DrumGoat vs Essential Grooves
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DrumGoat
This app challenges and reinforces drummers' audio-visual memory of drumming rudiments. It makes learning the fundamental patterns of drumming simple, fun, and fast.
- Audio-visual memory training
- Rudiment reinforcement
- Simple and fast learning
- Fun drumming practice
- Essential drumming alphabet
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DrumGoat helps drummers by challenging and reinforcing the audio-visual memory of rudiments - the “alphabet” of drumming - while making it simple, fun and fast.
Essential Grooves
This app offers an interactive music listening experience, allowing users to control individual instrument stems. Adjust levels, tempo, and loops to create personalized mixes for singing and playing along. It provides an immersive way to engage with music albums.
- Stem control (mute, solo, pan, fade)
- Tempo control
- Looping functionality
- Lyrics display
- Adjustable instrument levels
- Immersive audio experience
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‘Essential Grooves’ is a MYXSTEM app release, allowing users to completely control the listening experience. The app features mute, solo, pan and fade for each stem along with tempo control, looping and lyrics. By adjusting the levels of each instrument (stem), musicians can build the perfect mix to play- and sing-along. All album-as-an-app releases from MYXSTEM deliver interactive audio to create an immersive musical experience.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Essential Grooves at 100% against DrumGoat's 50%. Essential Grooves also leads on update cadence (every 10 months vs every 39 months) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). DrumGoat's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $9.99). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
DrumGoat costs $1.99 and Essential Grooves $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
DrumGoat ships an update every 39 months, Essential Grooves every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DrumGoat | Essential Grooves |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 39 months | Every 10 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 115 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Taylor | Myxstem |
Customer experience
DrumGoat
Essential Grooves
In-app purchases
DrumGoat
No in-app purchases
Essential Grooves
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is DrumGoat free?
Is Essential Grooves free?
Do DrumGoat or Essential Grooves have ads?
Which is updated more often, DrumGoat or Essential Grooves?
Other comparisons
