Better Ears Beginner vs Complete Ear Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Better Ears Beginner
Enhance your musical skills and hearing with this comprehensive ear training app. It offers 13 diverse exercises, from interval recognition to chord progressions, with customizable training routines and instrument options. Track your progress and sync across devices for a seamless learning experience.
- 13 music theory and ear training exercises
- Customizable training routines
- User-created chords, scales, and progressions
- Six instrument sound options
- Pitch detection for vocal or instrument answers
- Virtual keyboard and guitar fretboard
- 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.
Complete Ear Trainer
Develop your musical ear and music theory knowledge with this comprehensive training app. It offers progressive drills, various sound options, and a gamified learning experience to improve improvisation, composition, and performance skills.
- 150+ progressive drills
- 11 drill types
- 24 intervals, 36 chord types
- Melodic dictations and chord progressions
- Gamified learning with star system
- Custom drill and program creation
- Cloud sync across devices
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The ultimate ear training app for musicians. Develop your relative pitch to the full by improving your aural skills and your music theory knowledge. This will better many aspects of your life as a musician, be it regarding improvisation, composition, arrangement, interpretation, singing, or playing in a band. Designed like a video game and with strong pedagogical concepts in mind, this app will make you truly master each interval, chord, scale, etc. before taking you to the next one. Features • 150+ progressive drills arranged over 4 levels / 28 chapters • 11 drill types, 24 intervals, 36 chord types, chord inversions, 28 scale types, melodic dictations, chord progressions • Easy mode: 50+ progressive drills arranged over 12 chapters especially designed for beginners • Play a selection of 21 drills in arcade mode • 5 octaves of actual recorded grand piano sounds • 7 additional sound banks are available, all with actual recorded sounds: vintage piano, Rhodes piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, concert harp, strings and pizzicato strings • In each chapter, a theory card will introduce you to the concepts you will need to know • No need to know how to read music on a staff • Designed like a video game: earn 3 stars in each drill of a chapter to unlock the next one. Or will you be able to obtain perfect 5-star scores? • Don't want to follow the preestablished path of progression? Create and save your own custom drills and rehearse them at your own convenience • Create full custom training programs and invite friends or students to join them. If for example you're a teacher you can create custom programs for your students, add drills every week and view their scores on private leaderboards • Never lose any progress: cloud sync across your various devices • 25 achievements to unlock • Worldwide leaderboards (global, per level, per chapter, easy mode, arcade mode) • Nice and clean user interface with 2 display themes: light and dark • Designed by a musician and music teacher with a Royal Conservatory master's degree Full Version • Download the app and try out the first chapter of each mode for free • One-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version on all your devices Having a problem? Got a suggestion? You can reach us at hello@completeeartrainer.com Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Complete Ear Trainer at fortnightly against Better Ears Beginner's every 6 months. Complete Ear Trainer also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 67%) and rating (4.7 vs 4.5). Better Ears Beginner's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.5). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Better Ears Beginner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Complete Ear Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Complete Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Complete Ear Trainer has 195 ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Better Ears Beginner's written reviews are positive against 85% of Complete Ear Trainer's.
Better Ears Beginner ships an update every 6 months, Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Better Ears Beginner | Complete Ear Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (35 ratings) | 4.7 (195 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.8% of reviews | 85.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 35 | 195 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 86 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | MAMP GmbH | Binary Guilt |
Customer experience
Better Ears Beginner
Complete Ear Trainer
Bugs and requests
Better Ears Beginner
Reported bugs
4 issues- Reverts to beginner version after phone update
- Audio stops working after some time
- Keyboard unresponsive on iPad
- Chord spellings are incorrect
Requested features
5 requests- Add more instruments
- Include rhythm training
- Provide more customization options
- Implement a game-like format
- Add support for reading sheet music
Complete Ear Trainer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Better Ears Beginner
- Unlock all functions$4.99
Complete Ear Trainer
- Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
- Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
- Full Version$6.99
Questions
Is Better Ears Beginner free?
Is Complete Ear Trainer free?
Which has better reviews, Better Ears Beginner or Complete Ear Trainer?
Do Better Ears Beginner or Complete Ear Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Better Ears Beginner or Complete Ear Trainer?
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