Comparison

iAmDrums vs Primuse

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

Head to head
About

iAmDrums

Create and play drum beats anytime, anywhere with a variety of drum kits. Features a loop maker for sequencing custom grooves and realistic drum feel with velocity and expression controls.

Highlights
  • Loop Maker Mode
  • Create and sequence custom grooves
  • Save grooves to KickStart library
  • 20 diverse drum kits
  • Velocity and expression controls
  • Realistic drum feel
Features
Read full description

It actually lets you play the drums. Not watch ads. iAmDrums is a real-feeling drum kit for iPhone and iPad. Open it and play: no ads, no subscription, no account, nothing else to buy. One price unlocks all 20 kits and every feature. SOUNDS LIKE REAL DRUMS Every kit responds to where you hit it: • Hit closer to the center for a louder beat, further out for a softer one • Hit the snare on the edge for a rim shot • Hit the center of the ride to ring the bell • Hit the center of the hi-hat for a pedal mute 20 KITS, ALL INCLUDED • Rock & band: Rock, Acoustic, Punk, Rage, Rebel, Radio, Blue • Electronic: House, Rave, Lo-Fi, Minimal, Trip Hop, 808, Analog, Industrial, Dub Step • Something different: Stomp, Orchestral, BeatBox, DrumCircle DRUMS IN YOUR POCKET For everyone who drums on everything: desks, knees, steering wheels. Long commute, time to kill, or a great beat just came on? Drum out the rhythms in your head, anywhere. MAKE YOUR OWN GROOVES Program a groove in Loop Maker, save it to your KickStart library, and play it back on any kit. PAY ONCE. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. No ads, ever. No subscription. No sign-in. We don't collect any data. Buy it once and it's yours. Tip: for the full punch of the kick and toms, play with headphones or external speakers.

About

Primuse

Consolidate all your music sources, from local files and NAS drives to cloud storage and streaming services, into a single, intuitive interface. Enjoy audiophile-grade playback with advanced features and smart discovery tools.

Highlights
  • Unified playback from NAS, cloud, local files, and streaming
  • Audiophile-grade playback with lossless decoding
  • Spatial audio and real-time spectrum visualizer
  • Smart discovery and playlist generation
  • Powerful search including lyrics and Pinyin
  • DLNA receiver functionality
  • Offline downloads and smart caching
Features
Read full description

Bring your music, podcasts, audiobooks and internet radio together on iPhone and iPad. Play local files or connect to your own servers, NAS and cloud drives, with synced lyrics, rich audio controls and a player you can make your own. YOUR FILES, SERVERS AND CLOUD DRIVES Connect to Navidrome, Subsonic/OpenSubsonic, Airsonic, gonic, Jellyfin, Emby, Plex, Synology Audio Station, Fn Music, Daoliyu Music and Songloft. Browse Synology or QNAP NAS and cloud drives including Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Baidu Netdisk, 123 Cloud Drive, Guangya Cloud Drive and Drime. Supported protocols include WebDAV, SMB/CIFS, FTP/FTPS, SFTP, NFS, S3 and UPnP/DLNA. AUDIOBOOKS AND PODCASTS Connect Audiobookshelf or Ting Reader, or add your own M4B and spoken-word files. Keep books on a separate shelf with chapters, saved positions, bookmarks, speed control and a sleep timer. Archive finished books or return for another listen. Discover shows in the podcast directory, organize local episodes by show, sort and filter them, and save favorites. Read available transcripts full screen with search, reading themes and playback highlighting. A LIBRARY THAT FITS YOU Browse albums, artists, genres, release dates and folders. Build playlists and smart playlists; use favorites, ratings, comments and listening statistics. Set a song's playback range, or mark it as disliked to skip it in shuffle, automatic continuation and recommendations. Sync favorites with compatible servers and scrobble to Last.fm or ListenBrainz. Import playlist links from Apple Music, Spotify and other services, or playlist files. Entries are matched to your own library; missing songs remain available for later matching. RADIO Search stations, add stream URLs, import or subscribe to station lists, and organize favorites with folders and tags. See live track information when available. SOUND AND FORMATS Enjoy offline downloads, gapless playback, crossfade, ReplayGain, EQ, reverb and dynamics. Choose download quality, save EQ presets and link them to output devices. Play formats including FLAC, ALAC, MP3, AAC, M4B, WAV, AIFF, APE, DSD, Ogg, Opus, WavPack and DTS. Browse CUE album images, open STRM links and watch compatible music videos. Some formats require caching or conversion. LYRICS, VISUALS AND KARAOKE Follow line- and word-synced lyrics, translations and duet parts. Edit tags, artwork and lyric files, including TTML, and save to supported writable formats and sources. Enjoy cover flow, vinyl, starry skies and music-responsive full-screen effects with selectable frame rates. Reduce vocals, change key, practice a line, score your singing or record. Medleys let you sample songs in short clips and return to the full track. On-device AI vocal separation requires iOS/iPadOS 26.4 or later and a model download. SYNC AND DISCOVERY Sync supported library data, favorites, Home layouts and playback preferences with iCloud. Transfer music, lyrics and artwork over your local network. Discover music through library recommendations or optional AI tools for semantic search, translation and audio-to-lyrics. Built-in AI requires your consent; audio transcription uploads audio only when you agree. MADE FOR IPHONE AND IPAD Customize player buttons, menus and backgrounds. Use CarPlay, Siri, widgets, Lock Screen and Dynamic Island lyrics, AirPlay, and Apple Watch controls, queue and lyrics. Share lyric posters as images, videos or Live Photos. Apple Music uses the system player with the required account access. Album pages can include catalog tracks not saved in your library, and search playback can continue with similar music.

Screenshots

iAmDrums4 screens
Primuse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Primuse at Free against iAmDrums's $3.99. Primuse also leads on review sentiment (95% vs 58%) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). iAmDrums's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On rating, ratings volume 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

Primuse is free to download; iAmDrums costs $3.99 up front. iAmDrums sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Primuse asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for iAmDrums against 5.0 for Primuse. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 15 and 29 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 58% of iAmDrums's written reviews are positive against 95% of Primuse's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iAmDrums ships an update every 3 months, Primuse every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
iAmDrums versus Primuse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriAmDrumsPrimuse
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (15 ratings)5.0 (29 ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.0% of reviews94.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1529 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB182 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRubotic, Inc.玉琴 孙

Customer experience

iAmDrums

All ratings14 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews379 reviews
Positive58.0%
Neutral10.8%
Negative31.1%

Primuse

All ratings27 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive94.9%
Neutral5.1%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

iAmDrums

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • Trip Hop drum kit invisible but audio plays
  • Drums not loading on download
  • Black screen on iPhone 11 Pro
  • Restore purchases button non-functional
  • Purchased kits becoming locked after update
Show 8 more
  • App crashes when selecting demo
  • High hat making different noises during recording
  • Latency/slow response time
  • No sound output on certain devices
  • App crashes when overwriting loops
  • Incompatibility with iOS 6 and older devices
  • Sequencer panel missing play button
  • Double-kick and drum roll functionality broken

Requested features

15 requests
  • Left-handed drum kit option
  • Extended bar/measure support (beyond 32 steps)
  • Higher BPM limit (above 160)
  • Additional cymbal types (China, Stack, Splash)
  • Custom drum kit creation
Show 10 more
  • More drum kit styles (metal, trap, EDM, techno)
  • Double-tap drum roll support
  • Adjustable drum kit layout
  • Volume mixing in play mode
  • Record mode without continuous playback
  • Audio export functionality (.wav, AudioBus, IAA, MIDI support)
  • Time signature customization (3/4 time, etc.)
  • Start/stop/pause controls
  • Ability to move drum sections for finger play
  • Multiple sequence playback in succession

Primuse

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

iAmDrums

One-time1
  • Unlock All Kits$0.99
None

Primuse

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iAmDrums free?
iAmDrums costs $3.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Primuse free?
Primuse is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iAmDrums or Primuse?
Primuse is rated higher. iAmDrums averages 4.9 out of 5 from 15 ratings, while Primuse averages 5.0 from 29 ratings.
Do iAmDrums or Primuse have ads?
Neither iAmDrums nor Primuse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iAmDrums or Primuse?
iAmDrums ships an update every 3 months, and Primuse every 4 days. Most recently, iAmDrums was updated on November 1, 2026 and Primuse on October 31, 2026.

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