Comparison

Piano Ear Training vs EarForge

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

Head to head
About

Piano Ear Training

Develop your musical ear with interactive exercises for intervals, chords, scales, and melodies. Personalize your training to focus on specific areas and track your progress. Ideal for musicians of all levels, from beginners to advanced.

Highlights
  • Interval training
  • Chord distinction
  • Pitch training
  • Melodic dictation
  • Chord progression exercises
  • Personalized training levels
  • Progress tracking
Features
Read full description

• Suitable for beginners to advanced musicians with all the essential ear training exercises in various levels. • Quickly develop aural skills by personalising your training by focusing on specific chords, intervals, progressions, scales etc. • Track progress as you improve efficiently in each ear training discipline. • A simple intuitive design enables you quickly enjoy ear training and follow the help and tutorials to get most out of the ear trainer. • Configurable piano which strongly aids connection between visual and aural skills and musical instruments. • Most popular and extensive ear training with over 1 millions users. • Highly recommended by professional and student musicians in top musical schools contributing to the design for their own use. • Ideal for all musicians as you can easily change the instrument sounds. Exercises: ***** interval training ***** Being able to determine intervals between notes in the key skill to playing by ear. Challenge your expertise by changing the base note or playing the notes together. This is made easy as it associates an interval with a well known song. ***** chord distinction ***** Can you distinguish between a Major from a Minor chord for example? There are 100s of chords to differentiate. You can help your understanding by selecting arpeggio mode to aid chord distinction and selecting highlight to visualise the construction of the chords. You can challenge yourself by changing the key of the chord. Work your way quickly and steadily through the levels. Another exercise to help you fully understand musical theory and composition. ***** higher lower ***** Given 2 notes, can you identify whether the second note is higher or lower in pitch than the first note? Musicians can train their ears to recognise different pitches. Whilst this is a beginners exercise, you can challenge yourself by reducing the range of the 2 notes played. ***** pitch training ***** After hearing a pitch, can you accurately play that same pitch on the piano? This exercise allows your to zoom in on the note using relative pitch skills, and will record how many notes it takes for you to correctly identify. You can easily adjust the difficult by setting a time interval between listening and playing. ***** interval comparison ***** Given 2 intervals, can you determine whether the second interval is wider or narrower in distance? ***** pitch identification ***** A popular test that comes up in music grade aural exams. Given a chord can you identify a specific note/pitch within it? For example, given a C Major chord, can you find the highest note? ***** melodic dictation ***** Listen to a melody and then play it back on the piano. You can make it easier by adjusting the speed and focusing on a few notes at a time. ***** chord progression ***** Can you distinguish a I - IV - V - I progression from a I - V- IV - I? Contains all the most common chord progressions which you will find in nearly all the most popular songs. ***** scale identification ***** Listen to a scale and can you then identify it as a Major scale, Harmonic Minor or Natural Minor for example? ***** absolute pitch ***** Given the same note played at different octaves, can you identify its pitch? Includes a Learning mode to imprint the pitches into the brain.

About

EarForge

This app offers a structured ear training program designed to improve your sense of pitch and ability to recognize musical notes and chords. It features progressive lessons, personalized quizzes, and detailed progress tracking. Advanced users can create custom training sessions for specific musical elements.

Highlights
  • 30-level note recognition program
  • Chord identification lessons
  • Customizable note and chord training
  • Progress tracking with profile statistics
  • Ad-free experience (PRO)
  • Exclusive themes (PRO)
Features
Read full description

— Featured in App of the Day and one of Apple's "Apps We Love", "Our latest Favourites" and "Turn Learning Into a Game" more than 100 countries including United States, United Kingdom and China! — EarForge is an app that can help you achieve the perfect ears and improve your sense of pitch with our well-designed training program. FEATURES - Lessons NOTES Enjoy our 30-level well-designed program. Develop your skill to recognize different notes. Great for beginners and any musicians. - Lessons CHORDS Given a single chord. Your goal is to identify the chord that you heard. - Quiz Unlock the quiz to challenge yourself in the next level. - Profile You can find your stat here. Check out your note accuracy, what you’re good at and what to improve. And track your progress with Facebook login, Google login or sign in with apple. EarForge PRO — a paid subscription feature * - Training NOTES You can program your own specific notes, sounds and octaves. This training mode will help you focus on the notes you want to learn and practice. - Training CHORDS You can program on specific chord keys, chord types and octaves. Listen to the chord and try to guess the correct answers. - Custom NOTES LESSON Keep practicing and create your own notes lesson. Select at least 3 notes you want to learn. This lesson will collect stats but not collect stars. - Custom CHORDS LESSON Keep practicing and create your own chords lesson. Select chord keys and select at least 3 chord types. This lesson will collect stats but not collect stars. - Exclusive themes It's beautiful and more delightful to use. - No ads Ad-free, no interruptions. * EarForge PRO subscription price is $2.99/month or $19.99/year. (Pricing may be converted to your local currency.) Payment will be charged to your iTunes account. Your subscription will auto-renew within 24 hours before the end of the current period and you can turn off auto-renewal at any time in the account settings. See our Privacy Policy at https://earforge.blog/privacy-policy/ and Terms of Service at https://earforge.blog/terms-of-service/ Feedback is always welcome, please let we know in the comment.  Start forging your ears now! Learn Perfect pitch / Relative pitch / Absolute pitch / Ear training

Screenshots

Piano Ear Training4 screens
EarForge4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: EarForge at none against Piano Ear Training's shown. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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 Ear Training sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and EarForge 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Piano Ear Training against 4.6 for EarForge. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 189 and 292 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 59% of Piano Ear Training's written reviews are positive against 63% of EarForge's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Piano Ear Training versus EarForge: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiano Ear TrainingEarForge
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (189 ratings)4.6 (292 ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.9% of reviews62.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings189292 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 5 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLearn To Master LtdPatcharapon Phasukdee

Customer experience

Piano Ear Training

All ratings189 ratings
Positive86.2%
Neutral7.4%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive58.9%
Neutral12.5%
Negative28.6%

EarForge

All ratings292 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral5.5%
Negative6.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive62.7%
Neutral11.9%
Negative25.4%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Piano Ear Training

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Version$2.991 Month
  • Annual Premium Version7 Days trial$24.991 Year
2 purchases

EarForge

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Piano Ear Training free?
Piano Ear Training is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is EarForge free?
EarForge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Piano Ear Training or EarForge?
EarForge is rated higher. Piano Ear Training averages 4.5 out of 5 from 189 ratings, while EarForge averages 4.6 from 292 ratings.
Do Piano Ear Training or EarForge have ads?
Piano Ear Training shows ads; EarForge does not.
Which is updated more often, Piano Ear Training or EarForge?
Piano Ear Training ships an update every 5 weeks, and EarForge every 5 weeks. Most recently, Piano Ear Training was updated on September 21, 2026 and EarForge on September 8, 2026.

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