Band vs Zero Fret
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Band
Create professional backing tracks instantly from chord progressions. Choose from thousands of styles and hear real musicians play your music. View chords, notation, and tabs, and even generate solos for improvisation.
- Instant backing track generation
- Thousands of musical styles
- RealTracks with live musicians
- Chord sheet and notation display
- Generated solos for improvisation
- Interactive instrument displays
- Record melodies via MIDI
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Band-in-a-Box® for iOS – Your Personal Backing Band! Band-in-a-Box for iOS is a powerful music creation tool that works as a standalone version of the popular award-winning desktop software. Now, you can create, play, generate, and transfer songs directly on your iPhone or iPad—anytime, anywhere! Includes chords, professional lead sheet and notation display and print out of chords, melody, lyrics, tab and more! Create A Professional Arrangement in Two Minutes Building a song from scratch takes less than two minutes! Simply type in any chord progression using standard chord symbols (e.g., D, B7, C/E), choose from thousands of styles, and press play—Band-in-a-Box instantly generates full backing tracks that sound incredible, thanks to our industry-leading RealTracks, featuring real musicians playing real instruments. Not only can you hear your song, but you can see it too—watch it play on the guitar fretboard, in tab, or in standard notation. Key Features: Band-in-a-Box® for iOS is so easy to use! – Create, play, and arrange great sounding songs easily. Includes chords, professional lead sheet notation, and the ability to display and print chords, melody, lyrics, tabs, and more. Thousands of Styles – Choose from an extensive library of genres: jazz, rock, pop, country, blues, hip-hop, EDM, punk, Americana, world, and more! Instant Backing Tracks – Generates MIDI and RealTracks accompaniments in seconds. RealTracks & RealStyles – Enjoy high-quality, real-instrument backing tracks. Generated Solos – Band-in-a-Box not only creates backing tracks, but will also generate solos based on your custom chord progression—an excellent tool for learning and improvisation! Chord Sheet & Notation – View songs on the chord sheet, professional notation, tablature, and drum notation. Interactive Instrument Displays – Watch MIDI notes being played on the guitar fretboard or piano keyboard in real-time. Seamless File Management – Load and save individual or zipped song files. Export, print, and share via AirDrop, Messages, Email, and more. Customizable Display Options – Works in both portrait and landscape mode, with a choice of dark mode or light mode. Record Your Own Melodies – Capture your ideas by recording directly to the melody or soloist track using a MIDI controller. Mixer & Editing Tools – Adjust instrument volume, edit chords, and fine-tune your tracks with the Chord Sheet Editor. Song Demos – Browse and listen to demo songs in different styles to find the perfect sound for your track. Built-in Help & Tips – A handy HELP button provides guidance and useful tips on using the app. …and much more! Perfect for Musicians, Songwriters, and Educators Band-in-a-Box for iOS is the perfect tool for practicing improvisation and music theory, songwriting, and music production. Whether you’re learning your favorite songs, experimenting with different musical patterns, or composing new tracks in minutes, this app is for you! Band-in-a-Box® for iOS – Your Ultimate Songwriting & Practice Companion!
Zero Fret
This app provides a visual and haptic guitar and bass tuning experience. It displays string wobble and offers tactile feedback to guide tuning adjustments, supporting a wide range of instruments and custom tunings.
- Visual string wobble indicator
- Haptic feedback for tuning guidance
- Support for guitar, bass, ukulele, and more
- Custom tuning creation and saving
- Chromatic fallback tuning
- Adjustable reference pitch
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Zero Fret is a guitar and bass tuner you can see and feel. Pluck a string and watch it wobble on screen at the rate your string is beating against the right note. Turn the peg and the wobble slows; when it stops, you're in tune. On iPhone, turn on Feel the Beat and the phone taps once per beat in your hand, so you can keep your eyes on the pegs. • Guitar: Standard, Drop D, E-flat, D Standard, DADGAD, Open G, Open D, 7- and 8-string • Bass: 4-, 5- and 6-string • Ukulele (standard, low G, D, baritone), mandolin, mandola, banjo, violin and viola • Your own custom tunings, and favorites for one-tap switching • "Too slack, tighten" and "too tight, ease off": every reading says which way to turn • Chromatic fallback for notes that aren't one of your strings • Adjustable reference pitch, A = 410 to 470 Hz • Feel the Beat and the in-tune tick need a haptic engine: every supported iPhone has one, iPad does not • No accounts, ads, analytics or subscriptions • Works without a network connection • Free and open source: github.com/phall1/zero-fret Audio is processed live on your device. It is never recorded, stored or transmitted. The microphone runs only while Zero Fret is on screen and stops when you leave the app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Zero Fret at 5.0 against Band's 4.0. Zero Fret also leads on monetization model (free vs paid) and update cadence (daily vs every 2 months). Band's advantage is ratings volume (40 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Zero Fret holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Band has 40 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Band ships an update every 2 months, Zero Fret daily. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Band | Zero Fret |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (40 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 23.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 40 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 771 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PG Music Inc. | Patrick Hall |
Customer experience
Band
Zero Fret
Bugs and requests
Band
Reported bugs
17 issues- App crashes when saving songs
- Changes to chords, styles, and form not applied to playback
- Cannot generate RealTracks, only MIDI output
- Notation feature shows whole bar rests instead of arrangements
- Playback sync lag with chord display (2+ measures behind)
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- Cursor position out of range during playback
- App freezes when touching song title area
- Files not saving to local storage or Files app
- Song data loss after updates
- Instrument settings not persisting
- Server connection failures and timeouts
- Transpose function disappeared in recent updates
- Style gets stuck and won't change
- Inconsistent RealTracks generation
- Pick server option missing in some versions
- Screen controls hidden on iPhone due to notch design
- App doesn't rotate to landscape mode
Requested features
16 requests- Loop function for specific song segments
- Transpose functionality for practice in all keys
- Multiple chords per measure entry
- Ability to change key automatically for transposing instruments
- Mute individual instruments
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- Change instrument types (electric to acoustic)
- Adjust instrument volume levels
- Go To and Loop conductor features
- Change number of choruses on mobile device
- Landscape orientation support
- Offline editing capabilities without server connection
- Manual and comprehensive documentation
- Export to email and messaging apps
- Better Mac OS compatibility
- Rotate portrait orientation 180 degrees
- Standalone functionality without desktop BIAB required
Zero Fret
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Band
No in-app purchases
Zero Fret
No in-app purchases









