Functional Ear Trainer vs Ella
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Recognize tones in musical key context
- Understand note function
- Improve transcription skills
- Enhance improvisation
- Develop perfect pitch
- Daily 10-minute practice
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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.
Ella
Improve your musical ear with this app that analyzes your singing pitch in real-time. It offers a variety of exercises, detailed feedback on intonation and intervals, and modes for practice and performance. Track your progress and compete with others on leaderboards.
- Real-time pitch detection and analysis
- On-screen tuner
- Intonation and interval evaluation
- Detailed singing pitch graphs
- Practice and play modes
- High-score tracking and leaderboards
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Ella is a sight-singing ear-training app that helps you improve your musical ear with fun and engaging exercises. It uses the microphone to detect your pitch and provide accurate evaluation and feedback. The tuner’s pitch detection helps you to adjust your singing. Features: - Wide variety of exercises - On-screen tuner in every exercise - Intonation and interval evaluation - Detailed graph of your singing pitch - Practice mode lets you listen before playing - Play mode that tests your skills - High-score tracking for each exercise - Leaderboard for each exercise collection Ella gives you a detailed analysis of your performance on intonation and intervals and lets you further visualize it through graphs. The intonation score is based on how accurately you sang the pitch of each note. The interval score is based on how accurately you sang each interval. Ella teaches sight-singing and music-reading with a cutting-edge experience that includes a wide variety of exercises. Follow the learning path to navigate musical concepts from beginner to advanced. Use practice mode to nail your singing performance. Use play mode to achieve your personal best and appear on the global leaderboards and to compete with friends.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ella at none against Functional Ear Trainer's 1. Ella also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). Functional Ear Trainer's advantage is review sentiment (96% vs 83%) and ratings volume (3.8K vs 1.2K). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Functional Ear Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Ella asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Functional Ear Trainer against 4.8 for Ella. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.8K and 1.2K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 96% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 83% of Ella's.
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, Ella every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Functional Ear Trainer | Ella |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (3.8K ratings) — better | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better | 83.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3.8K — better | 1.2K |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 99 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Serhii Korchan | Ensemble Education |
Customer experience
Functional Ear Trainer
Ella
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
Ella
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Functional Ear Trainer
- Functional Ear Trainer Plus$19.99
Ella
No in-app purchases







