Comparison

Play By Ear vs EarForge

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

Head to head
About

Play By Ear

Develop your musical ear with this call-and-response ear training app. It uses pitch recognition, allowing you to play notes back on your instrument instead of pressing buttons. Practice melodies, chords, and intervals in a way that mirrors real musical performance.

Highlights
  • Pitch recognition for instrumental interaction
  • Hands-free, continuous play
  • Interval, chord, and melody exercises
  • Customizable tempo
  • Multiple key centers
  • Microphone calibration
Features
Read full description

Play By Ear is a call-and-response ear training application that helps you develop the ability to hear pitches and play them back on your instrument by ear. Unlike other applications which force you to press buttons to indicate the notes you've heard, Play By Ear uses pitch recognition so you can play the notes back on your instrument (piano, guitar, trumpet, etc). Using your instrument to play the notes allows you to practice ear training in a method that most closely matches how you'll actually play music. ---------------------- APPLICATION FEATURES: ---------------------- - Pitch recognition so you can use your instrument to interact with the ear trainer - Hands-free, continuous play - Interval exercises - Chord exercises - Random melody exercises - Scale pattern melody exercises - Jazz lick melody exercises - Melodic and harmonic note sequences - Ascending and descending note sequences - Microphone calibration - Customizable tempo - Ability to show or hide the first note - C, Bb, Eb, F, G, and D key centers to match your instrument ---------------------- Note: Your device needs a microphone to fully enjoy Play By Ear's pitch recognition features. iPads, iPhones, and the latest iTouch all have microphones built-in, however older iTouch devices will need a headset or similar external microphone.

About

EarForge

This app offers a structured ear training program designed to improve your sense of pitch and ability to recognize musical notes and chords. It features progressive lessons, personalized quizzes, and detailed progress tracking. Advanced users can create custom training sessions for specific musical elements.

Highlights
  • 30-level note recognition program
  • Chord identification lessons
  • Customizable note and chord training
  • Progress tracking with profile statistics
  • Ad-free experience (PRO)
  • Exclusive themes (PRO)
Features
Read full description

— Featured in App of the Day and one of Apple's "Apps We Love", "Our latest Favourites" and "Turn Learning Into a Game" more than 100 countries including United States, United Kingdom and China! — EarForge is an app that can help you achieve the perfect ears and improve your sense of pitch with our well-designed training program. FEATURES - Lessons NOTES Enjoy our 30-level well-designed program. Develop your skill to recognize different notes. Great for beginners and any musicians. - Lessons CHORDS Given a single chord. Your goal is to identify the chord that you heard. - Quiz Unlock the quiz to challenge yourself in the next level. - Profile You can find your stat here. Check out your note accuracy, what you’re good at and what to improve. And track your progress with Facebook login, Google login or sign in with apple. EarForge PRO — a paid subscription feature * - Training NOTES You can program your own specific notes, sounds and octaves. This training mode will help you focus on the notes you want to learn and practice. - Training CHORDS You can program on specific chord keys, chord types and octaves. Listen to the chord and try to guess the correct answers. - Custom NOTES LESSON Keep practicing and create your own notes lesson. Select at least 3 notes you want to learn. This lesson will collect stats but not collect stars. - Custom CHORDS LESSON Keep practicing and create your own chords lesson. Select chord keys and select at least 3 chord types. This lesson will collect stats but not collect stars. - Exclusive themes It's beautiful and more delightful to use. - No ads Ad-free, no interruptions. * EarForge PRO subscription price is $2.99/month or $19.99/year. (Pricing may be converted to your local currency.) Payment will be charged to your iTunes account. Your subscription will auto-renew within 24 hours before the end of the current period and you can turn off auto-renewal at any time in the account settings. See our Privacy Policy at https://earforge.blog/privacy-policy/ and Terms of Service at https://earforge.blog/terms-of-service/ Feedback is always welcome, please let we know in the comment.  Start forging your ears now! Learn Perfect pitch / Relative pitch / Absolute pitch / Ear training

Screenshots

Play By Ear1 screens
EarForge4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Play By Ear at none against EarForge's 2. Play By Ear also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 63%). EarForge's advantage is ratings volume (292 vs 79). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. EarForge sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Play By Ear asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

EarForge holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 79 and 292 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 82% of Play By Ear's written reviews are positive against 63% of EarForge's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, EarForge every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 16, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Play By Ear versus EarForge: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlay By EarEarForge
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (79 ratings)4.6 (292 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews — better62.7% of reviews
Number of ratings79292 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSuperNonstop.com, Inc.Patcharapon Phasukdee

Customer experience

Play By Ear

All ratings79 ratings
Positive87.3%
Neutral5.1%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews104 reviews
Positive81.7%
Neutral10.6%
Negative7.7%

EarForge

All ratings292 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral5.5%
Negative6.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive62.7%
Neutral11.9%
Negative25.4%

Bugs and requests

Play By Ear

Reported bugs

29 issues
  • No audio output
  • App crashes frequently
  • Pitch detection not working
  • Plays single tone only
  • Loses sound with timer/calls
Show 24 more
  • Currently broken, plays back unison only
  • Not working with iOS 9
  • No audio on iPhone 6+
  • Does not work with iOS8
  • Doesn't save calibration
  • Calibration only works sometimes
  • Problems detecting notes below bottom 'A' on guitar
  • Doesn't hear low octave notes
  • App crashes after one or two exercises
  • Does not play pitch as it should
  • App keeps crashing after one exercise
  • Pitch detection issues with voice
  • Over-sensitive pitch detection
  • App crashes after OS4 upgrade
  • Phone doesn't pick up keys played on keyboard
  • Tendency to crash randomly
  • App crashes after one exercise
  • Pitch detection too sensitive for wind instruments
  • Doesn't pick up electric guitar
  • Only picks up half notes on acoustic guitar
  • App crashes, especially on interval section
  • Mic issues with iPod Touch (not new version)
  • App crashes after OS4 upgrade
  • Phone doesn't pick up keys played on keyboard

Requested features

21 requests
  • Repeat option for phrases
  • Limit scale patterns to selected scales/keys
  • Profiles for multi-instrumentalists
  • Test from the same root note sometimes
  • Sign in and save practice data
Show 16 more
  • Vary rhythms of melodies
  • Add bass clef option
  • Option to randomize ascending, descending, melodic, and harmonic intervals
  • Add inversions for triads/chords
  • Add more chord types
  • Add a playable keyboard
  • Setting to prevent sleep mode
  • Ability to mix ascending and descending intervals/chords
  • Input own phrases for practice
  • Add rhythm feature
  • Super-imposed pitch graph for feedback
  • More forgiving pitch setting for wind players
  • Option to force exercises in a chosen key
  • Change clef in which notes are displayed
  • Super easy version with delayed answer feedback
  • Keyboard option for public places practice

EarForge

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Play By Ear

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

EarForge

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Play By Ear free?
Play By Ear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is EarForge free?
EarForge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Play By Ear or EarForge?
EarForge is rated higher. Play By Ear averages 4.4 out of 5 from 79 ratings, while EarForge averages 4.6 from 292 ratings.
Do Play By Ear or EarForge have ads?
Neither Play By Ear nor EarForge shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Play By Ear or EarForge?
Play By Ear ships an update every 2 months, and EarForge every 5 weeks. Most recently, Play By Ear was updated on September 16, 2026 and EarForge on September 8, 2026.

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