Comparison

RTA vs RTA Audio

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

Head to head
About

RTA

Analyze audio frequencies, test speakers, and tune rooms with this professional-grade acoustical analysis tool. It offers octave and 1/3 octave modes, peak hold, and averaging, with automatic microphone compensation for accurate results.

Highlights
  • Real-time acoustical analysis
  • Octave and 1/3 Octave modes
  • Peak Hold and Average modes
  • Automatic microphone compensation
  • Save, recall, and export graphs
  • Interactive touch GUI
  • Noise curve overlays
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

A Real Time Analyzer for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Test your speakers, tune your room, do acoustical analysis work or just have a better understanding of audio frequencies. RTA is a professional-grade acoustical analysis tool. All filters meet or exceed ANSI and IEC Class 1 specifications. Includes Octave and 1/3 Octave modes, with selectable decay times, as well as Peak Hold and true linear Average mode. *** iOS Microphones We have analyzied every iOS device, including all of the iPads, all iPhones, and iPod touches, and have created microphone compensation files that are applied automatically. You can trust the results you are getting, often within just a few dB of a far more expensive analyzer. Calibration is updated regularly, automatically, from our cloud-based calibration database. Upgrade to our iTestMic or iAudioInterface2 to bring your system up to full professional specs. *** Save and Recall Graphs You can save and recall graphs, marked with the GPS location, date & time, and your comment, as well as store the image to your photo roll. Export the data as an XLS formatted file to your computer for inclusion in reports or further analysis. *** Max and Min Bars You can also turn on resettable Max/Min bars (see image #4) to capture peaks. Double-tap to reset the bars. *** Specifications and Devices The internal iPhone mic has a noise floor near 30 dB, and if your are running iOS 6, clips around 120 dB. *** Touch GUI Fully interactive touch GUI features includes scroll up/down, pinch to zoom or compress the vertical dB scale, or swipe horizontally to get a cursor that reads out the exact dB level and frequency across the screen. To make the cursor disappear, swipe it off the graph to the left. The landscape-mode display flips 180 degrees so that you can face the internal mic in either direction. *** Overlay Curves Also included are optional noise curve overlays, in NCB, RC, PNC, NC, X-Curve and NR mode. See picture #2 for an example. Use this feature to get a quick reading on the noise levels in a room. Also includes the cinema large-room X-curve overlay. *** Calibration RTA can be fully calibrated, whether you are using it with the internal iOS microphone, or one of our professional test & measurement mic solutions. And, if you are using iTestMic, the mic calibration is transmitted directly to the app, so you are always calibrated. *** RTA or FFT? If you are wondering if you should download this app or our FFT app, check out our website, we have a page devoted to this topic. See our other acoustics and audio apps, including AudioTools.

About

RTA Audio

Analyze audio in real-time with detailed frequency spectrum and waveform visualizations. Record and export your audio analysis results, including spectrograms and frequency tables, for sharing or archiving.

Highlights
  • Real-time audio analysis (FFT)
  • Recording and offline processing
  • Spectrogram and waveform visualization
  • Exportable analysis reports (PDF)
  • Adjustable resolution and frequency scale
  • Peak and RMS metering
Features
Read full description

RTA Audio Realtime analyzer with recording and Visualizer module with export. ••• Realtime analyzer ••• Realtime analyzer gives you the ability to analyze realtime audio input (built-in microphone or external audio accessory inputs) using Fast Fourier Transform with selected window function. You can also record the input for future offline processing or export. ••• Visualizer ••• This module presents you the results of offline audio analysis. Selecting previously captured recording gives the graph view, spectrogram and waveform of the audio data. Simple controls gives you the ability to play, loop, seek and change rate of the recording synchronized with analysis data presentation. Export function allows you to share or archive your analysis. Resulting PDF document contains basic recording information, spectrogram, peak & RMS graph and frequency table data with maximum peaks (with the time of the occurrence in recording) ••• Features ••• Resolution: 1/2 - 1/96 Octave Logarithmic frequency scale Fixed frequency range (20 - 20kHz) Tone scale view C₀- H₈ (A₄ = 440Hz) Peak hold graph Peak average graph RMS average graph Pointer (watch) function Peak and RMS input meter ••• Audio input specification ••• Audio session mode - measurement Input gain control Sample rate: 48000 Hz Bit depth: Float32 Channel: 1(mono) Frequency range: 20Hz - 20kHz Dynamic range: -100dB - 0dB ••• FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) specification ••• Frame size: 8192 Overlap: from 60% to 90% Smoothing Window: Bartlett-Hann, Blackman, Blackman-Harris (default), Blackman-Nuttell, Cosine, Flat Top, Gauss, Hamming, Hann, Lanczos, Nuttall, Rectangular, Triangular Hardware acceleration

Screenshots

RTA4 screens
RTA Audio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: RTA Audio at Free against RTA's $4.99. RTA's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.5) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 28 months). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

RTA Audio is free to download; RTA costs $4.99 up front. RTA sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and RTA Audio sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

RTA holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 32 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of RTA's written reviews are positive against 59% of RTA Audio's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

RTA ships an update every 3 months, RTA Audio every 28 months. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
RTA versus RTA Audio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRTARTA Audio
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (27 ratings) — better3.5 (32 ratings)
Positive reviews61.0% of reviews — better58.5% of reviews
Number of ratings2732 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 28 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#103 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAndrew SmithNew Ball s.r.o.

Customer experience

RTA

All ratings26 ratings
Positive73.1%
Neutral11.5%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews118 reviews
Positive61.0%
Neutral11.0%
Negative28.0%

RTA Audio

All ratings31 ratings
Positive64.5%
Neutral3.2%
Negative32.3%
Written reviews41 reviews
Positive58.5%
Neutral9.8%
Negative31.7%

Bugs and requests

RTA

Reported bugs

18 issues
  • App crashes after iOS updates (iOS 13, 15, 16, 17, 18)
  • App freezes or crashes on startup
  • App only displays half the screen
  • App does not save analysis readings to photo roll
  • App stops working on older iPads after updates
Show 13 more
  • Accessory found/removed loop with iTestMic 2
  • App continues to run in background, draining battery
  • Calibration not supported for specific iPad models
  • App not installing after purchase/update
  • App not opening on iPhone 4 after update
  • dB/input level is useless after update
  • Screen not expanding after updates
  • App not compatible with iOS 7
  • App crashes when saving screen
  • App not working with iMM-6 microphone
  • App overcompensates for low frequencies
  • App crashes on 3G S after update
  • Low frequency response cut due to voice recognition

Requested features

8 requests
  • Add German language support
  • Add NC and NR curves
  • Make background mode optional
  • Improve compatibility with newer iOS versions
  • Add option to overlay readings
Show 3 more
  • Add zoom functionality for frequencies
  • Improve calibration for external mics
  • Add pink noise output

RTA Audio

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

RTA

One-time2
  • STC -- Transmission Loss$9.99
  • Reference Curve Files$9.99
1 purchases

RTA Audio

One-time1
  • Upgrade to full version$14.99

Questions

Is RTA free?
RTA costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is RTA Audio free?
RTA Audio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, RTA or RTA Audio?
RTA is rated higher. RTA averages 4.0 out of 5 from 27 ratings, while RTA Audio averages 3.5 from 32 ratings.
Do RTA or RTA Audio have ads?
Neither RTA nor RTA Audio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, RTA or RTA Audio?
RTA ships an update every 3 months, and RTA Audio every 28 months. Most recently, RTA was updated on October 27, 2026 and RTA Audio on October 23, 2026.

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