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

Learn to play drums with songs you love. InstaDrum guides you from your first beat to more advanced rhythms with step-by-step guidance, instant feedback, and game-like practice. No experience needed to get started. Here's how InstaDrum works: - Watch first, then try See each move demonstrated before you play. Practice one skill at a time, then put the pieces together in a complete rhythm or song. Clear demonstrations help you take that first step. - Level up, step by step Follow a clear learning path with bite-sized lessons and game-like challenges. Complete exercises to unlock the next step, build on what you've learned and work toward more advanced rhythms at your own pace. - Build drum skills through play Practice steady beats, accurate timing and hand-foot coordination through varied, interactive exercises. Follow colorful fruit cues, rhythm grids and dot-based notation to see what to hit and when, while playing along with music. - Choose how you learn songs Each song offers multiple difficulty levels, so you can find a challenge that suits you. Jump straight into playing, or practice its rhythm patterns in sections before putting them together in the full song. - Get feedback on your playing See instant feedback as you play. Review your accuracy after exercises and your performance score after a song. Use the results to spot what needs practice and decide where to focus next. Here's why people love InstaDrum: - Music that keeps practice fresh Explore 2,000+ songs across a range of styles, including music by Billie Eilish and Linkin Park, with more on the way. Discover different musical styles throughout the course and find new favorites to play. - Music-reading skills you can use Go beyond colorful cues with standard drum notation and full-length sheet music. Practice following drum parts as you play, and build music-reading skills you can bring to practice outside the app. - Start with or without drums Play on any electronic drums, or tap the on-screen virtual drums on your phone. Explore rhythms and start learning without a kit, with another way to practice when you're away from your drums. Whether you're looking for a new hobby, trying drumming before buying a kit, or already playing and looking for more songs to learn, InstaDrum gives you a place to start and keep growing. Questions or feedback? We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch through the "Feedback" option in the app. 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 314). 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 314, 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 November 6, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
DrumToolz versus InstaDrum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrumToolzInstaDrum
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (314 ratings)4.7 (1.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.1% of reviews62.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3141.9K — 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 MB102 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 ratings1,877 ratings
Positive92.1%
Neutral3.4%
Negative4.6%
Written reviews143 reviews
Positive62.9%
Neutral14.0%
Negative23.1%

User reviews

DrumToolz

From 314 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 314 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 November 6, 2026 and InstaDrum on November 11, 2026.

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