Comparison

Functional Ear Trainer vs Tone

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

Head to head
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.

About

Tone

This app is a game designed to enhance your auditory skills and help you achieve perfect pitch. It offers various modes and customization options to suit different learning levels, from beginner to expert. Track your progress visually and compete with friends.

Highlights
  • Improve ear training
  • Learn perfect pitch
  • Adjustable difficulty levels
  • Practice mode with reference pitch
  • Recognize musical intervals and chords
  • Visualize progress with graphs
  • Compete with friends
Features
Read full description

Tone is a fun and simple game to help you improve your ears and sing with perfect pitch. - Simple, intuitive interface - Choose your pitches and octaves - Difficulties ranging from easy to expert - Practice mode with reference pitch - Transpose the notes to different keys - View note names, piano keys, or use solfege - Share your score and compete with friends! - Learn to recognize musical intervals like minor 3rds and major 7ths. - Learn to recognize chord qualities like major and minor. - Visualize your progress over time with beautiful graphs. - All of your progress & data is automatically stored in iCloud, so you'll never lose it. Privacy Policy: https://codalabs.io/privacypolicy.htm Terms of Use: https://app.termly.io/document/terms-of-use-for-website/7befc033-df4c-40b8-90b1-c3ef9e4f3eac

Screenshots

Functional Ear Trainer4 screens
Tone4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Functional Ear Trainer at 96% against Tone's 59%. Functional Ear Trainer also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5). Tone's advantage is update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Tone sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Functional Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.7K and 10K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 59% of Tone's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Tone every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Functional Ear Trainer versus Tone: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFunctional Ear TrainerTone
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (3.7K ratings) — better4.5 (10K ratings)
Positive reviews96.2% of reviews — better59.3% of reviews
Number of ratings3.7K10K — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerhii KorchanCoda Labs Incorporated

Customer experience

Functional Ear Trainer

All ratings3,749 ratings
Positive98.1%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews612 reviews
Positive96.2%
Neutral1.8%
Negative2.0%

Tone

All ratings10,268 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.7%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews691 reviews
Positive59.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative34.0%

User reviews

Functional Ear Trainer

From 3.7K 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)

Tone

From 10K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app for learning music notes
  • 👍 Simple and easy to use
  • 👍 Customizable settings
  • 👍 Helps improve pitch recognition
  • 👍 Useful for musicians of all levels

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔒 Requires sign-up before trying
  • 🔒 Difficult to cancel subscription

Bugs and requests

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

Tone

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when pausing and resuming
  • Keyboard input issues with black keys
  • Inconsistent note identification

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to hear wrong and correct notes
  • Melodic interval practice
  • Arpeggio and chord practice
  • Progress tracking and statistics
  • Ability to use own instrument for input

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Functional Ear Trainer

One-time1
  • Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
9 purchases

Tone

Subscriptions7
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$7.997 Days
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Tone Pro$49.991 Year
Show 4 more
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$64.993 Months
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$89.996 Months
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • 7 Day Free Trial7 Days trial$129.991 Year
One-time2
  • Coffee for Seth and Daniel$2.99
  • Premium Themes$2.99

Questions

Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Functional Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tone free?
Tone is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Functional Ear Trainer or Tone?
Functional Ear Trainer is rated higher. Functional Ear Trainer averages 4.9 out of 5 from 3.7K ratings, while Tone averages 4.5 from 10K ratings.
Do Functional Ear Trainer or Tone have ads?
Neither Functional Ear Trainer nor Tone shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Functional Ear Trainer or Tone?
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, and Tone every 5 weeks. Most recently, Functional Ear Trainer was updated on September 22, 2026 and Tone on September 23, 2026.

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