Comparison

DrumToolz vs InstaDrum

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

Head to head
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.

About

InstaDrum

Learn to play drums with interactive, game-like lessons. This app supports electronic drums and offers a virtual drum option for those without a set. Progress from single notes to full songs with a wide music selection.

Highlights
  • Interactive drum lessons
  • Game-like learning structure
  • Supports electronic drums (Bluetooth/cable)
  • On-screen virtual drum
  • Wide song selection
  • Progressive skill building
  • Real drum notation and sheet music
Features
Read full description

The drum set, present in 99% of music, plays a crucial role in shaping a song's tempo, rhythm, and overall mood. If you had the chance to learn this influential instrument through an app, would you give it a shot? Enter InstaDrum. This app lets you dive into the world of drumming, providing entertaining and interactive lessons that encourage you to step into your drumming journey with confidence. Using its game-like structure, you can promptly learn to play your favorite songs, even as a complete beginner. Experience a fun and easy approach to learning drums with InstaDrum, an app that's compatible with all electronic drums and even functions without one. Whether you have a drum set, a roll-up pad, or a drum machine, InstaDrum works seamlessly with them all. If you don't have a drum? No problem. Our on-screen virtual drum lets you explore music right at your fingertips. Just relax and play along with your favorite tunes, or grab your drumsticks for a musical cardio workout. Here's why people love InstaDrum: - Broad selection of songs catering to varied musical tastes and skill levels - from the sounds of Billie Eilish to Linkin Park, and from the beginner-friendly "Yellow" to the more challenging "I don’t know about you". - It facilitates a progressive learning journey from mastering a single note to playing a beat, and from performing a beat to a complete song. - It integrates with any electronic drums via Bluetooth or cable, providing real-time feedback on your performance. - It offers real drum notation and full-length sheet music, equipping you with skills to read music even outside the app. So whether you're searching for a cool new hobby, aspiring to rehearse before purchasing a drum set, or an experienced drummer wishing to play your favorite songs, InstaDrum caters to all your drumming desires. Privacy Policy: https://www.instadrum.com/instadrum_privacy_policy.html User Agreement: https://www.instadrum.com/instadrum_user_agreement.html

Screenshots

DrumToolz4 screens
InstaDrum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DrumToolz at none against InstaDrum's 4. InstaDrum's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (1.9K vs 313). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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. InstaDrum sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. DrumToolz asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

InstaDrum holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: InstaDrum has 1.9K ratings behind it against 313, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of DrumToolz's written reviews are positive against 63% of InstaDrum's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DrumToolz ships an update monthly, InstaDrum every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
DrumToolz versus InstaDrum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrumToolzInstaDrum
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (313 ratings)4.7 (1.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.1% of reviews62.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3131.9K — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size93 MB79 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJared SimonXiaoyezi Beijing Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

DrumToolz

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

InstaDrum

All ratings1,820 ratings
Positive91.8%
Neutral3.5%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews142 reviews
Positive62.7%
Neutral14.1%
Negative23.2%

User reviews

DrumToolz

From 313 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for writing music
  • 👍 Helpful for drumline
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Good sounds
  • 👍 Good for practice

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Tutorial not helpful
  • 🐛 Hard to find features
  • 🐛 UI issues
  • 🐛 App crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Saves progress poorly

InstaDrum

From 1.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great fun and effective self learning app
  • 🚀 Friendly for drum beginners
  • 🚀 Awesome!
  • 🚀 Fantastic - Auto Adjusts to your speed!!!
  • 👍 Love this app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Doesn't work
  • 🐛 Connectivity issue
  • 🔒 No beat and no songs, useless.
  • 💰 I want to play without pay
  • 🐛 Average

Bugs and 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

InstaDrum

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • Doesn't work
  • Connectivity issue
  • Cannot map hi hat
  • Paid for plan but app doesnt work with all edrums
  • Need help with hi hat
Show 9 more
  • App not working
  • Doesn't work
  • It has only 7th stage opened, Not afterwards.
  • Pizzaman
  • Loading
  • Failure to launch
  • Not switchable
  • Doesn't work with my new Roland kit, support lacking
  • 不能识别同时击打时的Hihat

Requested features

4 requests
  • More songs pls
  • Needs more songs
  • there needs to be a way to slow down the tempo with the play alongs so someone can learn a new technique & get the muscle memory down, then can speed it back up
  • Needs more free music

In-app purchases

None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

InstaDrum

Subscriptions4
  • 1 Month1 Month trial$19.991 Month
  • 3 Months$49.993 Months
  • 6 Months$74.996 Months
Show 1 more
  • 12 Months$99.991 Year

Questions

Is DrumToolz free?
DrumToolz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is InstaDrum free?
InstaDrum is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DrumToolz or InstaDrum?
InstaDrum is rated higher. DrumToolz averages 4.2 out of 5 from 313 ratings, while InstaDrum averages 4.7 from 1.9K ratings.
Do DrumToolz or InstaDrum have ads?
Neither DrumToolz nor InstaDrum shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DrumToolz or InstaDrum?
DrumToolz ships an update monthly, and InstaDrum every 2 months. Most recently, DrumToolz was updated on October 26, 2026 and InstaDrum on November 3, 2026.

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