SMA vs Great Learning
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SMA
This app provides registered students of the Shankar Mahadevan Academy access to their course materials. Students can view video and audio lessons, lyrics, and notations, and submit practice recordings for instructor feedback. It also allows viewing and submitting assessments and class recordings.
- Access course materials
- View video and audio lessons
- Submit practice recordings
- Receive instructor feedback
- View and submit assessments
- Access class recordings
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NOTE: Users will need a Shankar Mahadevan Academy student id and password to use the app. This app is intended only for registered students of the Academy. The Shankar Mahadevan Academy App is designed for students to access their course material. View video and audio lessons, lyrics and notations through your OM BookTM. Use OM RiyaazTM and submit practice recordings and get feedback from our instructors View and submit assessments View class recordings About Shankar Mahadevan Academy Shankar Mahadevan Academy (SMA) was founded under the guidance and leadership of the award-winning music composer and singer, bringing high quality Indian music instruction to the masses. The Academy’s mission is Joy of Music. SMA has students from 76 countries learning through its programs offered online, at its centre, and through school partners. The Academy offers several courses in Carnatic and Hindustani Classical Music, Guitar, Piano, Keyboard, Hindi Movie Songs, Devotional Songs, Music for Children, Voice Gym, and several others. Visit www.shankarmahadevanacademy.com for more information.
Great Learning
This app offers online courses and PG programs in in-demand skills like Data Science, AI, and Cloud Computing. It provides industry-relevant learning, career preparation modules, and certificates to help professionals and students achieve career success.
- In-demand skill courses
- PG programs for professionals
- Beginner-friendly modules
- Live classes for students
- Career preparation module
- Industry expert interactions
- Certificates of completion
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The Great Learning App enables professionals and students to learn the most in-demand skills to help them achieve career success. This app offers full-time PG programs for working professionals and short courses for beginners and college students in: Data Science Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Cloud Computing CyberSecurity Marketing and Finance Big Data and many more. The Best App to Learn Industry-relevant Skills: Upskilling is made easy with the best-in-class PG programs in new-age skills to make you job-ready. Learn from beginner-friendly modules that are designed by leading industry practitioners and academicians in association with the world’s most renowned universities. A Learning buddy for College Students For college students, we also offer Live classes to enable them to prepare for their semester exams. The classes will cover the most challenging topics in an easy-to-understand manner so that students can grasp concepts quickly. In addition to that, the app also features a career preparation module, that’s designed to help them land their first job. This module includes Interview preparation, Aptitude & Soft Skills sessions to help prepare for the world outside college. Gain valuable industry insights Live interactions with industry experts that help you build context for the skills you learn. You’ll learn from professionals with many years of experience and strong skills in the top domains. Showcase your expertise Get a Certificate of Completion for each module, which you can share on your social profiles. These certificates will help you stand out to recruiters and add value to your professional profile. Achieve Career Success Get career guidance and mentorship from experts, to make the right decisions, find the best opportunities to help you build the career of your dreams. Learn from wherever you are Download course content onto your phone any learn anytime, anywhere Always keep your skills up to date With course content that’s constantly being updated according to industry demands, you’ll be at the forefront of the latest tech and business skills. About Great Learning Great Learning is India’s leading professional learning platform, with a mission to make professionals proficient and future-ready. Its programs always focus on the next frontier of growth in industry and currently straddle across Analytics, Data Science, Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Cloud Computing, and more. Great Learning uses technology, high-quality content, and industry collaboration to deliver an immersive learning experience that helps candidates learn, apply, and demonstrate their competencies. All programs are offered in collaboration with leading global universities and are taken by thousands of professionals every year to secure and grow their careers.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Great Learning at 4.1 against SMA's 1.8. Great Learning also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (102 vs 5). SMA's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.4). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Great Learning holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 1.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Great Learning has 102 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of SMA's written reviews are positive against 62% of Great Learning's.
SMA ships an update every 6 months, Great Learning fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SMA | Great Learning |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.8 (5 ratings) | 4.1 (102 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | 61.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 102 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 150 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Clood On Music Private Limited | GREAT LEARNING EDUCATION SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED |
Customer experience
SMA
Great Learning
Bugs and requests
SMA
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Great Learning
Reported bugs
15 issues- Rotation from portrait to landscape/full screen toggle not working
- No navigation controls after starting video lecture
- Missing UI elements forcing app restart
- App hangs at login
- App crashes when opening video in full screen
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- Videos keep loading with no answer
- Getting 403 errors on quizzes
- Not receiving password reset links
- App not updating on new devices
- App crashes on first screen after update
- Video speed resets when minimized
- Characters obscured in email box on iPad
- App closes when clicking on course section
- Cannot adjust video quality or speed
- Cannot pause or go back in video classes
Requested features
8 requests- Automatic landscape mode for videos
- Picture-in-Picture (PIP) video option
- Add 1.25x video speed option
- Improve screen mirroring to TV
- Add option to log out of all devices
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- Allow direct joining of online sessions via app
- Improve UI for iPad in landscape mode
- Add auto-rotate feature for videos
In-app purchases
SMA
No in-app purchases
Great Learning
No in-app purchases









