Comparison

DrumToolz vs HeyDrummer

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

HeyDrummer

Practice and jam with adjustable tempo drum tracks to improve your musical timing. Offers a wide variety of genres and studio-quality sound, with features like a visual metronome and song structure visualization.

Highlights
  • Tempo adjustable drum tracks
  • Visual metronome
  • Filter by genre, feel, tempo, time signature
  • Studio quality drum sound
  • Audio Unit Extension (AUv3) support
  • Wide variety of genres
Features
Read full description

All great musicians have one thing in common: perfect timing. Improve your timing by practicing and jamming with tempo adjustable drum tracks instead of a boring metronome. HeyDrummer is super easy to use. You don't need to buy expensive drum software or learn how to program drum tracks. Just open the app, choose a drum track and start your practice session or simply jam along. Key features - Speed up or slow down all drum tracks as you like without sound degradation - Adjust the length of the drum tracks to what you want to play - Keep an overview with a visual metronome and a visualization of the song structure including the currently active bar - Get counted in before the drum track starts - Filter drum tracks by genre, feel, tempo, and time signature - Mark your favorite drum tracks to easily find them again - Small app size (including all drum tracks) - Wide variety of genres: Blues, Rock, Pop, Funk, Country, Jazz, Soul, Reggae, Disco, Hip Hop, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Cuban - Studio quality drum sound - Includes an audio unit extension (AUv3) for use in apps like GarageBand, AUM, Audiobus, and other audio unit host apps - Dark mode support Please note HeyDrummer gives you 50 free plays to try the app - no purchase required. Enjoy it? Unlock the Pro version anytime.

Screenshots

DrumToolz4 screens
HeyDrummer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: HeyDrummer at 5.0 against DrumToolz's 4.2. HeyDrummer also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 58%). DrumToolz's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (270 vs 9). On price, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. HeyDrummer sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. DrumToolz asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HeyDrummer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DrumToolz has 270 ratings behind it against 9, 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 100% of HeyDrummer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and August 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
DrumToolz versus HeyDrummer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrumToolzHeyDrummer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (270 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings270 — better9
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better16.1
Further details — not scored
Size93 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJared SimonChristian Voigt

Customer experience

DrumToolz

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

HeyDrummer

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

HeyDrummer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

HeyDrummer

One-time2
  • 7-Day Trial2 variantsFree
  • Unlock HeyDrummer$12.99

Questions

Is DrumToolz free?
DrumToolz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HeyDrummer free?
HeyDrummer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DrumToolz or HeyDrummer?
HeyDrummer is rated higher. DrumToolz averages 4.2 out of 5 from 270 ratings, while HeyDrummer averages 5.0 from 9 ratings.
Do DrumToolz or HeyDrummer have ads?
Neither DrumToolz nor HeyDrummer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DrumToolz or HeyDrummer?
DrumToolz ships an update monthly, and HeyDrummer monthly. Most recently, DrumToolz was updated on September 25, 2026 and HeyDrummer on August 8, 2026.

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