Comparison

iReal Pro vs Random Chord

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

Head to head
About

iReal Pro

This app provides a virtual band accompaniment for musicians to practice with, offering realistic sounding instruments and a variety of styles. It also functions as a digital chord chart book, allowing users to create, edit, and share their own song charts.

Highlights
  • Virtual band accompaniment
  • Create, edit, and share chord charts
  • Thousands of downloadable songs
  • Chord diagrams and scale recommendations
  • Practice exercises and transposition
  • Export charts and audio
  • Cloud synchronization
Features
Read full description

iReal Pro is two things musicians love in one app: a realistic backing band that plays along with you, and a huge free library of chord charts you can pull up anytime — at practice, at a jam session, or on a gig. Need to transpose a song for a singer? Done. Want to practice with a full rhythm section behind you? Hit play. Named one of TIME Magazine's 50 Best Inventions and trusted by thousands of students, teachers, and pros at schools like Berklee College of Music — iReal Pro has been helping musicians get better since 2008. BAND • 50 accompaniment styles — Swing, Bossa Nova, Blues, Funk, Rock, Bluegrass, Reggae, Latin, Gypsy Jazz, Country, and more • Customize each style with acoustic or electric piano, Fender Rhodes, guitars, upright or electric bass, drums, vibraphone, organ • 40 additional styles — blues, salsa, Brazilian — available as in-app purchases BOOK • Download thousands of free chord charts shared by the iReal Pro community • Create your own charts in minutes with the built-in editor • Organize charts into playlists for gigs, sets, or lessons PRACTICE • Adjust tempo, loop difficult sections, transpose to any key • Automatic tempo increase and key cycling for focused practice • Global Eb, Bb, F, and G transposition for horn players REFERENCE • Guitar, ukulele, and piano fingerings for any chord • Tap any chord in your chart to see how it's played • Scale suggestions for improvisation SHARE • Share charts and playlists with other iReal Pro users • Export charts as PDF or MusicXML • Export backing tracks as audio or MIDI files • Sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iCloud FOR TEACHERS • Create playlists of exercises or tunes for students • Use in the classroom, over live stream, or while screen-sharing lessons We're a small team of musicians who built this app because we needed it ourselves. We hope you enjoy using it as much as we do.

About

Random Chord

Practice musical improvisation with randomly generated chord progressions. Customize key, chord types, duration, and time signatures for personalized exercises. Supports various playback styles and includes a mixer for custom sound.

Highlights
  • Random chord generation
  • Customizable chord pools
  • Adjustable chord duration and loop settings
  • Support for different time signatures
  • Diatonic, Chromatic, Modal, and Custom modes
  • Multiple playback styles (Rock, Pop, Swing, etc.)
  • Integrated mixer for sound control
Features
Read full description

„THIS IS HOW YOU LEARN CHORDS!“ ** Random Chords is a standalone subpart of our app ‚Improvisation Trainer‘. Feel free to try the features of Random Chords using the free version of Improvisation Trainer. ** Practice your voice or instrument skills with RANDOMLY GIVEN CHORDS according to your settings, with a great music-playback engine and incredible possibilities to shape up! for example: give and play me random chords in the key of F-major.  or: give and play me random chords of the type „min7“. or: give an play random chords of the types „dom7“, „7(#11)“, „maj7“ and „dim7“; or: give me 4 random chords -  then transpose them up by a half-step each 4 bars. RANDOM CHORDS is a great practicing companion for both beginners and professionals in music out of every music field.  RANDOM CHORDS is a indispensable tool for music teachers and provides an ultimate platform for practicing harmonic and melodic instruments. Just get started with one of our presets to give you an idea about the endless possibilities the app can do! • practice improvising on your favorite chords • chords get randomly chosen out of a defined chord pool • define your own chord pools specially designed for your needs • set the chord duration for each chord (i.e., 2 bars) • set a loop to create perfect practicing exercises for you • DIFFERENT TIME SIGNATURES • tell the app in which meter you want to improvise (3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 7/8, …) • 3 MODES • DIATONIC MODE: practice improvising only within a specified key • CHROMATIC MODE: practice your skills on all bass notes of the chromatic scale • MODAL MODE: chord symbols will randomly change, but only on one bass note • CUSTOM MODE: practice your chords on personally specified root notes (i.e., C and F) DIFFERENT PLAYBACK STYLES • choose from a variety of different playback styles: Rock, Pop, Swing, Bossa-Nova, Disco, Country and many more • choose your individual playback tempo SAVE AND SHARE YOUR SETTINGS • you can save all your custom settings to get started quickly • you can easily share the settings with friends, students or other people using e-mail MIXER INCLUDED • with the included mixer, you can decide to only hear chords, bass, or drums and create your unique mix! EAR TRAINING • You can also use the app as a ear-training program. Just define which chords you want to be played and don’t look at the display or use our „only time“ preset!

Screenshots

iReal Pro4 screens
Random Chord4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Random Chord at $2.99 against iReal Pro's $21.99. Random Chord also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (100% vs 83%). iReal Pro's advantage is ratings volume (11K vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). On rating, 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

iReal Pro costs $21.99 and Random Chord $2.99 up front. iReal Pro sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Random Chord asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for iReal Pro against 5.0 for Random Chord. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iReal Pro has 11K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of iReal Pro's written reviews are positive against 100% of Random Chord's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iReal Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, Random Chord every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
iReal Pro versus Random Chord: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriReal ProRandom Chord
Price$21.99$2.99 — better
Rating4.9 (11K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings11K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#8 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.612.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size179 MB70 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTechnimo LLCAppicDesign

Customer experience

iReal Pro

All ratings11,148 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews1,010 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral8.0%
Negative8.7%

Random Chord

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

iReal Pro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Occasional skipping or timing issues with playback
  • Trouble with registration and login process
  • Compatibility issues with newer devices or operating systems

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add ability to write rhythm notation
  • Integrate with Real Books
  • Improve sound quality and add more instrument options
  • Add melodies and lyrics support
  • Improve chord editing and customization
Show 2 more
  • Add more styles and grooves
  • Improve sync and backup functionality across devices

Random Chord

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

iReal Pro

One-time3
  • Blues style backing tracks$6.99
  • Salsa style backing tracks$6.99
  • Brazilian backing tracks$6.99
None

Random Chord

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iReal Pro free?
iReal Pro costs $21.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Random Chord free?
Random Chord costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iReal Pro or Random Chord?
Random Chord is rated higher. iReal Pro averages 4.9 out of 5 from 11K ratings, while Random Chord averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do iReal Pro or Random Chord have ads?
Neither iReal Pro nor Random Chord shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iReal Pro or Random Chord?
iReal Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, and Random Chord every 3 months. Most recently, iReal Pro was updated on October 26, 2026 and Random Chord on October 24, 2026.

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