Comparison

Tabla! vs TaalMala

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

Head to head
About

Tabla!

This app offers a realistic drumming experience for Tabla and Pakhawaj on mobile devices. It features responsive drums, adjustable effects, and a variety of beats and metronome sounds for practice and performance. Users can record, share, and export their musical creations.

Highlights
  • Realistic drum response to touch intensity
  • Adjustable pitch, sensitivity, reverb, and delay
  • Multi-track recording and playback
  • Professionally recorded high-fidelity drum kits
  • Variety of percussion and music beats
  • Metronome with adjustable sounds and time signatures
  • Share and export recordings
Features
Read full description

Tabla! is the fun and easy way to play the Tabla and Pakhawaj. Perfect for both beginners and pros alike, Tabla! Free utilizes the latest technology and decades of real drum experience to create the ideal tabla app for the iPhone or iPad. All of the features of the app combine to make you feel as if you are sitting down and playing real Tabla or Pakhawaj. The drums respond to your touch, as the sound varies according to how hard you hit them. Playing realistic rolls is as easy as swirling your finger around, simply adjusting the roll speed by how fast or slow you swirl your finger. Other features include pitch, sensitivity, reverb, delay adjustments, multi-track recording, ability to share and export your recordings (optional in-app purchase), and so much more. There is also 7 different professionally recorded high fidelity drum layouts, including Tabla, Tabla Jam, Pakhawaj, and Tambourine, with more to come. Tabla! also features 25 unique Percussion Beats and 10 Music Beats to play to, as well as 24 different metronome sounds. Tabla! is by far the most fun, easy to use, and realistic tabla app available today! FEATURES: • 7 professionally recorded 44.1 khz high fidelity kits • The harder you hit the drums, the louder they sound! • Reverb and Delay Controls - slider adjustments allows limitless drum sounds • Pitch Control - lower or raise the pitch of the drums • Realistic visual effects - drums visually correspond to your every touch • Retina Display for both iPad and iPhone for incredibly crisp graphics • 25 Percussion Beats and 10 Music Beats to play along to, with more to come! • PlayAlong Beats: 16 new loops with basic bass drum, hi-hat or snare beats, to play along for added rhythmic expression! • Realistic Rolls - simply swirl your finger around to create slower or faster rolls • Double beat feature with slider adjustment • 24 Metronome Sounds and 4 Time Signatures to choose from, with BPM adjustment • Multi-track recording - easily add or delete tracks, save and loop recordings • Share your recordings through email, Facebook, and Twitter • Export your recordings to your computer (optional in-app purchase) • Lefty Mode - reverse the entire drum layout • Play along to the music on your iPod PRIVACY POLICY: http://codyrotwein.com/privacy.html

About

TaalMala

This app provides realistic accompaniment for Indian classical musicians, featuring high-quality sampled instruments like Tabla and Tanpura. It offers extensive pre-composed compositions and allows users to create their own Taals, Lehras, and SwarMandal patterns. Ideal for daily practice or live performances.

Highlights
  • High-quality sampled instruments
  • 360+ pre-composed Taals
  • 246+ pre-composed Lehras
  • 620+ pre-composed SwarMandal patterns
  • Compose custom Taals and Lehras
  • Sequencer for arranging patterns
  • Adjustable tempo and pitch
Features
Read full description

TaalMala provides personalized accompaniment of Tabla, Pakhawaj, Manjeera, Tanpura, SwarMandal and Lehra/Nagma on Santoor and Harmonium. Use TaalMala for your daily riyaaz or live concerts. With high-quality Tabla, Pakhawaj, Manjeera, Tanpura, SwarMandal, Santoor and Harmonium sounds sampled from real instruments, more than 360+ pre-composed Taals and Sequences, and more than 246+ pre-composed Lehra/Nagma compositions, and 650+ SwarMandal patterns in 65+ Ragas, TaalMala provides a complete practising solution for any Indian musician. With TaalMala Composer, you can compose your own Taals, Lehras/Nagmas, SwarMandal patterns by simply typing the notation of the Taal/Lehra on special built-in Taal/Lehra keyboard. With TaalMala Sequencer, you can arrange sequences of fixed or randomized or tempo-based Taal and Lehra/Nagma patterns. TaalMala features: - High-quality studio-recorded Tabla, Pakhawaj, Tanpura, SwarMandal, Santoor, Harmonium and Manjeera (Zanj) sounds - Two sets of Tabla/Dagga sounds and ability to choose and mix-match between the two sound sets - 360+ pre-composed Taals and Taal sequences, including most popular Taals and their variations - 246+ pre-composed Lehra/Nagma compositions and sequences in multitude of ragas and Taals - 620+ pre-composed SwarMandal patterns in 62+ Ragas - New Taals, Lehras/Nagmas and compositions added frequently as updates - Compose your own Taals and Lehras/Nagmas by simply entering the notation - Powerful sequencer to compose fixed, tempo-based and randomized sequences from the Taals and Lehras library - Taal/Lehra/SwarMandal pad; play any Taal/Lehra/SwarMandal pattern on-demand in live accompaniment - Automatic Manjeera/Zanj accompaniment, synchronized with the Tabla/Pakhawaj Taals - Adjustable tempo from 10 bpm to 1000 bpm - Pitch control (+/- 0.5 octave), with independent fine-tuning of all instruments for precise matching with your scale - Pitch detector for detecting your pitch and precise matching, built within the app - Independent volume control for Tabla/Pitch, Dagga/Bass, Manjeera and Lehra/Nagma - Choice of chromatic or just/harmonic tuning for all instruments, with fine-tuning capability. - Up to 2 simultaneous Tanpuras - High-quality Tanpura sounds (male and female tones) with all popular Tanpura patterns included - Adjustable Tanpura tempo and strumming speed of 4 Tanpura strings independently - Option to slightly vary the Tanpura plucking delays randomly for better realism - Tap on the screen twice to set exact Taal tempo, as required This version of the application has following limitations: Playback restricted to 5 minutes every hour. To unlock full functionality and remove the limitation above, click "Buy" option on the main screen. Once you purchase a subscription to the app, the 5-minute per hour limitation will be removed. Please contact us at service@taalmala.com if you have any questions. Licensing terms: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Our privacy policy: https://www.taalmala.com/privacy.shtml

Screenshots

Tabla!4 screens
TaalMala4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: TaalMala at none against Tabla!'s shown. TaalMala also leads on ratings volume (177 vs 38) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). 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. Tabla! sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and TaalMala sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TaalMala holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 177 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 29% of Tabla!'s written reviews are positive against 34% of TaalMala's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tabla! ships an update monthly, TaalMala every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tabla! versus TaalMala: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTabla!TaalMala
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (38 ratings)4.3 (177 ratings) — better
Positive reviews28.6% of reviews34.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings38177 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB73 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperDrum StarzAbhijit Patait

Customer experience

Tabla!

All ratings38 ratings
Positive78.9%
Neutral5.3%
Negative15.8%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive28.6%
Neutral7.1%
Negative64.3%

TaalMala

All ratings177 ratings
Positive82.5%
Neutral3.4%
Negative14.1%
Written reviews41 reviews
Positive34.1%
Neutral12.2%
Negative53.7%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Tabla!

One-time2
  • Remove Ads$0.99
  • Exporting$0.99
2 purchases

TaalMala

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Edition - Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Premium Edition - Yearly$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Tabla! free?
Tabla! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is TaalMala free?
TaalMala is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Tabla! or TaalMala?
TaalMala is rated higher. Tabla! averages 4.1 out of 5 from 38 ratings, while TaalMala averages 4.3 from 177 ratings.
Do Tabla! or TaalMala have ads?
Tabla! shows ads; TaalMala does not.
Which is updated more often, Tabla! or TaalMala?
Tabla! ships an update monthly, and TaalMala every 2 months. Most recently, Tabla! was updated on October 19, 2026 and TaalMala on October 21, 2026.

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