D'Chords vs Guitar Machines!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
D'Chords
Access a vast library of over 7800 guitar chords with detailed fingerings and virtual fretboard displays. Explore chords in various positions, hear them played, and switch between left and right-handed views.
- Over 7000 guitar chords
- Virtual fretboard display
- Multiple fretboard positions
- Strum and hear chords
- Left and right-handed diagrams
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D'Chords is the quintessential hand-held guitar chord library brought to you by D'Addario & Company, Inc., the world's largest designer, manufacturer and distributor of musical instrument accessories. D'Chords is a companion to D'Addario's complete guitar scale and arpeggio app, "D'Scales." The D'Addario D'Chords puts a comprehensive and accurate library of over 7800 guitar chords into the palm of your hand. The D'Chords displays the notes and fingerings on a virtual fretboard, and allows you to view each chord selected in every position up and down the guitar neck. You can even strum the virtual strings to play and hear each chord in pristine audio. The library is separated into Root, Chord Type and Chord Variants, allowing you to navigate to any chord easily and quickly. The D'Chords even has a "lefty mode" for the often-ignored left handed guitarist. Enjoy exploring and expanding your chord vocabulary with this easy-to-use, comprehensive library. FEATURES: - More than 7000 chords in the Library - Displays notes and fingerings on a virtual fretboard - Displays chords in multiple fretboard positions - Strum strings to play and hear chord - Includes left-and right-handed diagrams D'Chords was developed by Audiofile Engineering, a leading developer of audio software for Mac OS X and the iPhone.
Guitar Machines!
Learn fundamental guitar theory with four interactive "machines." Visualize notes, scales, and arpeggios on the fretboard, and even see song progressions. Designed to help you master guitar playing.
- Note learning on fretboard
- Customizable scale learning
- Arpeggio visualization
- Song progression analysis
- Music theory education
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Quinn Fetrow's Guitar Machines is a free tool to help teach you basic music theory concepts on guitar! I've got 4 guitar machines for you: 1. Note Machine - Teaches the notes on the fretboard one at a time, with options for randomization! 2. Scale Machine - Learn whatever scales you want in context of the CAGED system or use the "Custom Cage" setting to generate scales within a range on the fretboard. 3. Arpeggio Machine - Learn the arpeggios through the circle of fifths, or create your own arpeggio by selecting the notes of the chord. 4. Song Machine - Visualize the arpeggios of a song as it plays through its progression. I want you to learn how to play guitar!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Guitar Machines! at 5.0 against D'Chords's 2.6. Guitar Machines! also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 63%) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). D'Chords's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Guitar Machines! holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Guitar Machines! has 43 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of D'Chords's written reviews are positive against 100% of Guitar Machines!'s.
D'Chords ships an update every 3 months, Guitar Machines! every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | D'Chords | Guitar Machines! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.6 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (43 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 8 | 43 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | D'Addario & Company, Inc. | Quinn Fetrow |
Customer experience
D'Chords
Guitar Machines!
Bugs and requests
D'Chords
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on startup
- Chord audio out of tune
- Unresponsive controls
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to create and save custom chords
- Chord progression suggestions
- Interval-based chord voicings
- Capo support
- iPad version
Guitar Machines!
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
D'Chords
No in-app purchases
Guitar Machines!
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is D'Chords free?
Is Guitar Machines! free?
Which has better reviews, D'Chords or Guitar Machines!?
Do D'Chords or Guitar Machines! have ads?
Which is updated more often, D'Chords or Guitar Machines!?
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