  • Implement wrong note detection and feedback
  • Allow recording and reviewing of practice sessions
  • Add more instrument options beyond piano

Functional Ear Trainer

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Keyboard display issues when selecting all chromatic notes
  • Inconsistent note resolutions in some exercises

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for multiple notes/chords at once
  • Implement a mode for training key recognition
  • Provide more customization options for exercises
  • Include voice input to play the notes
  • Add support for German/Norwegian key names

In-app purchases

None

Sight Reading Factory

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Functional Ear Trainer

One-time1
  • Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99

Questions

Is Sight Reading Factory free?
Sight Reading Factory is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Functional Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer?
Functional Ear Trainer is rated higher. Sight Reading Factory averages 2.7 out of 5 from 391 ratings, while Functional Ear Trainer averages 4.9 from 3.8K ratings.
Do Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer have ads?
Neither Sight Reading Factory nor Functional Ear Trainer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sight Reading Factory or Functional Ear Trainer?
Sight Reading Factory ships an update every 2 months, and Functional Ear Trainer every 7 months. Most recently, Sight Reading Factory was updated on October 21, 2026 and Functional Ear Trainer on October 24, 2026.

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