the Craic vs Hohner Melodeon Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
the Craic
This app transforms your device into a portable digital tunebook, offering thousands of traditional tunes in ABC notation. Easily search, play, and organize music for various instruments, with options to create custom sets and collections. Import tunes from multiple sources and share them as ABC or PDF.
- Searchable tune library
- Create and play tune sets
- Organize favorite tunes
- Import ABC notation
- Playback with tempo control
- Edit ABC notation
- Print and share tunes
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Stop rummaging through paper tunebooks - turn your iPad or iPhone into a portable tunebook. Quickly search, display and hear thousands of Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton and other tunes for fiddle, flute, bagpipes, banjo, mandolin, concertina or accordion. Please leave a review or rate the app if you enjoy it - it helps! Subscribe either monthly or yearly to help support ongoing development. - includes a selection of 76 commonly played session tunes (lots more on the Internet!) - create, play and print sets of tunes - create collections of your favourite tunes and sets, print them as tune books or as incipits - import ABC notation via iTunes, cloud services like iCloud and Dropbox, email or the internet - bagpipe notation for tunes with HP or Hp key - search online or on your iPad or iPhone - online search results can be quickly imported into your library - simple playback with tempo control and looping - choose flute, whistle, fiddle, banjo, guitar, piano, harp or accordion - create and edit ABC notation on your iPad with a keyboard extension to simplify entry - external keyboard fully supported - print - share via email as ABC notation or PDF - open as a PDF in other applications Use of the Craic is governed by the standard Apple Terms of Use. You can view this at https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Hohner Melodeon Pro
This virtual instrument replicates the feel and sound of a Hohner diatonic accordion. It offers multiple common tunings and allows for expressive playing through touch controls and MIDI input. Settings are saved for convenience.
- Authentic Hohner layout simulation
- Multiple two-row diatonic tunings
- Bellows touch control
- Volume and reverb adjustment
- MIDI keyboard compatibility
- Note name display toggle
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Matching the layout of Hohner's iconic Double-Ray Black-Dot diatonic accordion, this intuitive virtual instrument features a super responsive fingerboard that plays and sounds like the traditional instrument in the most common two-row tunings of B/C, C#/D, and D/G, as well as an extended B/C+ layout with four chromatic buttons on a partial third row. Simply touch in the bellows area to toggle between bellows push and pull, then play on the buttons. Since you may want to play chords with more than 3 or 4 fingers, you'll need to turn off "Multitasking Gestures" in your iPad's Settings, under General/Multitasking Gestures. Touch the sliders icon at the upper right side of the screen to bring up the controls where you can select the tuning (B/C, B/C+, C#/D, or D/G), and control the volume and reverb settings. MIDI Control: The instrument may be played via MIDI from a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI file player or controller apps. First launch the Hohner Melodeon Pro app, then choose "HohnerMelodeon" as the destination sound module in the CoreMIDI settings of other apps. Set the MIDI channel using the "MIDI Channel" slider on the controls page. Lowest note is G3 (MIDI Note 55) Range is G3 through E6. The app responds to MIDI Note-on Velocity messages Touch the "?" to toggle the note names On/Off. Touch the "i" button to bring up the help screen. All settings are saved when you exit the app and restored the next time it is run.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: the Craic at 4.3 against Hohner Melodeon Pro's 3.0. the Craic also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (13 vs 2). Hohner Melodeon Pro's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price and ads 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
the Craic costs $4.99 and Hohner Melodeon Pro $4.99 up front. the Craic sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.39 per month. Hohner Melodeon Pro asks for nothing beyond the download.
the Craic holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: the Craic has 13 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of the Craic's written reviews are positive against 67% of Hohner Melodeon Pro's.
the Craic ships an update every 2 months, Hohner Melodeon Pro every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | the Craic | Hohner Melodeon Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (13 ratings) — better | 3.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 13 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | Paid — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wil Macaulay | Michael Eskin |
Customer experience
the Craic
Hohner Melodeon Pro
Bugs and requests
the Craic
Reported bugs
28 issues- Won't read past errors in older ABC spec
- Doesn't report ABC spec errors
- No support for multi-voice (e.g., SATB grandstaff)
- Small note heads
- Does not cover concertinas
Show 23 moreShow fewer
- App freezes up
- Not all ABC tunes get imported
- Setting markers for playback is unintuitive
- Selections with pick-up notes don't loop properly
- Multiply editing/saving can create multiple copies
- GUI could be more intuitive/standard
- Freezes up when editing first/second endings
- No iCloud sync for tunes
- No bagpipe option in instrument selection
- App freezes on download
- Gets stuck in a loop during download
- Does not support drum notation
- With iOS 12, staff lines don't display
- Latest version freezes after a couple of minutes
- App freezes on download
- Crashes when deleting tunes
- Default library reappears after deleting all tunes
- Does not allow playback of tunes
- Less than 100 tunes initially
- Does not play tunes
- Too difficult for usage
- Tunes not sortable into books/set lists
- Does not play tunes
Requested features
32 requests- Support for multi-voice ABC notation
- Larger note heads
- Support for concertinas (especially CG Anglo)
- Option to select tunes only from Favourites list
- Option to rearrange items within a set
Show 27 moreShow fewer
- More intuitive marker setting for playback
- Fix looping with pick-up notes
- Prevent multiple copies when editing/saving
- More intuitive/standard GUI elements
- iCloud sync for tunes
- Wider range for speed adjustment (slower)
- Slight pause before tune starts playing
- Drone note before tune starts
- Choice of two or three GM instruments for playback
- Light, bar, or dot that follows notes during playback
- Provision to stop or interrupt downloads
- Visually highlight notes as they play
- Simpler way to add tunes to a set list
- Groupings for different genres (Irish, Scottish, etc.)
- More stability in the app
- Ability to make entire library from zero
- Export/import entire folder tree on cloud storage (Dropbox)
- Read/write directly to ABC files on cloud storage
- Ability to separate music by collections
- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
- Support for drum notation
- Support for bagpipes
- Support for concertinas
- Support for older ABC spec files
- Better error reporting for ABC files
- Support for SATB grandstaff
Hohner Melodeon Pro
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
the Craic
- Monthly supporter7 Days trial$1.391 Month
- Yearly supporter$12.991 Year
- Small Tip$0.99
- Large Tip$4.99
- Huge Tip$19.99
Hohner Melodeon Pro
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is the Craic free?
Is Hohner Melodeon Pro free?
Which has better reviews, the Craic or Hohner Melodeon Pro?
Do the Craic or Hohner Melodeon Pro have ads?
Which is updated more often, the Craic or Hohner Melodeon Pro?
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