Better Ears vs Earpeggio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Earpeggio
Enhance your musical skills by training your ear to identify intervals, chords, scales, and rhythms. This app offers various exercises and tests to track your progress and improve your musical hearing.
- Interval identification
- Chord identification
- Melody dictation
- Rhythm dictation
- Progress statistics
- Customizable exercises
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Become a better musician! Master the identification of intervals, chords, scales and rhythms solely by hearing them. Earpeggio is an ear training app which lets you improve your musical hearing. Earpeggio provides ten different exercises, including: - Interval identification - Chord identification - Chord progressions - Melody dictation - Rhythm dictation Once you are bored with exercising, try taking the tests and see what your limits are. The broad statistics give you meaningful insights on your progress and help you achieve your goals.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Earpeggio at Free against Better Ears's $4.99. Earpeggio also leads on ratings volume (9.8K vs 79) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Earpeggio is free to download; Better Ears costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Earpeggio holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Earpeggio has 9.8K ratings behind it against 79, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Better Ears's written reviews are positive against 86% of Earpeggio's.
Better Ears ships an update every 5 months, Earpeggio every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Better Ears | Earpeggio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (79 ratings) | 4.9 (9.8K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.9% of reviews | 86.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 79 | 9.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 86 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | MAMP GmbH | Balazs Kiss |
Customer experience
Better Ears
Earpeggio
User reviews
Better Ears
From 79 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great app for ear training
- 🚀 Flexibility to customize exercises
- 💡 Helpful for music students and professionals
- 🎓 Improves aural skills and music theory knowledge
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and glitches on some devices
- 🔊 Poor sound quality of instrument samples
- 💰 Expensive for the limited features
- 🤔 Confusing chord and interval naming conventions
Earpeggio
From 9.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for ear training
- 🚀 Efficient and easy to use
- 💡 Customizable exercises
- 🤑 Completely free with no ads
- 🤓 Helpful for music theory and exams
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔇 Poor sound quality of instruments
- 🤔 Unclear instructions for beginners
- 🤯 Difficulty progressing to more advanced levels
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
Earpeggio
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes getting stuck or not turning off
- Login and password reset functionality not working
- Melodic dictation exercises not displaying properly
- Inconsistent scoring and progress tracking
Requested features
5 requests- Option to change instrument sounds
- Ability to repeat completed goals
- More detailed feedback on mistakes
- Adaptive difficulty based on user performance
- Integration with other music learning platforms
In-app purchases
Better Ears
No in-app purchases
Earpeggio
No in-app purchases









