Comparison

Piano Apprentice vs Colossus Piano

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

Head to head
About

Piano Apprentice

Learn piano with video lessons from a professional instructor. Follow along with visual cues on a compatible keyboard or learn to read sheet music. Practice songs at your own pace or simply enjoy improvising.

Highlights
  • Video piano lessons
  • Interactive keyboard lighting
  • Sheet music tutorials
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • Piano jam mode
Features
Read full description

Learn to play piano the easy way with Piano Apprentice! Piano lesson videos are provided by The Piano Guy, a.k.a. Scott Houston. Just press “Piano Lessons”, pick the song you want to learn and he will show you how easy it is to play popular melodies. Start with the Right Hand alone, then the Left. Once those are mastered he will show you how to put your hands together! If you are using the Ion Piano Apprentice keyboard, the notes will light up along with Scott’s hands. Follow the lights and begin playing music instantly! Or, if you want to learn to read notes, select “Sheet Music” from the home screen. Then, you can choose to watch a basic tutorial on reading notes, or just dive right in to the song of your choice. Speed controls are provided for controlling the playback tempo, so you can learn at your own pace. Of course you can just have fun playing the piano and making up your own melodies by selecting “Piano Jam”.

About

Colossus Piano

Experience incredibly realistic piano sounds with a vast library of acoustic and electric piano models. This app offers advanced features like multi-velocity layers, pedal support, and MIDI integration for a professional playing experience.

Highlights
  • 13 high-quality piano models
  • 24 velocity layers per key
  • Sustain, Sostenuto, and Soft pedal support
  • MIDI integration (In/Out)
  • Audio Unit v3 and Inter-App Audio support
  • Low latency disk streaming
  • Adjustable tuning options
Features
Read full description

Colossus Piano sets a new standard in terms of realism, detail and overall quality of piano sounds on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. There are 8 acoustic piano models available as 8 individual in-app purchases, plus 5 E-Piano legends bundled as 1 sound set with this app, together those 13 piano models make up 30 Gigabyte of sound material. All keys of all piano models were recorded in full length with a recording quality of 24 bit and 96 kHz stereo. Note: this app requires in-app purchases to provide its functionalities! Minimum Requirement: at least iPad 3 / iPad Air 1 / iPad mini 2 / iPhone 5 / iPod touch 6th gen. Recommended: iPad Air 2 / iPad mini 4 / iPad Pro / iPhone SE / iPhone 6s or higher. The dark brown „Colossus Concert Grand” model:³ • 24 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 14 GB in size (SSD space). The white „Baby Grand” model: • 12 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 6 GB in size (SSD space). The „Upright Piano” model: • 8 velocity layers per key. • Dedicated sustain samples. • Release hammer sound. • Optional pad sound. • 3.4 GB in size (SSD space). The „E-Piano” sound set: • 5 legendary E-Piano models (plus different model generations or configurations). • 17 E-Piano sounds in total. • Optional pad sound. • Optional tremolo effect. • 1.6 GB in size (SSD space). For information about the other piano models, please visit our product website! This app supports Audio Unit v3, Inter-App Audio and Bluetooth LE MIDI ! Software features: • Modulation wheel support for controlling the most relevant sound parameter of the currently selected sound. • Warm pad sound of a well known analogue synthesizer (not available for all models) can be turned on/off as support for the piano sound; volume can be controlled by mod. wheel and expr. controller. • Sustain pedal support for holding notes. • Sostenuto pedal support for holding individual notes. • Soft pedal support for a more gentle sound. • Expression pedal support for controlling optional pad layer's volume. • Hammer sound when releasing keys, uses round robin, can be turned on/off and volume controlled (some acoustic pianos only). • Polyphony of up to several hundred stereo voices.² • Low latency disk streaming. • Configurable audio latency down to 1 ms. • Integrated effects (18 presets). • App States: Save app's entire state as user presets. • MIDI velocity response curve editor. • App can keep running in the background. • Master Tune, Scale Tuning & Hermode Tuning. • Provides Audio Unit v3 plugin version of this app, which allows it to be used as virtual instrument directly within 3rd party multi-track DAW apps. • Supports Apple's "Inter-App Audio" system. • Virtual on-screen piano keyboard with velocity support, scalable & scrollable. MIDI Player / Recorder: • Record, save and load your songs in standard MIDI file format. • Share your songs easily as audio file. • Unlimited amount of tracks. • Unlimited recording and playback length. • Open MIDI (.mid) files directly from other apps (i.e. from Safari, Mail). • Download or upload MIDI files with iTunes. • Metronome. • Use the "Tempo Zoom" dial knob to i.e. slow down playback at any time, learn your favorite songs more easily. ¹ For more information about supported adapters and MIDI keyboards, please visit our product website. ² Some sounds might use several voices per note. Polyphony depends on the exact device model being used. You find a polyphony table on our product website. ³ Important: the dark brown „Colossus Grand” piano model requires a large amount of main memory, so we only recommend this piano model for device models mentioned as „recommended” above.

Screenshots

Piano Apprentice3 screens
Colossus Piano4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Colossus Piano at 65 against Piano Apprentice's 17. Piano Apprentice's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Piano Apprentice sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Colossus Piano sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.4 for Piano Apprentice against 3.3 for Colossus Piano. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 65 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 46% of Piano Apprentice's written reviews are positive against 54% of Colossus Piano's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Piano Apprentice ships an update every 5 weeks, Colossus Piano every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Piano Apprentice versus Colossus Piano: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiano ApprenticeColossus Piano
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (17 ratings) — better3.3 (65 ratings)
Positive reviews46.5% of reviews54.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1765 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size75 MB384 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperION AudioChristian Schoenebeck d/b/a Crudebyte

Customer experience

Piano Apprentice

All ratings17 ratings
Positive58.8%
Neutral5.9%
Negative35.3%
Written reviews99 reviews
Positive46.5%
Neutral16.2%
Negative37.4%

Colossus Piano

All ratings65 ratings
Positive50.8%
Neutral9.2%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews112 reviews
Positive54.5%
Neutral9.8%
Negative35.7%

User reviews

Piano Apprentice

From 17 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👨‍🏫 Excellent instructor (Piano Guy) with patient, friendly teaching style
  • 🎹 Works well with ION keyboard and other MIDI keyboards
  • 📚 Sheet music feature helps with music reading
  • 🆓 Free app with no paywall for core content
  • 🎯 Effective for beginners learning basic songs quickly

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Video playback controls broken - cannot rewind/fast-forward
  • 📥 Frequent download failures and missing content
  • ⚡ App crashes and compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • 🎬 No video display in lessons (audio only)
  • ⌨️ Keyboard keys unresponsive or not lighting up

Colossus Piano

From 65 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎶 Amazing piano sound quality
  • 🎹 Realistic and detailed samples
  • 🎧 High-fidelity audio
  • ✨ Professional-grade instrument
  • 💡 Inspiring and expressive

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive in-app purchases
  • 🚫 No free trial or demo sounds
  • 💸 Overpriced for some users
  • 💾 Large storage requirements
  • 🐌 Slow download times

Bugs and requests

Piano Apprentice

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • Video seek/scrub functionality resets to beginning on iOS 6.1+
  • Lessons fail to download or download incomplete
  • Video displays blank screen with audio only
  • Keys not lighting up during playback
  • App fails to update or gets stuck on update screen
Show 5 more
  • Content vanishes after app closure
  • Keyboard unresponsive without app connection
  • Playback controls broken on iPad 2 and newer iOS versions
  • Sheet music playback has same seek issues as video
  • Download pending indefinitely without completion

Requested features

14 requests
  • Add more songs to the library
  • Implement proper video scrubbing/seek functionality
  • Slow down instructor playback speed
  • Add pause and rewind controls for videos
  • Include left-hand chord notation in sheet music
Show 9 more
  • Add chord training and music theory lessons
  • Implement adjustable tempo/BPM controls
  • Add different difficulty levels for beginners vs advanced
  • Include note labeling on sheet music
  • Add voice-over identifying note names
  • Provide downloadable content for offline use
  • Create in-app song purchase options
  • Add headphone jack to keyboard
  • Extend keyboard to full octave range

Colossus Piano

Reported bugs

27 issues
  • Crashes when exporting to WAV/M4A in GarageBand
  • App crashes when switching piano models
  • Audio Unit extension crashes
  • No sound when exporting to GarageBand
  • Plugin crashes in DAWs during export/freeze
Show 22 more
  • App crashes when loading MIDI files
  • Hammer sound too loud even at lowest settings
  • Low C1 note out of tune
  • Electric Grand F4 note sample start time issue
  • Electric Grand G#4, D5 notes have noise on attack
  • Plugin not loading properly in hosts
  • AUv3 interface scaled back
  • Exporting to WAV results in silence
  • App crashes during export/freeze
  • Japanese Grand has low volume
  • Colossus Concert Grand needs improvement
  • G1 key has loud, annoying noise
  • B flat 3 key sounds too flat
  • Crashing in AU mode
  • Bass notes drop out when holding damper pedal
  • Voice stealing makes piano perform unacceptably
  • Bass is muddy in Concert Grand
  • Note 26 (Bb2) sounds like an upright
  • Subtle nuance playing is nearly impossible
  • App crashes or freezes randomly
  • MIDI player doesn't work with GarageBand
  • Audio Units extension terminates unexpectedly

Requested features

14 requests
  • Add chorus effect
  • Global EQ
  • Release control
  • Tap tempo for modulation speed
  • Save velocity curves
Show 9 more
  • More intuitive UI
  • Zoom function for keys
  • Add release samples
  • MIDI export/import
  • Three-band EQ
  • Layering sounds on multiple MIDI keyboards
  • Ability to save setups
  • Improve AUv3 functionality
  • Add more piano models

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Piano Apprentice

One-time1
  • Holiday Song 3-Pack$0.99
9 purchases

Colossus Piano

One-time9
  • Vintage Upright$9.99
  • Historic S Grand$9.99
  • Pianino$12.99
Show 6 more
  • Japanese Grand$12.99
  • Classic B Grand$15.99
  • Upright Piano$19.99
  • Colossus E-Piano Set$19.99
  • Baby Grand Piano$26.99
  • Colossus Concert Grand$49.99

Questions

Is Piano Apprentice free?
Piano Apprentice is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Colossus Piano free?
Colossus Piano is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Piano Apprentice or Colossus Piano?
Piano Apprentice is rated higher. Piano Apprentice averages 3.4 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while Colossus Piano averages 3.3 from 65 ratings.
Do Piano Apprentice or Colossus Piano have ads?
Neither Piano Apprentice nor Colossus Piano shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Piano Apprentice or Colossus Piano?
Piano Apprentice ships an update every 5 weeks, and Colossus Piano every 2 months. Most recently, Piano Apprentice was updated on October 8, 2026 and Colossus Piano on September 29, 2026.

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