Comparison

Guitarist's Reference vs Ultimate Guitar

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

Head to head
About

Guitarist's Reference

This comprehensive suite offers a vast collection of guitar chords, scales, and arpeggios with clear diagrams and detailed theory. It includes tools for finding chord-scale relationships, exploring alternate tunings, and even a virtual guitar for practice.

Highlights
  • 3000+ guitar chords with diagrams
  • 42 scale types including modes and pentatonics
  • Arpeggio finder
  • 36 alternate tunings
  • Chord-scale relationship guide
  • Virtual guitar
  • Guitar tuner
Features
Read full description

Introducing the Ultimate Guitarist's Companion - Your All-in-One Solution for Mastering the Fretboard: - Comprehensive Package: Elevate your guitar journey with an all-encompassing suite of tools and knowledge. Explore Guitar Chords, Chord Progressions, Scales, Triads, Arpeggios, Fretboard Note Mastery, Reverse Chord & Scale Finder, Chord Quizzes, Alternate Tunings, Guitar Tuner, Virtual Guitar and the intricate web of Chord-Scale Relationships. - Guitar Chord Encyclopedia: Unleash the potential of over 3000 commonly used guitar chords. Dive into chord theory and find clarity through easy-reference diagrams. Test your prowess with the Chord Quiz feature – a true test of your skills. - Mastering Guitar Scales: Demystify the realm of guitar scales fearlessly. From the basics to the sublime, our comprehensive scale reference transforms your fretboard knowledge. With 42 scale types spanning major, minor, pentatonic, modes, and more, you'll command all keys with confidence. - Unveiling Chord-Scale Relationships: Say goodbye to chord change anxiety. Our guide deciphers the intricate dance between chords and scales. Elevate your playing by understanding which scales harmonize with each chord, empowering you to navigate complex progressions effortlessly. - Modern Guitarist's Arpeggios: Seamlessly locate any arpeggio, regardless of your reading ability. Presented in intuitive diagram form, this feature benefits both beginners seeking structured guidance and professionals requiring arpeggio references for any musical scenario. - Alternate Tunings Explored: Dive deep into 36 of the most popular alternate tunings, expanding your creative horizons. Whether you're in Standard or Alternate Tuning, access Scales, Arpeggios, and Fretboard Notes effortlessly. Guitar Tuner: Our improved tuning feature now allows you to tune your guitar by ear across a wide range of preset alternate tunings. - Reverse Chord/Scale Finder Tool: Transform your musical ideas into named chords/scales effortlessly. Struggling to name a chord/scale you've crafted? This ingenious tool deciphers your fretboard inputs, revealing the chord/scale's identity. - Virtual Guitar: Immerse yourself in the guitar-playing experience right from your device. Our virtual guitar feature enables you to strum, pluck, and navigate the fretboard with a variety of alternate tunings. Whether you're a seasoned guitarist or a beginner, this feature provides a platform for practice, chord and scale experimentation, and the joy of guitar sounds without requiring a physical instrument. Take hold of virtual strings and let your musical creativity flow. Experience an unparalleled guitar journey, where knowledge meets practice in perfect harmony. Unleash your true potential with our All-in-One Guitarist's Package.

About

Ultimate Guitar

Access a vast library of guitar, bass, and ukulele chords, tabs, and lyrics. Learn songs with interactive lessons, original sounds, and practice tools. Create and share your own tabs, or explore curated collections.

Highlights
  • Extensive chord, tab, and lyric library
  • Interactive lessons and courses
  • Original song sounds with Tonebridge
  • User-created tab sharing
  • Offline tab access
  • Left-handed mode
  • Built-in tuner and metronome
Features
Read full description

Access the world's largest catalogue of guitar, bass & ukulele chords, tabs, and lyrics. Challenge yourself to learn your favourite songs and more! You have choices galore: • Search for songs by genre, rating, your ability, tuning level • Explore UG Tab collections. Use the finder for your faves, fall in love with something new, feel the nostalgic vibes. Search by themes like House or Acoustic, or check out the latest album releases. Find collections based on your interests such as Star Wars or funky Bollywood beats. • Focus on guitar techniques, find songs personal to you in collections from professional guitarists • Anytime you feel inspired to share a song, create and upload your shot on the spot. It’s that easy! Share the best parts of your performance with your like minded community of fellow musicians. • Reach your true musical potential – learn to play with UG Courses here. Access over 2500 lessons for any skill level and instrument type from guitar, drums to piano and more. Learn different styles and techniques with guidance from professional musicians. Progress at your own speed and on any device, anytime, anywhere. • Play 29K+ popular songs in their original sound with Tonebridge Guitar Effects And it doesn’t end there Check out all these features: • Explore guitar, bass & ukulele chords, tabs, and lyrics for songs in every genre • Watch videos of songs to refresh your memory or use as backing tracks • Compile your favourite tabs in playlists from our tab collections • Create ‘Personal’ tabs to edit chords, lyrics or change tabs to suit your needs • Option to Switch to left-handed mode • Set a font style and size to match the tab • Offline access to favourite tabs - available at all times • Enjoy dark mode for a gig With a Pro account: • Use interactive tabs to play songs note by note, at your own pace • Select the chord variation that best suits you from the world's biggest library of chords • Use ‘Simplify’ to make difficult songs easier • Jam with high quality tabs - over 29,000 that include backing tracks and synchronised lyrics • Hit the right tempo with metronome • Transpose songs to get just the right tone for you • Take advantage of autoscroll during your practice sessions • Achieve the right sound with the built-in guitar tuner • Share, print, and export your fave songs Problems or feedback? We are always eager to improve your Tabs experience and strive for excellence in doing so. Let us help you in person by contacting our development team at support.ios@ultimate-guitar.com, and we will endeavour to meet your needs. Please do not post bug reports or feature requests as an App Store review. Subscription information: • The "UG Pro + UG Courses + UG Sing" subscription gives you unlimited access to the app's premium content and features • The subscription price is $9.99/monthly, $59.99/yearly* • Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period • Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period at the cost of the chosen package • Subscriptions may be managed, and auto-renewal may be turned off via ‘Account Settings’ on your device after purchase • There is no way to cancel your current subscription during its active period • Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. * Prices are equal to the value determined by ‘Apple's App Store Matrix’ as the equivalent of the subscription price in $USD. You can read our privacy policy at https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/about/privacy.htm You can read our terms of service at https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/about/tos.htm

Screenshots

Guitarist's Reference4 screens
Ultimate Guitar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ultimate Guitar at Free against Guitarist's Reference's $19.99. Ultimate Guitar also leads on ratings volume (482K vs 16) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). Guitarist's Reference's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On rating 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

Ultimate Guitar is free to download; Guitarist's Reference costs $19.99 up front. Ultimate Guitar sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Guitarist's Reference asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Guitarist's Reference against 4.7 for Ultimate Guitar. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ultimate Guitar has 482K ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 62% of Guitarist's Reference's written reviews are positive against 34% of Ultimate Guitar's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Guitarist's Reference ships an update every 3 weeks, Ultimate Guitar weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Guitarist's Reference versus Ultimate Guitar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuitarist's ReferenceUltimate Guitar
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (16 ratings) — better4.7 (482K ratings)
Positive reviews62.0% of reviews — better33.8% of reviews
Number of ratings16482K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#7 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.1
Further details — not scored
Size79 MB232 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperMy App Catalog LLCUltimate Guitar

Customer experience

Guitarist's Reference

All ratings16 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews179 reviews
Positive62.0%
Neutral15.6%
Negative22.3%

Ultimate Guitar

All ratings481,382 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral2.1%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews4,568 reviews
Positive33.8%
Neutral9.0%
Negative57.2%

User reviews

Guitarist's Reference

From 16 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Comprehensive guitar reference
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 💡 Reverse chord finder
  • 🚀 Detailed chord, scale, and arpeggio information
  • 👍 Great for beginners and advanced players

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and freezes
  • 🔧 Missing some common chord and scale voicings
  • 🔧 Chord playback implementation could be improved
  • 🔧 Outdated or lacking support for newer iOS versions
  • 🔧 Interface could use a more modern design

Ultimate Guitar

From 482K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great resource for learning guitar
  • 👍 Huge library of songs and tabs
  • 👍 Helpful features like auto-scroll and transposition
  • 👍 Supportive community
  • 👍 Useful tools like tuner and metronome

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Aggressive upselling and paywalls
  • 🔒 Difficulty canceling subscriptions
  • 🤔 Inconsistent quality of user-generated tabs
  • 🤔 Confusing pricing and subscription model

Bugs and requests

Guitarist's Reference

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Chord finder not detecting all chord inversions
  • Issues with alternate tuning functionality
  • Compatibility problems with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to overlay multiple scales
  • Customizable chord/scale display options
  • Integrated tuner functionality
  • Support for more alternate tunings
  • Improved chord/scale audio playback

Ultimate Guitar

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Autoscroll feature not working as expected
  • Inability to change instruments in Guitar Pro tabs
  • Tuner not accurately detecting strings
  • Freezing and crashing on certain devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Allow adjustable font size for printed tabs
  • Improve search and navigation
  • Add more advanced features for experienced users
  • Provide better organization and categorization of content

In-app purchases

None

Guitarist's Reference

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

Ultimate Guitar

Subscriptions9
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro Sale$9.991 Month
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro$9.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • UG Pro+ (1 Month)$9.991 Month
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro Sale2 variants$22.991 Year
  • Annual Pro Access$29.991 Year
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro Sale$29.991 Year
  • Ultimate Guitar Pro1 Month trial$39.991 Year
  • UG Pro+ (1 Year)7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Guitarist's Reference free?
Guitarist's Reference costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ultimate Guitar free?
Ultimate Guitar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Guitarist's Reference or Ultimate Guitar?
Guitarist's Reference is rated higher. Guitarist's Reference averages 4.8 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while Ultimate Guitar averages 4.7 from 482K ratings.
Do Guitarist's Reference or Ultimate Guitar have ads?
Ultimate Guitar shows ads; Guitarist's Reference does not.
Which is updated more often, Guitarist's Reference or Ultimate Guitar?
Guitarist's Reference ships an update every 3 weeks, and Ultimate Guitar weekly. Most recently, Guitarist's Reference was updated on November 6, 2026 and Ultimate Guitar on November 8, 2026.

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