Comparison

Shaker Box vs Instruments Free

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

Head to head
About

Shaker Box

This app transforms your iPhone into a musical instrument, offering a variety of shaker sounds. Explore different playing modes, including shake, tap, and loop, to create rhythms and beats.

Highlights
  • Playable music shakers
  • Shake, tap, and loop modes
  • Professionally recorded sounds
  • Precise shaking recognition
  • Support for 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures
Features
Read full description

Shaker Box turns your iPhone into a playable music shaker! Shaker Box is a collection of high quality playable shakers for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Using high-precision accelerometer data, Shaker Box allows you to shake your phone just like a real shaker. Shaker Box features a range of professionally recorded shaker sounds and three playing modes. SHAKE MODE: Shake your device like a real shaker. TAP MODE: Tap the tap-pad and Shaker Box will play a shaker loop in time with your taps. LOOP MODE: Set a tempo, either manually, or by tapping the tap-tempo pad, and Shaker Box will play a Shaker Loop at the tempo you select. FEATURES: - Loads of shaker sounds to choose from - Three different playing modes - Professionally recorded shaker sounds - Precise shaking recognition - 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures A lot of hard work went into creating Shaker Box, so I hope you enjoy using it!

About

Instruments Free

Explore a vibrant sound picture book with a collection of musical instruments. Tap images to hear their authentic sounds and see their names spoken in one of 78 languages. Ideal for early learning and language development.

Highlights
  • Interactive sound picture book
  • Real instrument sounds
  • Spoken instrument names
  • Supports 78 languages
  • Adjustable slideshow mode
  • Offline functionality
  • Parental gate
Features
Read full description

Instruments is the best interactive sound picture book featuring a lot of musical instruments: tap the image to hear the instrument and see its name in your chosen language (78 languages). Large images, real sounds, spoken names. Who is it for? Ages 1–5 for the picture-book experience. Ages 3–15 for language learning and instrument vocabulary. How it works The interface lets a child, alone or with an adult, discover each instrument and its sound. Images can advance automatically like a slideshow (adjustable speed) or manually by swiping the screen. The display order is configurable (random or sequential). A long-press on the instrument name lets you choose another display/spoken language. Multilingual (78 languages) Spoken names and interface available in your language of choice, to build vocabulary and train the ear from an early age. Tip: in your device settings, download Apple’s premium voices (higher-quality voices provided by iOS). Why you’ll love Instruments? Clear, reassuring musical discovery for young children. Natural pronunciations and authentic sounds. Multilingual (78) to support early learning, vocabulary, and listening. Works anywhere Works offline and in airplane mode: all images and sounds are stored on device No connection required. Orientation Portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad. Parents and schools – Parental gate (settings protected by a random math question). Supported languages (displayed and spoken) Afrikaans, Albanian, German, Amharic, English, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Belarusian, Burmese, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Croatian, Danish, Spanish, Estonian, Filipino/Tagalog, Finnish, French, Galician, Welsh, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Uzbek, Persian/Farsi, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Czech, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba, Zulu Contact us contact@iburgerapps.com

Screenshots

Shaker Box3 screens
Instruments Free4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Shaker Box at 2.5 against Instruments Free's 1.0. Shaker Box also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.6). Instruments Free's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (53% vs 23%). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Shaker Box sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Instruments Free asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shaker Box holds the better App Store score, 2.5 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 23% of Shaker Box's written reviews are positive against 53% of Instruments Free's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shaker Box ships an update every 18 months, Instruments Free every 19 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Shaker Box versus Instruments Free: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShaker BoxInstruments Free
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.5 (2 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews22.7% of reviews52.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 18 months — betterEvery 19 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSteven BarnegrenChristophe Burdin

Customer experience

Shaker Box

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews22 reviews
Positive22.7%
Neutral13.6%
Negative63.6%

Instruments Free

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews38 reviews
Positive52.6%
Neutral7.9%
Negative39.5%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Shaker Box

One-time1
  • Unlock All Shakers$1.99
None

Instruments Free

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shaker Box free?
Shaker Box is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Instruments Free free?
Instruments Free is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Shaker Box or Instruments Free?
Shaker Box is rated higher. Shaker Box averages 2.5 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Instruments Free averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Shaker Box or Instruments Free have ads?
Neither Shaker Box nor Instruments Free shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shaker Box or Instruments Free?
Shaker Box ships an update every 18 months, and Instruments Free every 19 months. Most recently, Shaker Box was updated on September 28, 2026 and Instruments Free on October 1, 2026.

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