Comparison

Drum Pad Machine vs Groovebox

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

Head to head
About

Drum Pad Machine

Create professional-quality music and unique tracks with a variety of styles and sound packs. Utilize instruments, FX, and sequencing for creative sound design. Learn through beat school lessons and share your creations instantly.

Highlights
  • Multiple music styles (Hip-hop, Trap, House, etc.)
  • Professional sound packs
  • Drum and Piano instruments
  • Sequencing with tempo and EQ
  • Beat School lessons
  • Quick music sharing
Features
Read full description

Make your own music like a pro. Create sick beats, perfect and perform unique tracks! Features: • Great variety of music styles: Hip-hop, Drum & Bass, Trap, Dubstep, House, and many others; • Unique sound packs. Get access to professional-quality audio samples created by professional musicians and DJs; • Instruments & FX. Use Drum & Piano for creative sound designs; • Sequencing. Get studio effects including Tempo Regulation and EQ; • Beat School. Try the lessons for each sound pack to improvise freely; • Quick sharing. Share your music with the world. Enjoy this powerful, yet easy-to-use tool to get the best music experience! Drum Pad Machine Premium Drum Pad Machine Premium Subscription allows you to unlock all the sound packs, get new releases, and remove ads. Choose from different subscription options. Payment will be charged to Apple ID Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be managed by you and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to Apple ID Account Settings. For more information please visit the link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202039. Unused portion of a free-trial period will be forfeited when a user decides to subscribe. EULA: https://easybrain.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://easybrain.com/policy.html

About

Groovebox

Create electronic music with this mobile studio app. Features inspiring synths, drum machines, and world-class instruments. Easily build beats, melodies, and arrange tracks for production.

Highlights
  • Beat and synth music studio
  • Touchable instruments for melodies and beats
  • Five powerful instruments: Drumbox, Horizon, MiniMon, RetroBass, Poly-8
  • Arrange tracks with sections
  • Record synth parameters as automation
  • Ableton Link and Ableton Export for collaboration
  • Expandable instruments and sound packs
Features
Read full description

If you love making electronic music, you’ll love Groovebox. Enter an inspiring world of music production on your iPhone & iPad. Groovebox is a free, beautifully designed music studio app packed with inspiring synths and drum machines. In minutes you’ll be making beats, melodies, and playing with world-class instruments. Expand your own collection with more sounds and instruments available in the store. From the creators of Launchpad, Groovebox helps you produce music on iPhone & iPad. • A BEATS & SYNTH MUSIC STUDIO Play with touchable instruments to quickly create your own beats and melodies, or draw in notes. Need inspiration? Groovebox has hundreds of patterns and sounds to get you started. Four powerful synthesisers, designed in partnership with Novation, deliver deep retro basslines and analogue harmonic melodies. The modern drum machine, with expanding drumkit library, will turn Groovebox into your go-to beat production studio. • SYNTHS DESIGNED WITH NOVATION Designed in partnership with Novation, legendary synth pioneers, Groovebox packs a world-class sound. Each instrument uses a new powerful synth engine capable of recreating classic warm analogue sounds and rich modern harmonics. • EASY TO START, DEEP ENOUGH TO MASTER Groovebox is designed to kick-start ideas, but it has serious features for artists and producers too. The advanced synth parameters* let you sculpt your own sounds. Automate the parameters over time to create a vibrant dynamics. Control your sound with the multi-channel mixer (iPad only), note sequencer, key and scale modes. Build your arrangements into songs with sections. Export your sounds easily to a laptop for further production. Sync to other apps or a laptop with Ableton Link. Connect using Audiobus, Inter-App Audio and even Export to Ableton Live seamlessly.   FEATURES • Discover and build ideas - Quickly explore sounds with hundreds of melody and rhythm patterns • Play touchable instruments - Create your own melodies and beats • Five powerful instruments - Drumbox, Horizon, MiniMon, RetroBass and Poly-8 • Build beats - Play drum pads or keys, sequence notes or use patterns • Arrange your tracks - Simple song-building using sections • Create dynamic changes - Record synth parameters as automation • Sound innovation - Instruments developed in partnership with synth pioneers Novation • Expand your sounds - Regular, fresh-content drumpacks, presets and patterns* • Production-ready sounds - Crafted by world-class sound designers and artists • Extendable Instruments - Expose more tweakable synth controls • Sequence your music - Draw notes and build patterns instead of playing them • Stay in time and key - Choose from any tempo, key or musical scale • Share your music - Easily create a mix of your music to share with others *Requires In-App Purchase ADVANCED FEATURES • Jam with others - Audiobus, Inter-App Audio, Ableton Link and Ableton Export • Swing - Instantly add swing to your session. • Ableton Export - Easily send your project to Ableton Live • Full scale support - All keys and major, minor and modes supported • Project management - Rename, duplicate and delete • iPad Pro support - Optimised to use the entire iPad Pro screen • Send your ideas to a laptop - Batch export your pads as a .zip file, or use Ableton Export • Bluetooth speaker supported

Screenshots

Drum Pad Machine4 screens
Groovebox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Groovebox at none against Drum Pad Machine's shown. Groovebox also leads on review sentiment (79% vs 63%). Drum Pad Machine's advantage is ratings volume (674K vs 4.7K). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases 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. Drum Pad Machine sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per 7 days and Groovebox sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Drum Pad Machine against 4.7 for Groovebox. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drum Pad Machine has 674K ratings behind it against 4.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of Drum Pad Machine's written reviews are positive against 79% of Groovebox's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drum Pad Machine ships an update every 3 months, Groovebox every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Drum Pad Machine versus Groovebox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrum Pad MachineGroovebox
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (674K ratings)4.7 (4.7K ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.3% of reviews79.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings674K — better4.7K
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size230 MB44 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEasybrain LtdFocusrite Audio Engineering

Customer experience

Drum Pad Machine

All ratings674,050 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral4.7%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews2,284 reviews
Positive63.3%
Neutral8.5%
Negative28.3%

Groovebox

All ratings4,735 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral3.3%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews653 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral10.4%
Negative10.4%

User reviews

Drum Pad Machine

From 674K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Incredible music-making experience
  • 👍 Easy to learn and use
  • 🎶 Wide variety of music genres and beats
  • 🎓 Helpful tutorials and lessons
  • 🎧 High-quality sound samples

Room to improve

  • 🤬 Excessive and repetitive ads
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐛 Occasional glitches and crashes
  • 🤔 Limited customization options
  • ⏱️ Lessons and tutorials move too fast

Groovebox

From 4.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Refreshing simplicity
  • 🚀 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🚀 Excellent sound quality
  • 🚀 Flexible and powerful
  • 🚀 Inspiring and creative

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and crashes occasionally
  • 🔒 No iCloud sync or cloud backup
  • 🔒 Limited export options
  • 🔒 Lack of MIDI support
  • 🔒 Clunky piano roll and note editing

Bugs and requests

Drum Pad Machine

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Recordings sometimes stop unexpectedly
  • Difficulty registering multiple button presses simultaneously
  • Compatibility issues on older devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add a search function to find specific beats
  • Allow users to create and share their own custom beats
  • Implement a pause/resume feature for recordings
  • Provide more granular control over tempo and timing

Groovebox

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes when exporting projects
  • Playback issues with certain patterns
  • Disappearing UI elements when scrolling
  • Inconsistent behavior when changing sections

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add song mode and ability to chain sections
  • Improve piano roll and note editing
  • Implement MIDI support and mapping
  • Add more export options like MIDI and multi-track
  • Implement iCloud sync and cloud backup
Show 1 more
  • Add panning and more advanced mixing features

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Drum Pad Machine

Subscriptions5
  • Drum Pad Machine Pro - Weekly3 Days trial$7.997 Days
  • Music Beat Maker Premium7 Days trial$7.997 Days
  • Drum Pad Machine Pro - Monthly$14.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Beatmaker Premium7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Drum Pad Machine Pro - Annual$46.991 Year
10 purchases

Groovebox

One-time10
  • Trap BassFree
  • Sequential ArpsFree
  • Ambient Hip HopFree
Show 7 more
  • Dirty 909Free
  • Hip Hop OrbitFree
  • Hypnotic BassFree
  • Golden Era Bass$0.99
  • Neuro Leads$0.99
  • Composed Melodics$0.99
  • Drum Booster$1.99

Questions

Is Drum Pad Machine free?
Drum Pad Machine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Groovebox free?
Groovebox is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Drum Pad Machine or Groovebox?
Groovebox is rated higher. Drum Pad Machine averages 4.6 out of 5 from 674K ratings, while Groovebox averages 4.7 from 4.7K ratings.
Do Drum Pad Machine or Groovebox have ads?
Drum Pad Machine shows ads; Groovebox does not.
Which is updated more often, Drum Pad Machine or Groovebox?
Drum Pad Machine ships an update every 3 months, and Groovebox every 6 weeks. Most recently, Drum Pad Machine was updated on September 24, 2026 and Groovebox on September 22, 2026.

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