Comparison

iLehra vs TaalMala

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

Head to head
About

iLehra

This app provides a wide variety of lehra accompaniments for tabla solos, featuring realistic sounds on multiple instruments. It includes an auto-tuner, tap tempo, and the ability to save custom presets for a personalized practice experience.

Highlights
  • 110 Lehras in 60+ raags for 25 taals
  • Realistic lehras on Harmonium, Violin, Flute, or Santoor
  • Integrated auto-tuner for instrument tuning
  • Background play for multitasking
  • Tap tempo and metronome functionality
  • Save and export custom presets
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

So you want to play tabla. Got lehra? Well, we have a whole bunch for you! Our Lehra player is just waiting to accompany you. Tired of harmonium lehras? Not to worry, he can also play the violin, flute or Santoor! ________________________________________ ◆ Universal app - buy once and run on iPad or iPhone! ◆ WITH INTEGRATED AUTO-TUNER! ◆ NOTE: This does NOT play Tabla, it provides accompaniment for tabla solos ________________________________________ And the reviews are in: ***** "Wow, lehra in my pocket!" ***** "Fantastic, keep up the good work!" ***** "Simple yet pretty interface" ***** "Good natural sound" ***** "Great concept, EXCELLENT execution" ________________________________________ ◆ ABOUT THE TABLA & LEHRA ◆ The Tabla is a percussion instrument widely used in Indian Classical music both as a solo instrument and as an accompaniment to vocal or instrumental music. When played as a solo instrument, the tabla is accompanied (usually on the harmonium or sarangi) by a continuous cyclical musical phrase or riff called the "Lehra" or "Nagma" (ostinato in western music) that keeps track of the "aavartan" or rythmic cycle in the chosen "taal". ________________________________________ ◆ AND NOW PRESENTING - iLehra ◆ iLehra was the first electronic Lehra / Nagma player for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and its now available on the iPad as well! It provides accurate as well as pleasing lehra accompaniment for a wide variety of taals and raags on the Harmonium, Santoor, Violin, or the Flute. Innovative features include tanpura auto-tuned to the chosen lehra/raag, presets, tap-tempo, metronome, and extremely intuitive controls. See the iLehra website for a YouTube demo: http://iLehra.com ________________________________________ ◆ KEY FEATURES ◆ √ Plays 110 Lehras in 60+ raags for 25 taals √ Taals included: Ada Chautaal(14), Basant Taal(9), Chartal-ki-Sawari(11), Chautaal(12), Dadra(6), Deepchandi(14), Dhamar(14), Ektaal(12), Faradost/Firdost(14), Ganesh Taal(21), Jai Taal(13) Jhaptaal(10), Jhoomra(14), Keherva(8), Matta Taal(9), Pancham Sawari(15), Rudra Taal(11), Rupak(7), Sooltaal(10), Teentaal(16), as well as general lehras for 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, 13, and 18 beats. √ Beautiful, realistic lehras on Harmonium, Violin, Flute, or Santoor! √ Full octave of pitch adjustments from C through B √ INTEGRATED AUTO-TUNER: Auto-Tune iLehra to your tabla, or use it to tune other instruments (microphone capability required such as iPhone built-in mic or 2nd/3rd generation iPod Touch with external microphone) √ BACKGROUND PLAY: Start playing the lehra and switch to another app, or play along with iPod music √ TAP TEMPO: just tap the beats on the bottom display and watch iLehra sync up! √ PRESETS: save your frequently-used combinations of pitch, taal, lehra, instrument & tempo as named presets. And now you can also export/import presets via email or iTunes File Sharing. √ Extremely accurate tempo tested to within 1 milli-second √ Each lehra has three variations for slow, medium and fast tempos for more natural-sounding lehras √ Beautiful tanpura auto-tuned to pitch and raag of lehra √ Optional Metronome click-track with different sounds for matras, taalis & khaalis √ Wide range of tempo from 15 to 500 bpm √ Automatic range selection (vilambit, madhya, drut) based on tempo slider √ Extremely precise control of fine-tuning and tempo by clicking on the slider endpoints (- or +). Every click changes the tempo by 1 cent or 1 bpm √ x/2 & 2x buttons to quickly halve or double the tempo √ For even easier control, simply double-tap on the pitch or tempo slider to get a popup picker wheel √ Displays current matra being played √ Can be used with speakers, headset, or the internal speaker. A high-quality speaker dock or bluetooth speaker is recommended for maximum effect. ________________________________________

About

TaalMala

This app provides realistic accompaniment for Indian classical musicians, featuring high-quality sampled instruments like Tabla and Tanpura. It offers extensive pre-composed compositions and allows users to create their own Taals, Lehras, and SwarMandal patterns. Ideal for daily practice or live performances.

Highlights
  • High-quality sampled instruments
  • 360+ pre-composed Taals
  • 246+ pre-composed Lehras
  • 620+ pre-composed SwarMandal patterns
  • Compose custom Taals and Lehras
  • Sequencer for arranging patterns
  • Adjustable tempo and pitch
Features
Read full description

TaalMala provides personalized accompaniment of Tabla, Pakhawaj, Manjeera, Tanpura, SwarMandal and Lehra/Nagma on Santoor and Harmonium. Use TaalMala for your daily riyaaz or live concerts. With high-quality Tabla, Pakhawaj, Manjeera, Tanpura, SwarMandal, Santoor and Harmonium sounds sampled from real instruments, more than 360+ pre-composed Taals and Sequences, and more than 246+ pre-composed Lehra/Nagma compositions, and 650+ SwarMandal patterns in 65+ Ragas, TaalMala provides a complete practising solution for any Indian musician. With TaalMala Composer, you can compose your own Taals, Lehras/Nagmas, SwarMandal patterns by simply typing the notation of the Taal/Lehra on special built-in Taal/Lehra keyboard. With TaalMala Sequencer, you can arrange sequences of fixed or randomized or tempo-based Taal and Lehra/Nagma patterns. TaalMala features: - High-quality studio-recorded Tabla, Pakhawaj, Tanpura, SwarMandal, Santoor, Harmonium and Manjeera (Zanj) sounds - Two sets of Tabla/Dagga sounds and ability to choose and mix-match between the two sound sets - 360+ pre-composed Taals and Taal sequences, including most popular Taals and their variations - 246+ pre-composed Lehra/Nagma compositions and sequences in multitude of ragas and Taals - 620+ pre-composed SwarMandal patterns in 62+ Ragas - New Taals, Lehras/Nagmas and compositions added frequently as updates - Compose your own Taals and Lehras/Nagmas by simply entering the notation - Powerful sequencer to compose fixed, tempo-based and randomized sequences from the Taals and Lehras library - Taal/Lehra/SwarMandal pad; play any Taal/Lehra/SwarMandal pattern on-demand in live accompaniment - Automatic Manjeera/Zanj accompaniment, synchronized with the Tabla/Pakhawaj Taals - Adjustable tempo from 10 bpm to 1000 bpm - Pitch control (+/- 0.5 octave), with independent fine-tuning of all instruments for precise matching with your scale - Pitch detector for detecting your pitch and precise matching, built within the app - Independent volume control for Tabla/Pitch, Dagga/Bass, Manjeera and Lehra/Nagma - Choice of chromatic or just/harmonic tuning for all instruments, with fine-tuning capability. - Up to 2 simultaneous Tanpuras - High-quality Tanpura sounds (male and female tones) with all popular Tanpura patterns included - Adjustable Tanpura tempo and strumming speed of 4 Tanpura strings independently - Option to slightly vary the Tanpura plucking delays randomly for better realism - Tap on the screen twice to set exact Taal tempo, as required This version of the application has following limitations: Playback restricted to 5 minutes every hour. To unlock full functionality and remove the limitation above, click "Buy" option on the main screen. Once you purchase a subscription to the app, the 5-minute per hour limitation will be removed. Please contact us at service@taalmala.com if you have any questions. Licensing terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Our privacy policy: https://www.taalmala.com/privacy.shtml

Screenshots

iLehra4 screens
TaalMala4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: TaalMala at Free against iLehra's $19.99. TaalMala also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.6) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17). iLehra's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (68% vs 33%). On ratings volume, ads and device support 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

TaalMala is free to download; iLehra costs $19.99 up front. TaalMala sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. iLehra asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TaalMala holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 68 and 177 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 68% of iLehra's written reviews are positive against 33% of TaalMala's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iLehra ships an update every 3 weeks, TaalMala every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
iLehra versus TaalMala: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriLehraTaalMala
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating3.6 (68 ratings)4.3 (177 ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.9% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings68177 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#191 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS1712.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPrasad UpasaniAbhijit Patait

Customer experience

iLehra

All ratings68 ratings
Positive61.8%
Neutral4.4%
Negative33.8%
Written reviews112 reviews
Positive67.9%
Neutral10.7%
Negative21.4%

TaalMala

All ratings177 ratings
Positive82.5%
Neutral3.4%
Negative14.1%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral14.3%
Negative52.4%

In-app purchases

None

iLehra

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

TaalMala

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Edition - Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Premium Edition - Yearly$29.991 Year

Questions

Is iLehra free?
iLehra costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is TaalMala free?
TaalMala is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iLehra or TaalMala?
TaalMala is rated higher. iLehra averages 3.6 out of 5 from 68 ratings, while TaalMala averages 4.3 from 177 ratings.
Do iLehra or TaalMala have ads?
Neither iLehra nor TaalMala shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iLehra or TaalMala?
iLehra ships an update every 3 weeks, and TaalMala every 2 months. Most recently, iLehra was updated on November 6, 2026 and TaalMala on November 1, 2026.

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