Comparison

Drumline vs DrumToolz

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

Head to head
About

Drumline

This app offers a comprehensive virtual drumline experience with realistic sounds and instruments. It includes practice tools, tuning features, and engaging games to hone drumming skills. Designed for serious percussionists, it provides a professional marching experience on your mobile device.

Highlights
  • Realistic snare, tenor, bass, and cymbal sounds
  • Xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone instruments
  • Adjustable metronome with various modes
  • Drumhead tuning functionality
  • Memory and speed challenge games
  • Practice pad tools
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Snare drum, Tenors, Basses, Cymbals, Xylophone, Marimba, Vibraphone, Metronome, Drumhead Tuner, Challenges, and Practice Pad Tools!!! In your pocket for the cost of a drum key. This app isn't for people who like drums or are drum-curious. This app is for those who can't stop drumming on anything and everything around them to the point where they are considered "disruptive" to their family, friends, and neighbors. Honored by Apple as "New & Noteworthy" in the Music apps category and sits in the top 50 music apps most days. This isn't some free tap app with canned sound effects and busted graphics. We're bringing the world's best drumming hardware to your fingertips. We've partnered with Dynasty USA Drums, Pro-Mark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, and Sabian Cymbals to deliver an optimized marching experience directly to your iPhone and iPad. If you're reading this you're late. 1000s of drummers before you downloaded this app and continue to download it every day: • All battery audio samples are professional recordings by DCI DVD sound engineer Jamie Vanadia at NoiseFloor Ltd. in Chicago • All front ensemble samples are courtesy of University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples (MIS) project (you guys rock!) • In Snare: toggle between dynamics and standard modes • In Basses and Tenors, toggle between Pro•Mark nylon and soft mallets while playing • In Cymbals, perform crashes, crash chokes, taps, sizzles, sizzle chokes, hi-hats, and zings • In Xylophone toggle between full keyboard and split layouts • In Marimba toggle between full keyboard and split layouts • In Vibraphone toggle between full keyboard and split layouts and operate foot pedal • Choose a color theme to matches your drumline • Play along with a metronome 30-300 bpm in wood block, metal, or "duts" mode • Configure the practice metronome with subdivision and offbeats and all that sweetness you need • Do the impossible: Tune your tenors or basses • Test your phrasing memory with the memory game • Test your BPM knowledge in the line leader game • Test your single stroke roll speed in the Speed Test challenge with your drum pad • Blazing fast touch responsiveness, literally to the limit of iOS • It's a whole drumline in your pocket for less than a drum key. Are you kidding?! Get all this when you buy now! Like no tricks. Snare: Dynasty's MS-XD14 Marching Snare Drum Tenors (5 drum and corps config): Dynasty's MT-680234 Tenor Drums in Corps Configuration with 6 inch and 8 inch shot drums Basses: Dynasty's MB-18 thru MB-26 Bass Drums - 18", 20", 22", 24", 26" Crash Cymbals: Sabian's Synergy HHX Cymbals - 18" and 20" Plus NEW: Xylophone, Marimba, and Vibraphone Memory Game • Test your drumming memory through sound and visuals • Test yourself on Snare, Tenors or Basses • Drumline captains, this will put your titles to the test! Metronome • 30-300 BPM Metronome • Subdivision of quarter, eighths, sixteenths, and triplets • NEW Save and store presets Drumhead Tuner • Hit-and-hold detection captures pitch instantly and displays for 5 seconds • Pre-configured for DCI specs with Low, Standard, and High tuning modes • Smart harmonic correction finds the true fundamental, even on bass drums • Built for marching percussion - no piano tuner nonsense, just drums Line Leader Game • Put your BPM senses to the test • You get 8 beats, then you pick which of the 3 BPMs was that tempo • The further you go the hard it gets! Speed Test • Challenge yourself to see how many taps you can do in 30 seconds! Learn more at: http://drumlineapp.com Join other drummers on Facebook (15000 likes and counting!!!): http://facebook.com/drumlineapp Or X: http://twitter.com/drumlineapp Yo! don't use real drumsticks on your device... you'll crack your screen and your friends will point and laugh at you! Let's try not to make this the bad, 1985. :)

About

DrumToolz

Compose and practice drum cadences and beats on your mobile device. This app allows manual input of exercises, generation of new ideas, and practice of rudiments. Share your creations and learn from a community of drummers.

Highlights
  • Compose drum cadences and beats
  • Manual exercise input
  • Generate new rhythmic ideas
  • Editable music score
  • Practice snare rudiments
  • Library of dynamic exercises
  • Social profile and sharing
Read full description

Compose cadences on the go! Choose from snares, tenors, bass drums, cymbals, and even drumset if you want. In a league of its own, DrumToolz also lets you manually input exercises for drum set, marching snare, tenors, and bass drums while generating new creative ideas using what you input, all shown on an editable music score. You can also upload your beats to your social profile, play what other users are playing, save rhythms, practice snare drum rudiments, and learn from a full library of dynamic exercises for both snare drum and drumset! It's perfect for all skill levels, from beginner to extremely advanced, drum wizards. Works great for sharing drum cadences with your drumline. Isolate individual snare, tenors, etc. parts. Practice the simplest to the most complex of beats and rhythms. If you can think of it, you can input it and practice it! Anything from beginner rock beats, to the most complex of jazz beats and fills. Lastly, top off the notes with ornaments: stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese. Input up to 50 measures. When practicing drum set beats, choose from a ride cymbal, hihat, hihat foot, kick drum, snare drum, and three toms. Input everything from whole notes to thirtysecond notes and tuplets. Also, for tenors, choose from four tenors and a spock. Bass drums - five bass drums. Marching snare - a realistic marching snare and a ping sound. Generate new ideas (modifications) using beats that you input into the score. Choose from several modification methods: Add, Shuffle, Substitute, Permutate, Repeat, and Random. Modify individual parts of the beat (ex: kick drum only) or the entire beat if desired. Custom snare exercises. Choose the time sig, subdivisons, tuplets, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, cheese, drags. Save the beat in the score for later practice, keeping the modifications if desired. If the modifications are kept, this turns the beat into an endless, dynamic exercise! Each time you generate an exercise, it uses the modifications to give you an entirely new beat. String together saved rhythms and practice them as one exercise, perfect for practicing beats followed by a drum fill. Upload your beats to your profile. Find and follow other drummers in the social network. Learn from them as you see and practice what they have uploaded to their profile. Share your beats through PDF links and files. Also, share your entire score with a link that pre-populates the score into the app. Learn from a full library of dynamic drum set and snare drum exercises, essential and hybrid rudiments included. For highlighted rhythms, shuffle around groups of notes, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese.

Screenshots

Drumline4 screens
DrumToolz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: DrumToolz at Free against Drumline's $4.99. DrumToolz also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). Drumline's advantage is chart position (#35 vs unranked) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 270). On rating, 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

DrumToolz is free to download; Drumline costs $4.99 up front. Drumline sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. DrumToolz asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.1 for Drumline against 4.2 for DrumToolz. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.2K and 270 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 39% of Drumline's written reviews are positive against 58% of DrumToolz's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drumline ships an update every 4 months, DrumToolz monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Drumline versus DrumToolz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrumlineDrumToolz
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.1 (1.2K ratings)4.2 (270 ratings) — better
Positive reviews39.2% of reviews58.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.2K — better270
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#35 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size171 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohn OstlerJared Simon

Customer experience

Drumline

All ratings1,151 ratings
Positive75.5%
Neutral6.1%
Negative18.4%
Written reviews125 reviews
Positive39.2%
Neutral17.6%
Negative43.2%

DrumToolz

All ratings270 ratings
Positive78.1%
Neutral8.5%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive58.1%
Neutral25.6%
Negative16.3%

User reviews

Drumline

From 1.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app for practicing percussion
  • 👍 Realistic drum and cymbal sounds
  • 🥁 Variety of percussion instruments (snare, tenors, bass)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Unresponsive or inaccurate hit detection on drums
  • 🔧 Bugs with certain drum sounds (e.g. buzzing tenors, incorrect bass pitches)
  • 📱 Compatibility issues on newer phones
  • 🤔 Confusing in-app purchase model

DrumToolz

From 270 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for writing music
  • 👍 Helpful for drumline
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Good sounds
  • 👍 Good for practice

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Tutorial not helpful
  • 🐛 Hard to find features
  • 🐛 UI issues
  • 🐛 App crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Saves progress poorly

Bugs and requests

Drumline

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Drums not registering hits correctly
  • Tenors and bass drums not playing proper pitches
  • Cymbals not functioning as expected
  • App crashing or not producing any sound

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add landscape mode for better playability
  • Allow customization of drum tuning and sound
  • Implement a metronome and ability to play along with music
  • Add more advanced drumming techniques (rolls, diddles, etc.)

DrumToolz

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • App crashes and deletes progress
  • App won't open
  • Repeat function doesn't stop
  • Repeat save fails
  • Accents, diddles, flams added automatically
Show 8 more
  • Buzz roll cannot be removed
  • Font camouflages in dark mode
  • App crashes when opening after saving
  • App crashes when opening
  • App crashes when adding notes
  • App crashes after saving
  • App crashes when trying to reopen
  • App crashes a lot

Requested features

15 requests
  • Turn off metronome
  • Add rum shot for snare
  • Add rim shots for other drums
  • Add triplets, fivelets, sixlets
  • Add dynamics (forte, piano)
Show 10 more
  • Cymbals sizzle option
  • Add buzz roll for snares
  • Add diddle feature
  • More measures
  • Add bass drum notes
  • Add open hi-hat sound
  • Improve UI for tuplet measurement
  • Improve UI for measure change
  • Ability to hear multiple instruments simultaneously
  • Fix replace button for bass drums

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Drumline

One-time2
  • Memory Game$0.99
  • Pro Version$1.99
None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Drumline free?
Drumline costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is DrumToolz free?
DrumToolz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Drumline or DrumToolz?
DrumToolz is rated higher. Drumline averages 4.1 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while DrumToolz averages 4.2 from 270 ratings.
Do Drumline or DrumToolz have ads?
Neither Drumline nor DrumToolz shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Drumline or DrumToolz?
Drumline ships an update every 4 months, and DrumToolz monthly. Most recently, Drumline was updated on September 24, 2026 and DrumToolz on September 21, 2026.

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