iReal Pro vs AxeModes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
AxeModes
This app helps guitarists learn various musical modes and scales from any root note. It features a dynamic fretboard, scale degree visualization, and audio playback for each note, along with chord accompaniment.
- Learn major, minor, and other scale modes
- Dynamic fretboard display
- Color-code and show/hide scale degrees
- Hear individual note sounds
- Play chord accompaniment
- Context-sensitive help
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Learn all the associated Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor, Harmonic Major, Double Harmonic Major, Hexatonic, Pentatonic, and Diminished Scales. Starting from any Root Note. (Hundreds and hundreds of combinations!) Dynamically generated Fretboard. Show between 2 and 22 Frets at a time. Color code any Scale Degree(s). Show or hide any Scale Degree(s). Click on any Note to hear what it sounds like. Play Chord accompaniment for any Scale/Mode/Root combination. Context sensitive help available on every screen.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: AxeModes at $4.99 against iReal Pro's $21.99. AxeModes also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). iReal Pro's advantage is ratings volume (11K vs 2) and chart position (#4 vs unranked). On rating, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
iReal Pro costs $21.99 and AxeModes $4.99 up front. iReal Pro sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. AxeModes asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for iReal Pro against 5.0 for AxeModes. 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.
iReal Pro ships an update fortnightly, AxeModes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iReal Pro | AxeModes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $21.99 | $4.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (11K ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #4 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 176 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Technimo LLC | Joseph Svantner |
Customer experience
iReal Pro
AxeModes
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
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- Add more styles and grooves
- Improve sync and backup functionality across devices
AxeModes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iReal Pro
- Blues style backing tracks$6.99
- Salsa style backing tracks$6.99
- Brazilian backing tracks$6.99
AxeModes
No in-app purchases









