Comparison

EarMaster vs Solfa

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

Head to head
About

EarMaster

Enhance your musical abilities with comprehensive ear training, sight-singing, and rhythm exercises. This app offers thousands of lessons for all skill levels, from beginners to advanced musicians, and is used by top music schools.

Highlights
  • Ear training exercises
  • Sight-singing practice
  • Rhythm training
  • Vocal training
  • Beginner's course
  • Customizable exercises
  • Detailed progress stats
Features
Read full description

Music theory made easy and fun: EarMaster is the ultimate app for your ear training, sight-singing practice, rhythmic workout and vocal training at all skill levels! Thousands of exercises will help you build up your musical skills and become a better musician. Try it, it's not just fun to use but also very efficient: some of the best music schools use EarMaster! "The exercises are so well thought out, and have so much to offer both the complete beginner and the most world class musicians alike. Being an instructor at Nashville Music Academy, I can say this app has developed my ear and my students ear to a level that would have taken many more years to develop, if at all, without it." - User review by Chiddychat AWARDS “Best App of the Month” (App Store, Jan 2020) NAMM TEC AWARDS nominee Music Teacher Awards for Excellence nominee INCLUDED IN FREE VERSION: - Interval Identification (Customized Exercise) - Chord Identification (Customized Exercise) - 'Carmen – Habanera' (based on the iconic opera by Bizet) - 'Call of the Notes' (call-response ear training course) - 'Greensleeves' thematic course - First 20+ lessons of Beginners Course *Highlights* BEGINNER'S COURSE - Acquire all the core music theory skills with hundreds of progressive exercises on rhythm, notation, pitch, chords, scales, and more. COMPLETE EAR TRAINING - Train with intervals, chords, chord inversions, scales, harmonic progressions, melodies, rhythm, and more. LEARN TO SIGHT-SING - Sing on-screen scores into the microphone of your iPad or iPhone and get immediate feedback on your pitch and time accuracy. RHYTHM TRAINING - Tap! tap! tap! Sight-read, dictate and tap back rhythms, and get instant feedback on your performance. VOCAL TRAINER - Become a better singer with progressive vocal exercises on vocalizes, scale singing, rhythmic precision, interval singing, and more. SOLFEGE FUNDAMENTALS - Learn to use movable-do solfege, as easy as Do-Re-Mi! MELODIA - Become a true sight-singing master with EarMaster's take on the classic sight-singing book method AURAL TRAINER FOR UK GRADES - Prepare for ABRSM* Aural Tests 1-5 and similar exams RCM VOICE* - Prepare for your RCM Voice exams from Preparatory level to Level 8. CARMEN – HABANERA (free) - Explore the world of opera with this course based on the iconic opera by Bizet CALL OF THE NOTES (free) - A fun and challenging course in call-response ear training GREENSLEEVES (free) - Learn the English folk ballad Greensleeves with a series of fun exercises CUSTOMIZE EVERYTHING - Take control of the app and configure your own exercises: voicing, key, pitch range, cadences, time limits, etc. JAZZ WORKSHOPS - Exercises for advanced users with jazz chords and progressions, swing rhythms, jazz sight-singing and sing-back exercises based on jazz classics such as "After You've Gone", "Ja-Da", "St. Louis Blues", and many more. DETAILED STATS - Follow your progress day by day to spot your strengths and weaknesses. AND MUCH, MUCH MORE – Learn to sing and transcribe music by ear. Learn to use solfege. Plug a microphone or a MIDI controller to answer the exercises. And even more to explore on your own in the app :) WORKS WITH EARMASTER CLOUD - If your school or choir is using EarMaster Cloud, you can connect the app with your account and complete your home assignments with the app. *Not affiliated with ABRSM or RCM LOVE EARMASTER? LET'S STAY CONNECTED Drop us a line on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon, or X!

About

Solfa

This app is a quiz game designed to help beginners and children learn to read sheet music and identify musical notes. It supports various clefs and note naming systems, making it versatile for different instruments and learning styles.

Highlights
  • Learn musical notes
  • Read sheet music
  • Supports multiple clefs
  • Train sight-reading
  • Learn tonality and chords
  • Multiple note naming systems
Features
Read full description

How to learn notes? How to read sheet music? How to remember note names? "Solfa" helps you learn notes for piano, guitar or singing. "Solfa / Musical Notes" is a quiz game for kids and beginners that helps you learn simple music theory. - train sight-reading - read notes of alto, bass, tenor, treble clef staff - learn tonality and chord names - switch between English, German note names You can use "Solfa" for ear training and basics of solfège. List of musical instruments: - singing - piano - guitar - flute - clarinet Types of musical notations: - C D E F G A B - C D E F G A H - Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si - До Ре Ми Фа Соль Ля Си - Ντο Ρε Μι Φα Σολ Λα Σι - ハ ニ ホ ヘ ト イ ロ - 다 라 마 바 사 가 나 - स रे ग म प ध नि - ด ร ม ฟ ซ ล ท

Screenshots

EarMaster4 screens
Solfa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Solfa at none against EarMaster's 22. Solfa also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). EarMaster's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (81% vs 49%). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. EarMaster sells 22 one-off in-app purchases. Solfa asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for EarMaster against 4.6 for Solfa. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 429 and 806 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of EarMaster's written reviews are positive against 49% of Solfa's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

EarMaster ships an update every 2 months, Solfa every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
EarMaster versus Solfa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEarMasterSolfa
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (429 ratings)4.6 (806 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.9% of reviews — better49.3% of reviews
Number of ratings429806 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size306 MB75 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEarMaster ApSAlexey Ovod

Customer experience

EarMaster

All ratings429 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.3%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews257 reviews
Positive80.9%
Neutral4.7%
Negative14.4%

Solfa

All ratings801 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral4.6%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews134 reviews
Positive49.3%
Neutral17.9%
Negative32.8%

User reviews

EarMaster

From 429 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent for sight reading and vocal singing
  • 👍 Helpful for improving musicianship and sharpening ears
  • 💡 Customizable exercises and lessons
  • 🚀 Systematic and progressive approach
  • 👍 Covers a wide range of topics (intervals, chords, rhythm, etc.)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Pitch recognition issues, especially for lower voices
  • 🐛 Rhythm playback issues on some devices
  • 💰 Expensive, with in-app purchases required for full access
  • 🤔 Forced landscape mode on mobile devices

Solfa

From 806 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple but effective
  • 👍 Great for guitar players
  • 👍 Teaches fundamentals well
  • 👍 Helps improve musicianship

Room to improve

  • 🔍 Too many ads
  • 🐛 Crashes with MIDI connection
  • 🐛 Glitchy and buggy
  • 🔍 Limited features and options

Bugs and requests

EarMaster

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes and errors when loading certain exercises
  • Inconsistent behavior with metronome and rhythm playback
  • Issues with saving progress and restoring purchased content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow users to specify their vocal range
  • Add more chord and chord progression options
  • Implement a jazz-focused curriculum
  • Improve feedback and error analysis for users
  • Add support for different tuning systems

Solfa

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Displaying notes outside instrument range
  • Incorrectly identifying notes
  • Sound not working
  • Unable to advance past first screen

Requested features

6 requests
  • Option to remove note names
  • Thicker lines for guitar frets
  • Sight reading component
  • Mezzo soprano, baritone clefs
  • Ability to choose number of notes per round
Show 1 more
  • Purchasable ad-free version

In-app purchases

22 purchases

EarMaster

One-time22
  • Customized: Chord Progressions$0.99
  • Customized: Interval Singing$0.99
  • General Workshop: Scale Identification$0.99
Show 19 more
  • General Workshop: Interval Comparison$0.99
  • Customized Exercise: Scale Identification$0.99
  • General Workshop: Rhythmic Sight-Reading$1.99
  • General: Chord Identification$1.99
  • General: Interval Singing$1.99
  • General: Interval Identification$1.99
  • General: Chord Progressions$1.99
  • Jazz: Chord Identification$1.99
  • Customized Exercise: Melodic Dictation$1.99
  • Customized Exercise: Melodic Sight-Singing$1.99
  • Jazz Workshop: Chord Progressions$1.99
  • General Workshop: Melodic Sight-Singing$1.99
  • Beginner's Course: Modules 5 to 13$3.99
  • Beginner's Course bundle$7.99
  • Solfege Fundamentals$9.99
  • Customized Exercises bundle$14.99
  • General Workshops bundle$14.99
  • Jazz Workshops bundle$14.99
  • Vocal Trainer$14.99
None

Solfa

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is EarMaster free?
EarMaster is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Solfa free?
Solfa is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, EarMaster or Solfa?
Solfa is rated higher. EarMaster averages 4.6 out of 5 from 429 ratings, while Solfa averages 4.6 from 806 ratings.
Do EarMaster or Solfa have ads?
Solfa shows ads; EarMaster does not.
Which is updated more often, EarMaster or Solfa?
EarMaster ships an update every 2 months, and Solfa every 3 weeks. Most recently, EarMaster was updated on October 26, 2026 and Solfa on October 25, 2026.

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