Fretuoso vs Oolimo Guitar Chords
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fretuoso
Learn note positions on stringed instruments through an engaging game. Supports multiple instruments and offers staff training to improve sheet music reading. Practice specific fret ranges and tunings with adaptive learning.
- Learn note locations on fretboard
- Supports 11 string instruments
- Staff training for sheet music
- Customizable practice modes
- Flexible tuning options
- Progress tracking and statistics
- Adaptive learning engine
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Master the Fretboard with Fretuoso Fretuoso is an engaging educational game designed to help you learn the location of notes on the fretboard of the guitar and other stringed instruments. With support for eleven instruments—including 4, 5, and 6-string basses, mandolin, ukulele, and banjo—you can expand your musical knowledge no matter your instrument of choice. How It Works Presented with random notes on the fretboard, you choose the correct answer from multiple options. Simply tap the right button to score points and improve your skills! The new Staff Training Mode helps you learn the positions of notes on the musical staff relative to your instrument’s fretboard, making reading sheet music a breeze. Features • Train Your Ear and Mind: Enhance your auditory skills while deepening your understanding of your instrument. • Learn Sheet Music: Master the positions of notes on the musical staff; say goodbye to tabs! • Eleven Realistic Instruments: Choose from 4 guitars, 3 basses, mandolin, ukulele, and banjo—all with beautiful, lifelike graphics. • Customized Training: Focus on specific fret ranges or string subsets to target your practice. • Flexible Tunings: Use built-in common tunings or create your own custom tunings. • Progress Visualization: Track your improvement with detailed statistics for every fret. • Smart Learning Engine: The app adapts to focus on areas where you need more practice. • Competitive Play: Enjoy Game Mode with levels of increasing difficulty, compete with friends, and share your achievements via Game Center. • Left-Handed Mode: Fully compatible with left-handed players. What Artists Are Saying “Learning the notes on the fretboard is key to any guitarist’s development, and Fretuoso is a neat way to get that info burned into your brain without having to carry a guitar everywhere you go. Pretty cool!” — Bryan Beller (The Aristocrats, Steve Vai, Mike Keneally) “This is one of the best apps I’ve seen in a while. It’s simple, fun, and educational. Very useful for guitar players, as many tend to play by ear and not focus on knowing the fretboard.” — Rick Musallam (Mike Keneally, Gryphon Labs) Unlock Full Access This version offers free access to only part of each available instrument. Unlock the full potential of Fretuoso with a Premium subscription, including every instrument, level, and feature, ad-free! Terms Of Service (EULA): https://fretuoso.app/terms/
Oolimo Guitar Chords
This app provides an interactive way to learn, understand, and master guitar chords. It offers a structured approach to chord theory, helping users visualize and hear harmonic relationships. Features include a chord finder, analyzer, progression explorer, interactive lessons, and quizzes.
- Interactive chord finder and analyzer
- Chord progression visualization
- 22 interactive theory lessons
- Chord construction and ear training quizzes
- Interactive fretboard and diagrams
- Chord playback and note display
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Oolimo is the interactive foundational reference for guitar chords – a learning and lookup app that explains chords clearly, supports songwriting, and inspires fresh sounds on the guitar. – No subscription! Pay once – use it forever and receive updates. – Current languages (included in every app): English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Chinese (Simplified), Indonesian, Japanese. Learn guitar chords and chord symbols as used by professional guitarists in modern pop, rock and jazz – including complex jazz chords. Let the Chord Analyzer name chords you've discovered on the guitar and show you how they are built. – Chord Finder, Chord Analyzer and music theory in one app. – Learn and understand chords – Read chord symbols confidently (including complex jazz chords) – Analyze chords instead of guessing – Apply music theory directly on the fretboard Oolimo clears up nonsense chords and incorrectly or confusingly written chord symbols, and explains with clear logic how chord symbols (chord names) are written unambiguously and how to correctly interpret different notations. When musicians from all over the world play together, it's important that everyone speaks and understands the same language – and that the language is easy and clearly understandable. — The Modules — Chord Finder Find musically meaningful chords instead of random guitar shapes. All fingerings come from a hand-curated database of playable voicings and are intelligently transposed by an algorithm. Every chord adapts automatically to the selected key. With a single tap you can send shapes directly to the Analyzer and explore inversions and different interpretations of the chord. Chord Analyzer Enter any guitar chord into the virtual fretboard and instantly get the correct chord name, including inversions. No "unknown chord" messages thanks to the intelligent recognition algorithm – even for complex chords, slash chords and inversions. The Chord Analyzer also supports alternative tunings (open tunings). Chord Progressions Explore and compare the most important chord progressions with an innovative matrix that visualizes harmonic functions and relationships. Practice the most important progressions systematically in different keys and variations – and master them so well that you can rattle them off in rehearsal to the amazement of your bandmates. Theory Lessons 22 interactive lessons with smart visualizations explain intervals, chord construction, voicings, slash chords, diatonic harmony and all major chord types – from first explorations on the fretboard, through major, minor and dominant 7th to altered, sus, add, 6th and diminished chords. Quizzes Use the quizzes to test and internalize your knowledge through play. The quiz tasks cover many topics: chord construction, intervals, harmonic context, chord types, voicings, tensions and much more.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Fretuoso at Free against Oolimo Guitar Chords's $5.99. Fretuoso also leads on update cadence (every 9 days vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (954 vs 105). Oolimo Guitar Chords's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On device support and iOS requirement 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
Fretuoso is free to download; Oolimo Guitar Chords costs $5.99 up front. Fretuoso sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Oolimo Guitar Chords asks for nothing beyond the download.
Oolimo Guitar Chords holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fretuoso has 954 ratings behind it against 105, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Fretuoso's written reviews are positive against 92% of Oolimo Guitar Chords's.
Fretuoso ships an update every 9 days, Oolimo Guitar Chords every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fretuoso | Oolimo Guitar Chords |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $5.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (954 ratings) | 4.8 (105 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.8% of reviews | 91.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 954 — better | 105 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 82 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 9+ |
| Developer | Catloaf Software LLC | Oliver Mochmann |
Customer experience
Fretuoso
Oolimo Guitar Chords
Bugs and requests
Fretuoso
Reported bugs
5 issues- Restore purchases not working
- Sound not working
- Crashes and freezes
- Incorrect note display
- Syncing issues
Requested features
5 requests- Allow adjusting fret marker positions
- Add 'play the fret' mode
- Improve randomness of note selection
- Provide more tuning and instrument options
- Add landscape mode support
Oolimo Guitar Chords
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Fretuoso
- Guitar$39.90
- Bass Guitar$39.90
- Banjo$39.90
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- Mandolin$39.90
- Ukulele$39.90
- 7-String Guitar$39.90
- 5-String Bass Guitar$39.90
- 6-String Bass Guitar$39.90
- Acoustic Guitar$39.90
- All Instruments$89.90
Oolimo Guitar Chords
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Fretuoso free?
Is Oolimo Guitar Chords free?
Which has better reviews, Fretuoso or Oolimo Guitar Chords?
Do Fretuoso or Oolimo Guitar Chords have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fretuoso or Oolimo Guitar Chords?
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