iReal Pro vs Sight Reader Trainer
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.
Sight Reader Trainer
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Sight reading only improves one way: by reading music you have never seen. Sight Reader Trainer writes a fresh exercise every time you tap Next, for your instrument, in your key, at your level. Play it through, and the app listens and tells you how you did. READ SOMETHING NEW EVERY TIME Every exercise is generated on the spot, so there is nothing to memorise. Pick a key or let the app surprise you with a new one each time. Choose the number of bars, the tempo and how busy the rhythms get. STYLES THAT SOUND LIKE REAL MUSIC Etudes, jazz lines, bebop, blues shuffle, bossa nova, samba, tango, ragtime, ballads, West coast cool, rock, funk, reggae, salsa, modal vamps, baroque sequences, Classical periods, marches, waltzes, klezmer, Balkan dances, Irish reels and jigs. Harmony-based styles show chord symbols and follow real progressions: ii–V–I, 12-bar blues, rhythm changes, So What and more. Technique drills cover scales, thirds, arpeggios, chromatics and long tones, and rhythm reading keeps you on one pitch. HEAR IT, THEN PLAY IT Each take plays back with a count-in, a metronome and the notes themselves, so you can listen first or play along. A look-ahead window reveals the music a few beats before the cursor arrives. TURN ON THE MIC AND GET SCORED Point your phone at your instrument and the app follows your pitch in real time. Notes light up green when you land them. At the end you get a score for pitch, timing and flow, with the tendency behind each: sharp or flat, early or late, where you hesitated. Tap any note afterwards to see how far off it was and hear the pitch it should have been. Choose how strict "in tune" should be, set your reference pitch, and calibrate for your phone's microphone delay. WAIT FOR ME MODE Not ready for tempo yet? The clock waits at each note until you play it, so you can work through a passage at your own pace and still be scored on pitch. PLAY A DUET Turn on Duet, pick a partner from any of the 40 instruments, and the app writes a second part to go with yours, each on its own staff in its own key. The phone plays the partner's line while you read yours. WRITTEN FOR YOUR INSTRUMENT Transposed and in the right clef for 40 instruments: flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, bassoon, clarinets, every saxophone, trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, horn, mellophone, alto horn, trombones, euphonium and baritone in either clef, tuba, violin, viola, cello, double bass, soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices, marimba, vibraphone, xylophone and glockenspiel, plus a concert-pitch option for anything else. SAVE, SHARE AND TRACK Save the exercises you want to come back to, and every scored take is kept in that exercise's history so you can watch a hard passage get easier. Share an exercise with a short code so a teacher, student or bandmate can play the exact same notes. Practice trends show your minutes, takes, accuracy and best score by day, week and month, and 29 awards mark the milestones along the way. A built-in tuner and practice reminders round it out. FREE AND PRO Everything you need to practise real sight reading is free: every instrument, etudes, jazz lines, technique drills and rhythm reading, listening and scoring, 3/4 and 4/4 with quarter and eighth-note rhythms, and a few saved exercises. Sight Reader Trainer Pro, yearly with a 7-day free trial or as a one-time lifetime purchase, makes it harder and makes it yours: every style; triplets, syncopation and sixteenths; odd meters; the look-ahead control; custom range limits; duets with any partner instrument; unlimited saved exercises; and the full pitch, timing and flow breakdown. Note names in letters, German (H) or solfège. Available in 11 languages. No account, no ads. Your playing never leaves your phone; the microphone is used only to detect pitch while you play. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.trumpettrainer.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Sight Reader Trainer at Free against iReal Pro's $21.99. Sight Reader Trainer also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks). iReal Pro's advantage is chart position (#4 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, 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
Sight Reader Trainer is free to download; iReal Pro costs $21.99 up front. iReal Pro sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Sight Reader Trainer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
iReal Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, Sight Reader Trainer every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 15, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iReal Pro | Sight Reader Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $21.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (11K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Best chart rank | #4 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 179 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Technimo LLC | Edmund Trujillo |
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
Sight Reader Trainer
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
Sight Reader Trainer
- Sight Reader Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Sight Reader Trainer Pro$29.99
Questions
Is iReal Pro free?
Is Sight Reader Trainer free?
Do iReal Pro or Sight Reader Trainer have ads?
Which is updated more often, iReal Pro or Sight Reader Trainer?
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