Comparison

Simmons Drums vs DrumToolz

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

Head to head
About

Simmons Drums

Enhance your electronic drum kit's functionality with this app. Remotely edit and save drum kits, practice with real audio tracks, and slow down songs to learn grooves. Compatible with specific Simmons drum kit models.

Highlights
  • Remote drum kit editing
  • Save custom drum kits
  • Teaching tool with audio tracks
  • Play along with music library
  • Adjust playback speed
Read full description

The Simmons Drums Basic App is designed to extend the capabilities of the Simmons SD100, SD200, SD300, SD350, SD500, SD550, & SD600 electronic drum kits. Remotely edit and save drum kits and sounds with your iOS device using a user-friendly interface. Improve your playing with the "Teaching tool," which lets you play along with real audio tracks in a game-like environment to help you improve your skills and meter.  The "Play along" function accesses your iOS's music library and manipulates the playback speed so you can slow down a song to learn the groove. Users may need to download the latest Firmware update from http://simmonsdrums.net/ Users with a SD100, SD200, SD300, SD350, SD500, or SD550 will need an Apple USB Camera Connector kit and USB cable to connect the kit drum module to their iOS device.

About

DrumToolz

Compose and practice drum cadences and beats on your mobile device. This app allows manual input of exercises, generation of new ideas, and practice of rudiments. Share your creations and learn from a community of drummers.

Highlights
  • Compose drum cadences and beats
  • Manual exercise input
  • Generate new rhythmic ideas
  • Editable music score
  • Practice snare rudiments
  • Library of dynamic exercises
  • Social profile and sharing
Read full description

Compose cadences on the go! Choose from snares, tenors, bass drums, cymbals, and even drumset if you want. In a league of its own, DrumToolz also lets you manually input exercises for drum set, marching snare, tenors, and bass drums while generating new creative ideas using what you input, all shown on an editable music score. You can also upload your beats to your social profile, play what other users are playing, save rhythms, practice snare drum rudiments, and learn from a full library of dynamic exercises for both snare drum and drumset! It's perfect for all skill levels, from beginner to extremely advanced, drum wizards. Works great for sharing drum cadences with your drumline. Isolate individual snare, tenors, etc. parts. Practice the simplest to the most complex of beats and rhythms. If you can think of it, you can input it and practice it! Anything from beginner rock beats, to the most complex of jazz beats and fills. Lastly, top off the notes with ornaments: stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese. Input up to 50 measures. When practicing drum set beats, choose from a ride cymbal, hihat, hihat foot, kick drum, snare drum, and three toms. Input everything from whole notes to thirtysecond notes and tuplets. Also, for tenors, choose from four tenors and a spock. Bass drums - five bass drums. Marching snare - a realistic marching snare and a ping sound. Generate new ideas (modifications) using beats that you input into the score. Choose from several modification methods: Add, Shuffle, Substitute, Permutate, Repeat, and Random. Modify individual parts of the beat (ex: kick drum only) or the entire beat if desired. Custom snare exercises. Choose the time sig, subdivisons, tuplets, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, cheese, drags. Save the beat in the score for later practice, keeping the modifications if desired. If the modifications are kept, this turns the beat into an endless, dynamic exercise! Each time you generate an exercise, it uses the modifications to give you an entirely new beat. String together saved rhythms and practice them as one exercise, perfect for practicing beats followed by a drum fill. Upload your beats to your profile. Find and follow other drummers in the social network. Learn from them as you see and practice what they have uploaded to their profile. Share your beats through PDF links and files. Also, share your entire score with a link that pre-populates the score into the app. Learn from a full library of dynamic drum set and snare drum exercises, essential and hybrid rudiments included. For highlighted rhythms, shuffle around groups of notes, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese.

Screenshots

Simmons Drums4 screens
DrumToolz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: DrumToolz at 58% against Simmons Drums's 14%. DrumToolz also leads on rating (4.2 vs 2.8) and ratings volume (270 vs 14). Simmons Drums's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.0). On price, update cadence, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

DrumToolz holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DrumToolz has 270 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 14% of Simmons Drums's written reviews are positive against 58% of DrumToolz's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simmons Drums ships an update every 2 months, DrumToolz monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Simmons Drums versus DrumToolz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimmons DrumsDrumToolz
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.8 (14 ratings)4.2 (270 ratings) — better
Positive reviews14.3% of reviews58.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings14270 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size160 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSimmons Innovations LtdJared Simon

Customer experience

Simmons Drums

All ratings14 ratings
Positive35.7%
Neutral21.4%
Negative42.9%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral7.1%
Negative78.6%

DrumToolz

All ratings270 ratings
Positive78.1%
Neutral8.5%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive58.1%
Neutral25.6%
Negative16.3%

Bugs and requests

Simmons Drums

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

DrumToolz

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • App crashes and deletes progress
  • App won't open
  • Repeat function doesn't stop
  • Repeat save fails
  • Accents, diddles, flams added automatically
Show 8 more
  • Buzz roll cannot be removed
  • Font camouflages in dark mode
  • App crashes when opening after saving
  • App crashes when opening
  • App crashes when adding notes
  • App crashes after saving
  • App crashes when trying to reopen
  • App crashes a lot

Requested features

15 requests
  • Turn off metronome
  • Add rum shot for snare
  • Add rim shots for other drums
  • Add triplets, fivelets, sixlets
  • Add dynamics (forte, piano)
Show 10 more
  • Cymbals sizzle option
  • Add buzz roll for snares
  • Add diddle feature
  • More measures
  • Add bass drum notes
  • Add open hi-hat sound
  • Improve UI for tuplet measurement
  • Improve UI for measure change
  • Ability to hear multiple instruments simultaneously
  • Fix replace button for bass drums

In-app purchases

None

Simmons Drums

No in-app purchases

None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simmons Drums free?
Simmons Drums is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is DrumToolz free?
DrumToolz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Simmons Drums or DrumToolz?
DrumToolz is rated higher. Simmons Drums averages 2.8 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while DrumToolz averages 4.2 from 270 ratings.
Do Simmons Drums or DrumToolz have ads?
Neither Simmons Drums nor DrumToolz shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simmons Drums or DrumToolz?
Simmons Drums ships an update every 2 months, and DrumToolz monthly. Most recently, Simmons Drums was updated on October 14, 2026 and DrumToolz on October 16, 2026.

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