Comparison

Better Ears vs Play Orff

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

Head to head
About

Better Ears

Enhance your musical abilities with a comprehensive ear training application. It offers 13 diverse exercises, from interval recognition to chord progressions, suitable for all skill levels. Customize your learning path with user-defined levels and instruments.

Highlights
  • 13 ear training exercises
  • Customizable chords, scales, and progressions
  • 6 instrument sound options
  • Virtual keyboard and fretboard
  • Vocal or instrument input
  • Preset and custom training levels
  • Cross-device synchronization
Features
Read full description

Better Ears is the complete ear training and sight‑reading workout for musicians, students and teachers. Train your musical ear and master music theory — from interval recognition all the way to chord progressions and rhythm training. 15 exercises take you from absolute beginner to pro, at your own pace, with no rules and no pressure. NEW: RHYTHM TRAINING Sharpen your sense of timing with two brand‑new exercises. Hear a rhythm and clap or tap it back, or read rhythmic notation and perform it in time — with count‑in, metronome, triplets and time signatures like 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4. Clap straight into your device's microphone and Better Ears listens. YOU DECIDE HOW TO TRAIN There are no rules to follow. You decide when to start, what to practice and how often. 15 EXERCISES INCLUDED • Interval recognition • Scale recognition • Chord recognition • Chord progressions • Pitch recognition • Melodic dictation • Tempo recognition • Key signature recognition • Music reading • Interval music reading • Scale music reading • Chord music reading • Melody music reading • Rhythm recognition (new) • Rhythm reading (new) ANSWER WITH YOUR VOICE OR A REAL INSTRUMENT Built‑in pitch detection lets you answer by singing or by playing a real instrument (e.g. piano or guitar). Just sing or play the notes when the microphone button lights up red. CUSTOM CHORDS, SCALES & CHORD PROGRESSIONS The built‑in editor lets you add your own chords, scales and chord progressions. FOUR PRESET LEVELS + UNLIMITED CUSTOM LEVELS Start at Beginner, Easy, Normal or Professional — then build your own levels to focus exactly where you need to: church modes, those two pesky intervals, custom rhythms, whatever you like. 6 INSTRUMENTS & CUSTOM SOUNDFONTS Train with Acoustic Grand, Bright Acoustic Piano, Electric Grand, Drawbar Organ, Nylon and Steel Acoustic Guitar — or extend Better Ears with your own sounds via SoundFonts (.sf2). KEYBOARD & FRETBOARD Answer on a virtual piano keyboard or a virtual guitar fretboard. MIDI SUPPORT Route sound through an external MIDI device and even control Better Ears with a connected master keyboard. SYNC ALL OF YOUR DEVICES Keep your Mac, iPhone and iPad in sync via Dropbox. You choose what to sync: your own levels, your statistics, your settings — or all of it. STATISTICS Better Ears tracks your progress for every exercise and every question — right and wrong answers at a glance. WIKIPEDIA INTEGRATION The matching Wikipedia article is shown for each exercise, so the theory is always one tap away. REFRESHED DESIGN A modern, fully redesigned interface on iPhone, iPad and Mac — with full Dark Mode and crystal‑clear music notation.

About

Play Orff

Explore and interact with classic Orff Schulwerk pieces. Play along with individual instrumental parts, combine them freely, and save your own arrangements and compositions. This app serves as a digital companion to a book on the Orff Schulwerk method.

Highlights
  • Play along with classic pieces
  • Combine and customize instrumental parts
  • Save custom arrangements
  • Compose and save original voices
  • Load and modify music pieces
Features
Read full description

Play Orff: Das Orff-Schulwerk neu entdecken! Bei acht zeitlosen „Klassikern“ können einzelne Stimmen mitgespielt, frei kombiniert und mit eigenen Ideen ergänzt werden. Diese App ist eine Erweiterung zu dem Buch "Das Orff-Schulwerk neu entdecken". Stücke: - Rhythmisches Rondospiel - Jeder spielt so gut er kann - Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf - Gassenhauer - Rundadinella - Malagueña - Tanzstück - Ekstatischer Tanz Features: - Musikstücke laden und Änderungen speichern - einzelne oder mehrere Instrumentalspuren abspielen oder stummschalten - eigene Arrangements speichern - eigene Stimmen komponieren und speichern

Screenshots

Better Ears4 screens
Play Orff4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Play Orff at Free against Better Ears's $4.99. Play Orff also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 71%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). Better Ears's advantage is update cadence (every 5 months vs every 18 months) and ratings volume (79 vs 4). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Play Orff is free to download; Better Ears costs $4.99 up front. 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 — 4.6 for Better Ears against 4.5 for Play Orff. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Better Ears has 79 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Better Ears's written reviews are positive against 100% of Play Orff's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, Play Orff every 18 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Better Ears versus Play Orff: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBetter EarsPlay Orff
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (79 ratings) — better4.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews70.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings79 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 18 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB103 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMAMP GmbHSchott Music

Customer experience

Better Ears

All ratings76 ratings
Positive90.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative9.2%
Written reviews236 reviews
Positive70.8%
Neutral12.3%
Negative16.9%

Play Orff

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Better Ears

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Note recognition issues on lower strings
  • Inconsistent behavior when customizing lessons
  • Dropbox sync feature not working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add chord inversions and progressions
  • Include melodic and rhythmic dictation exercises
  • Provide more instrument sound options
  • Improve statistics tracking and personalization
  • Add support for bass clef and multiple clefs

Play Orff

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Better Ears

No in-app purchases

None

Play Orff

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Better Ears free?
Better Ears costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Play Orff free?
Play Orff is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Better Ears or Play Orff?
Better Ears is rated higher. Better Ears averages 4.6 out of 5 from 79 ratings, while Play Orff averages 4.5 from 4 ratings.
Do Better Ears or Play Orff have ads?
Neither Better Ears nor Play Orff shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Better Ears or Play Orff?
Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, and Play Orff every 18 months. Most recently, Better Ears was updated on October 29, 2026 and Play Orff on October 24, 2026.

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