Comparison

MetroBPM vs Tating

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

Head to head
About

MetroBPM

This app provides a real-time tempo detector and metronome for musicians. It uses your device's microphone to analyze rhythmic music and offers customizable metronome sounds and visualizations. Optimized for live performance with a modern design and live activity support.

Highlights
  • Real-time tempo detection
  • Live metronome with selectable sounds
  • Tempo history plot
  • Tap-to-detect tempo
  • App icon shortcuts
  • Live Activity & Dynamic Island support
Read full description

Need to keep tempo steady for practice and live performance? MetroBPM combines a Live Tempo Detector with a Metronome in your pocket. It uses your device's microphone to detect tempo from percussive/rhythmic music in Real-Time. Designed for learners, percussionist and dance musicians. - Features - • Real-time detection of tempo from rhythmic music • Tempo history plot • Metronome with selectable sounds • Tap-to-detect tempo • Clock / timer for live performance or practice • Quickly launch frequently used tempo by tap-hold app icon • No Ads or Subscription - Modern Design - • Optimized for live on-stage use on iPhone, iPhone Duo and iPad • Dark mode for low-power usage on OLED displays • Live Activity & Dynamic Island Support (monitor and control from Home Screen, Lock Screen and supported Watch OS) Note: Tempo detection optimized for rhythmic / percussive music in quadruple, 6/8 time signatures, performance may vary. Works best with live music in low background noise.

About

Tating

This app allows drummers to easily create, notate, and play back drum grooves using a touchscreen interface. It supports a wide range of drum sounds, rhythmic complexities, and practice tools for refining timing and feel. Users can also organize their creations and share them with others.

Highlights
  • Touchscreen drum groove creation
  • Real drum sound playback
  • Proper notation display
  • Extensive drum vocabulary support
  • Flexible time signature and grid options
  • Practice tools (looping, tempo changes, groove drop-out)
  • Gig chart creation
Features
Read full description

Tating is a drum notation editor built for a touchscreen and for drummers. Tap out a groove on the grid, hear it played back with real sounds, and read it as proper notation. No account, no sign-in, and no signal needed. BUILT FOR FINGERS Tap a cell to place a note. Press, hold and drag to paint a run of them. Flick up from a cell for that row's second sound — the open hat under the closed one, the ghost note under the backbeat. Press and hold a note for that drum's other sounds, with the full list one tap further. A DRUMMER'S VOCABULARY Ghost notes, accents, flams, drags, buzz strokes, cross stick, open, closed and tight hi-hats, hi-hat with the foot, ride and ride bell. Stickings are written under the staff and can be tapped in on a row of their own. Useful kit sounds, including hand percussion — congas, bongos, djembe, clave, woodblocks, shaker, tambourine and more — playable from the tom rows. EVERY METER, PROPERLY Time signatures from 4/4 to 7/8, 9/16 and 13/16, on straight or triplet grids, quarter notes down to 32nds. Odd meters are beamed and counted the way drummers group them, not the way a spreadsheet would. PLAY ALONG A click, a count-in, and swing. Mute the snare and play it yourself while the rest of the kit keeps time. PRACTICE PROPERLY Loop a couple of bars. Climb the tempo every few bars, or wind it down. Have the groove drop out for a bar or two and find out whether you are still with it when it comes back. Set the feel from straight to deep in the pocket and hear a laid-back backbeat before you try to play one. A counter tells you which bar you are on and how long you have played. WORK A RUDIMENT ROUND Write a paradiddle, then have Tating turn it over every 2, 4 or 8 bars while you keep playing — every inversion in one pass, without a hand leaving the sticks. Displace the whole groove instead and the backbeat moves against the barline. Fill a sticking row with all rights, all lefts or alternating hands in one press. WRITE THE SONG DOWN Gig charts: a song as its form — intro, verse, chorus, the repeats and the road map — for a music stand, beside your grooves. POCKETCHECK Play the groove on a real kit and see where every hit actually landed against the beat. It measures the speaker-to-microphone round trip first, so the reading is honest. It reports placement rather than marking you: sitting behind the beat is a feel, and what matters is how tight the cloud is. The microphone is used only while this screen is open. Nothing is recorded, saved or sent — the sound is analyzed completely on the phone. READ IT A real notation view: noteheads, stems, beams, cross noteheads for cymbals, stems up for hands and down for feet. The grid is for writing; the staff is for reading while you play. KEEP IT Save grooves to a library on the phone, with search, tags and favorites. Send a groove to another drummer as a link they can open straight into Tating, and open the links they send you. Import MIDI on the standard drum map, and export it with the unlock so grooves move out to a DAW. MAKE IT YOURS Point any drum at a recording of your own kit. Light or dark, and a choice of accent colors. FREE AND PAID The free version is a complete tool. Every meter, every grid, playback, the click, the count-in, the play-along mutes and the notation view all work without paying, and so do all forty standard rudiments. What the free version limits is how much you can keep — ten saved grooves — and PocketCheck, which is free for five takes so you can hear it work before deciding. One purchase unlocks everything, once, with no subscription: - An unlimited library, with folders - The full starter library — grooves, fills, exercises and the hybrid rudiments - PocketCheck with no take limit - Export sheet music as a PDF, a picture for a chat, or a MIDI file for a DAW - Every color theme

Screenshots

MetroBPM4 screens
Tating4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Tating at Free against MetroBPM's $3.99. Tating also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 6 weeks). MetroBPM's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). On rating, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Tating is free to download; MetroBPM costs $3.99 up front. Tating sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. MetroBPM asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for MetroBPM against 5.0 for Tating. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MetroBPM has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MetroBPM ships an update every 6 weeks, Tating every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 4 level
MetroBPM versus Tating: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMetroBPMTating
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB56 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperQi YangRobert Crawford

Customer experience

MetroBPM

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Tating

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

MetroBPM

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Tating

One-time2
  • Holiday Pack$4.99
  • Tating$9.99

Questions

Is MetroBPM free?
MetroBPM costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tating free?
Tating is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MetroBPM or Tating?
MetroBPM and Tating are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do MetroBPM or Tating have ads?
Neither MetroBPM nor Tating shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MetroBPM or Tating?
MetroBPM ships an update every 6 weeks, and Tating every 10 days. Most recently, MetroBPM was updated on October 20, 2026 and Tating on September 30, 2026.

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