Comparison

Functional Ear Trainer vs EQ Perfect

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

EQ Perfect

This app offers a unique approach to EQ ear training for music production. It features a real parametric EQ and structured lessons to develop your skills, mirroring the workflow of professional DAWs and plugins. Track your progress and focus on areas needing improvement.

Highlights
  • Real parametric EQ
  • Step-by-step EQ lessons
  • DAW-like workflow
  • Performance tracking
  • Variety of training songs
  • Focus on frequency, gain, and curve
Features
Read full description

EQ Perfect is a revolutionary EQ ear trainer app. Unlike other EQ training apps where you can only choose from few pre-defined options, EQ Perfect's way of training can be immediately applied to your production workflow. We have developed our new EQ ear trainer app which contains a real parametric EQ, and a comprehensive list of lessons to build your EQ skills step by step. Because you are learning with a real parametric EQ, the workflow is just like how you would later use an EQ in your favorite DAW: FL studio, Ableton, Studio One, Logic Pro or a VST plugin such as FabFilter Pro Q 3. You will learn every aspect of a parametric EQ, including how does different frequencies sound, how much gain to apply, how steep is your EQ curve and what shape should you use. Along your journey of EQ training, we present you an overview of your performance in different aspects of the EQ skills, where you can easily spot your weaknesses and choose lessons accordingly to turn them into your strengths. The app comes with a set of FREE songs to train your EQ skills on, ranging from vocals to EDM. It is perfect for amateur music producers and mixing engineers to pick up EQ skills.

Screenshots

Functional Ear Trainer4 screens
EQ Perfect4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: EQ Perfect at every 4 days against Functional Ear Trainer's every 7 months. EQ Perfect also leads on iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). Functional Ear Trainer's advantage is ratings volume (3.9K vs 339) and review sentiment (97% vs 85%). On price, rating, 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 EQ Perfect sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. 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 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Functional Ear Trainer has 3.9K ratings behind it against 339, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 97% of Functional Ear Trainer's written reviews are positive against 85% of EQ Perfect's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, EQ Perfect every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Functional Ear Trainer versus EQ Perfect: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFunctional Ear TrainerEQ Perfect
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (3.9K ratings) — better4.7 (339 ratings)
Positive reviews96.7% of reviews — better85.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3.9K — better339
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerhii KorchanMing Zhang

Customer experience

Functional Ear Trainer

All ratings3,749 ratings
Positive98.1%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews1,036 reviews
Positive96.7%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.9%

EQ Perfect

All ratings331 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral3.6%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive85.0%
Neutral5.0%
Negative10.0%

User reviews

Functional Ear Trainer

From 3.9K 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)

EQ Perfect

From 339 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great app for EQ training
  • 💡 Valuable learning tool
  • ✨ User-friendly interface
  • 💰 Exceptional value for price
  • 🎶 Helps understand frequencies

Room to improve

  • 📉 Difficulty too high for beginners
  • 🔊 EQ causes distortion
  • 🎶 Songs not ideal for exercises
  • 🤔 Pricing can be deceptive
  • 🎧 Headphone limitations below 100hz

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

EQ Perfect

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Cannot unlock units 2 and 3
  • Purchased unlimited hearts twice due to unclear wording

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to dial back difficulty for beginners
  • More tracks or ability to play own music
  • Option to select specific frequencies or ranges
  • Headphone mode excluding changes below 100hz
  • Clearer wording for upgrade packages
Show 1 more
  • Songs that utilize the full EQ spectrum throughout

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Functional Ear Trainer

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

EQ Perfect

One-time4
  • Unlimited hearts$1.99
  • Unlock Unit 2$4.99
  • Unlock Unit 3$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Unlock Unit 2 & 3$6.99

Questions

Is Functional Ear Trainer free?
Functional Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is EQ Perfect free?
EQ Perfect is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Functional Ear Trainer or EQ Perfect?
Functional Ear Trainer is rated higher. Functional Ear Trainer averages 4.9 out of 5 from 3.9K ratings, while EQ Perfect averages 4.7 from 339 ratings.
Do Functional Ear Trainer or EQ Perfect have ads?
Neither Functional Ear Trainer nor EQ Perfect shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Functional Ear Trainer or EQ Perfect?
Functional Ear Trainer ships an update every 7 months, and EQ Perfect every 4 days. Most recently, Functional Ear Trainer was updated on November 10, 2026 and EQ Perfect on November 7, 2026.

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