Comparison

Chet vs Active Ear

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

Head to head
About

Chet

Develop your musical ear and master music theory with interactive games and exercises. Learn at your own pace, identify music concepts, and practice with virtual instruments. Track your progress and compete globally to become a more confident and versatile musician.

Highlights
  • Identify music theory concepts
  • Call and response exercises
  • Virtual piano, guitar, bass
  • Guided learning paths
  • Intervals, scales, chords exercises
  • Global leaderboards
  • Spaced repetition practice
Features
Read full description

Chet is a music education app with a focus on ear training and music theory. Learn at your own pace, play musical games, and compete against others from around the world! Using Chet helps you to become a more well-rounded, versatile musician. With a trained ear, you can learn songs more quickly, play with others more easily and feel confident in your overall musical abilities! Features: - Multiple choice questions that challenge you to identify music theory concepts. - Call and response questions using a virtual piano, guitar, or bass. - MIDI compatible... so plug in your MIDI keyboard if you have one! - Guided learning paths for beginner and intermediate users. - A library of exercises including intervals, scales, arpeggios, chords, progressions, tonal sequences, famous tunes, and atonal sequences. - Challenge games with competitive global leaderboards. - Professionally recorded music performed by world-class musicians. - A variety of musical genres including jazz, classical, pop and more. - A practice mode that uses spaced repetition. - Sign in to track your progress and compete with other musicians. - Never run out of ways to keep learning with regular updates and new content.

About

Active Ear

Develop your musical ear with a comprehensive ear training app. It offers various exercises to help musicians identify pitches, intervals, chords, and progressions. Customize your learning with practice modes and test your knowledge with quizzes.

Highlights
  • Pitch Recognition
  • Interval Training
  • Chord Quality Identification
  • Bassline Training
  • Progression Training
  • Chord Inversions
  • Customizable Practice Mode
  • Quiz Mode
Features
Read full description

Active Ear is for musicians of all skill levels and instrument types. With dozens of exercises ranging from beginner to advanced, Active Ear focuses on teaching you to identify pitches, intervals, chords, and progressions using only your Ear. The Practice Mode of the app allows you to customize the challenges to focus only on areas you're interested in improving. Once you're confident with the Practice Mode, you test yourself in the Quiz Mode of the app to see how well you understand the concepts. Active Ear Comes with six Ear Training Programs: -
Pitch Recognition -
Interval Training -
Chord Quality -
Bassline Training
 -
Progression Training
 - Chord Inversions

Screenshots

Chet4 screens
Active Ear4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Chet at 2.4K against Active Ear's 50. Active Ear's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Chet against 4.7 for Active Ear. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chet has 2.4K ratings behind it against 50, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 96% of Chet's written reviews are positive against 94% of Active Ear's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chet ships an update every 5 weeks, Active Ear monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and June 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Chet versus Active Ear: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChetActive Ear
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.4K ratings) — better4.7 (50 ratings)
Positive reviews95.9% of reviews — better93.8% of reviews
Number of ratings2.4K — better50
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size112 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEnsemble EducationMCPHERSON'S MUSIC LLC

Customer experience

Chet

All ratings2,409 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.2%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews270 reviews
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.1%
Negative3.0%

Active Ear

All ratings50 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive93.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.3%

Bugs and requests

Chet

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App not loading or freezing
  • Incorrect labeling of intervals
  • Timed exercises not functioning properly

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add Chinese language support
  • Incorporate guitar-specific exercises
  • Introduce a hands-free mode
  • Reinstate the previous practice mode
  • Expand the range of musical genres and styles
Show 2 more
  • Add an option to change the tonic note
  • Introduce a daily streak feature

Active Ear

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Chet

No in-app purchases

None

Active Ear

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chet free?
Chet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Active Ear free?
Active Ear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Chet or Active Ear?
Chet is rated higher. Chet averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.4K ratings, while Active Ear averages 4.7 from 50 ratings.
Do Chet or Active Ear have ads?
Neither Chet nor Active Ear shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chet or Active Ear?
Chet ships an update every 5 weeks, and Active Ear monthly. Most recently, Chet was updated on September 26, 2026 and Active Ear on June 10, 2026.

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