Comparison

OpenEar vs Solfege Story

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

Head to head
About

OpenEar

This app offers a variety of exercises designed to improve musicians' aural skills, focusing on tonal music. It helps users master recognizing musical patterns through exercises like scale degree and chord identification, and progression analysis.

Highlights
  • Scale Degree Identification
  • Chord Function Identification
  • Common Progressions
  • Chord Types
  • Scale Degrees with Chords
  • Triad Inversions
  • Intervals
Features
Read full description

OpenEar is the open source ear training app for musicians. It's goal is to provide a flexible variety of exercises with emphasis on tonal music so musicians will be able to master recognizing any musical pattern that might help them become better musicians. Currently includes the following exercises: 1. Scale Degree Identification 2. Chord Function Identification (identify chords in roman numeral analysis) - the only app in the world that allow this! 3. Common Progressions 4. Chord Types - including settings for root degrees per type so you can practice only common types in a tonal context 5. Scale Degrees with Chords - absolutely revolutionary exercise that help develop both scale degree and chord identification in tonal context. 6. Triad inversions - identify a position of a closed voiced triad 7. Intervals - the classic atonal intervals exercise. Not recommended for beginners as research shows that apart from advance usecases, intervals are not effective in developing good aural skills in tonal music. Check out our GitHub page for contribution and feedback: https://github.com/ShacharHarshuv/open-ear

About

Solfege Story

Learn to play music by ear with engaging story-driven games. Unlock new songs and play along to any audio source, from the radio to the internet. Suitable for all ages, it offers endless possibilities for musical exploration.

Highlights
  • Learn to play by ear
  • Story mode with games
  • Unlockable songbook
  • Play along to any audio
  • Tonal center training
Features
Read full description

Kids and adults can learn to play by ear. STORY mode: play games to figure out songs based on a tonal center ("Do"), leveling up from easy songs to more difficult songs; SONGBOOK mode: easily access songs that you have unlocked. KEYBOARD mode: Play along to songs from anywhere: the radio, streaming, the Internet! Play from what you hear on TV! The possibilities are endless.

Screenshots

OpenEar4 screens
Solfege Story4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Solfege Story at 5.0 against OpenEar's 4.3. Solfege Story also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 63%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). OpenEar's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (12 vs 4). 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. Solfege Story sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. OpenEar asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Solfege Story holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 12 and 4 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of OpenEar's written reviews are positive against 80% of Solfege Story's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
OpenEar versus Solfege Story: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpenEarSolfege Story
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (12 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews62.5% of reviews80.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings12 — better4
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size106 MB147 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShachar Har-ShuvJit Fong Oon

Customer experience

OpenEar

All ratings10 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive62.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative37.5%

Solfege Story

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

None

OpenEar

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Solfege Story

One-time1
  • Christmas Collection$0.99

Questions

Is OpenEar free?
OpenEar is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Solfege Story free?
Solfege Story is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, OpenEar or Solfege Story?
Solfege Story is rated higher. OpenEar averages 4.3 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while Solfege Story averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do OpenEar or Solfege Story have ads?
Neither OpenEar nor Solfege Story shows ads.
Which is updated more often, OpenEar or Solfege Story?
OpenEar ships an update monthly, and Solfege Story monthly. Most recently, OpenEar was updated on November 3, 2026 and Solfege Story on November 3, 2026.

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