Droneo vs DroneLab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Droneo
Create rich, evolving drone textures with precise intonations. This synthesizer is ideal for meditation, relaxation, or experimental music creation, offering a wide range of timbres from calming to discordant.
- Polyphonic drone textures
- Precise intonations
- Customizable timbres
- Evolving soundscapes
- Audiobus and IAA support
- User-controlled intervals
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Droneo will bathe your ears with rich polyphonic textures! Droneo is a synthesizer which drones with various timbres and precise intonations that blur the distinction between tones, timbres and chords. Its drone is great for meditation, centering, and calming, walking and biking, but also can be set up for discordant noise and insect-like buzzing and chirping. With Droneo, you can create surprisingly rich, motion filled drones which change over time in a controlled way. Quietly nested in your earbuds or blasted though your stack of amps, Droneo fills your droning needs! Droneo is a relative of one of my other iPhone Apps, SrutiBox. Droneo works with Audiobus and IAA to expand its droning capabilities. —————————————————————————————— Best app I have! "Absolutely love this beautiful app that I use every day. Fantastic concept. Ingeniously implemented. Worth buying an iPhone for!!" -- Petey Pete UK ''Brilliant ! Haunting & beautiful. Inspiring to use in creative music projects for recording or even live performance. The aching, melancholy voice drones are a perfect, gentle way to relax, meditate, induce calm & even aid sleep. Henry you have put something wonderful into the world here, not only an engrossing fun app. Any musicians lucky enough to discover Droneo will find it as cool as I do. Could be used on a daily basis by those practicing relaxation techniques & is a steal at the price!" -- JC / ENGLAND' "Composers delight" This is a truly beautiful little app, and should not be missed by any musicians or dabblers into minimalist or drone based composition. It produces a wide variety of mesmerising drone based tones, all customisable by the user. I have been exporting the audio straight into Logic via a midi keyboard and the results are fantastic. The creative possibilities presented by the iPhone continue to astound me! I highly recommend this app. -- Australian App Store comment Droneo is great whether you use it recreationally to relax or meditate, as a utility either to help tune, educationally to better understand harmonic interaction, or creatively with other music equipment. With a little creativity and effects :) you can use it with almost any type of music. For me, it's had a lasting appeal way beyond most other apps in this price range.[...] Recommended. -- J onah, US Store The most forward thinking music app I have seen. This app allows me to deal with ratios in sound. Most other music apps are limited to equal temperament. Thank you Mr. Lowengard for taking a step forward in musical thinking, and giving us the chance to experience music in a new way via your app, Droneo! -- by mike uhler Wonderful software. With the evolving voices it's as though I'm being accompanied by a living breathing entity - at the same time combined with precise control over what's played: the tuning, the notes and harmonics. -- materialworlds The settings for all the intervals can be visualized and manipulated using a special "Tone Spiral" interface. Droneo is also an excellent way to play with the way chords fuse into timbres. You can get a feel for how certain timbres fit "naturally" in certain frequency ranges, and how tunings and timbres and chords intertwine. Want to know more? Go to the Droneo support page at http://www.jhhl.net/iPhone/Droneo for more information, contact info, and videos! visit my iPhone App Facebook group for starting discussions etc! http://www.jhhl.net/iPhone/fb.html And don't forget to check out my other apps!
DroneLab
Generate evolving ambient music with three parallel audio sources and unique sound effects. Save and export your creations for use in music or video projects, or use it for improvisation and practice.
- Three parallel continuous audio sources
- Custom sound effects
- Preset selection and customization
- Stereo audio export up to 96KHz
- Real-time recording
- Improvisation and experimentation tool
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DroneLab creates slowly shifting musical soundscapes. Control three continuous audio sources running in parallel, each with its own rate of shifting intensity. Expand the soundscape with unusual sound effects crafted specifically for DroneLab. Get going quickly by selecting one of the included presets. Go further by selecting and customizing the sound sources, and save your own presets to the list. Create soundscapes for your music and video projects: - Export a stereo audio file with your current settings, at sample rates up to 96KHz. On newer devices, exports occur faster than real time. - Or, you can record in real time, capturing all the changes you make to the sounds as you go. DroneLab is great for improvisation and experimentation: - Explore the melodic side of your instrument in a fun, relaxing setting. - Warm up before practicing more difficult material. - Explore sounds and articulations that aren't part of your usual repertoire. Please visit us at dronelab.app for videos, more information and support.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Droneo at 4.8 against DroneLab's 4.4. Droneo also leads on review sentiment (90% vs 70%) and iOS requirement (8.2 vs 15.0). DroneLab's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $2.99). On ratings volume, update cadence, 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
Droneo costs $2.99 and DroneLab $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Droneo holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 20 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Droneo's written reviews are positive against 70% of DroneLab's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Droneo | DroneLab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (31 ratings) — better | 4.4 (20 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 89.6% of reviews — better | 70.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 31 — better | 20 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.2 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Henry Lowengard | Jon Lukas |
Customer experience
Droneo
DroneLab
Bugs and requests
Droneo
Reported bugs
12 issues- Distorted sound output
- App crashes
- Cannot access or export recordings
- Refuses to close and drains battery
- Battery drain even after swiping to dismiss
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- Full restart required to stop battery drain
- Crashes on iPhone 6s, iPad Air, iPad Pro (iOS 10.2.1)
- Crashes after 20 seconds on title page
- Outdated, will not work in AudioBus 2.1
- Crashes a lot when putting in custom ratios
- Popping/clicking with 'evolving 1' timbre
- Cannot find email address for developer
Requested features
23 requests- iPad or Mac version
- More chords and consecutive partials/pitches
- AUv3 capable new version
- Modulate tones on spiral interface automatically
- More modulation methods
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- iPad version
- AUv3 support
- iPad interface
- iPad version with larger control interface
- Accelerometer controls
- Two more drone sounds
- Tilt to alter sound with accelerometer
- Dark mode option
- On-off toggle
- Individual osc shape changes
- Ability to change individual osc shapes
- More advanced modulation options
- Recording function
- Accelerometer controls
- More drone sounds
- Tilt control
- More comprehensive help information
- Remove bee icon and theme
DroneLab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Droneo
No in-app purchases
DroneLab
No in-app purchases









