Comparison

homecrate vs Graba

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

Head to head
About

homecrate

This app combines a music player with a production studio, offering advanced playback features like algorithm-tuned shuffle and synced lyrics. It also includes a multi-track DAW with a synthesizer, drum machine, and guitar amp for music creation.

Highlights
  • Algorithm-tuned shuffle
  • Synced lyrics and liner notes
  • 8+8 track DAW
  • Synthesizer and drum machine
  • Guitar amp simulator
  • AUv3 plugin hosting
  • MIDI I/O and sync
Read full description

Learn the song. Tune up. Record it. Perform it. Film it. One app. Split any song into stems on your device, unlimited and offline. Play through a real NAM amp. Record 16 tracks. Run your desktop VST3 plugins from your Mac. Pro is $9.99, once. YOUR MUSIC. YOUR RULES. A player and a studio for people who have opinions about music. Not a streaming service. Not an algorithm watching you. Everything runs on your device. FREE, IN FULL A working 4-track studio with a master bus. A real amp with 10 NAM A2 profiles. Drum machine, synth, vocal chain, dynamic EQ with sidechain. Piano roll, step sequencer, automation lanes. MIDI hardware routing and clock sync. Timeline editing with split, crossfades and warp markers. Mixdown and share. A tuner with 50+ tunings, and a metronome. Your lossless library with synced lyrics and liner notes. No trial, no timer, no account. LEARN IT Stem Separation (Pro): Split any song into vocals, drums, bass, guitar and more, entirely on your device. No cloud, no account, no limits. Stems land on tracks ready to play along. Mute the guitar and take its place. Audio to MIDI (Pro): On-device pitch detection turns any clip into notes. Sing the melody, get the part. TUNE IT Tuner: Over 50 established tunings, free. Standards, drops, opens, modal, bass, lap steel and pedal steel. Instrument-aware string sets for 6/7/8-string guitar, 4/5-string bass, 6/8/10-string lap steel, E9/C6 pedal steel. The steel library is validated against John Ely's tunings list and the Papa Dafoe database. PLAY IT Guitar Amp: Neural Amp Modeler with dual profile morphing mapped to your playing dynamics. 10 profiles free; load any .nam or .wav IR with Pro. Train NAM models on-device Synthesizer: Dual-oscillator synth. MPE, microtonal tuning, 6-voice unison. Drum Machine: 16-pad sampler with a multi-bar step sequencer. Vocal Chain: Pitch correction, compression, doubling, de-esser, delay, reverb. Dynamic EQ: Dynamic EQ and compressor with true cross-track sidechaining. Grain: Grain delay and reverb built to be played, not just poured over things. VST3 + AU Hosting (Pro): Run real desktop plugins in your project. A free Mac companion hosts the plugin; homecrate streams audio, MIDI and tempo both ways. Every parameter becomes an automatable lane. Mac required. AUv3 Host (Pro): 4 insert slots per track. Chord, arpeggiator and sequencer plugins drive your tracks, splittable across channels. RECORD IT 16 audio and 8 MIDI tracks with a master bus. Warp markers for timing correction. Slicing, crossfades, pinch-to-zoom timeline, automation with shape presets. Voice control and Music Chat for theory-informed MIDI. Live looper. Collaborative sessions where a bandmate's take lands clock-aligned on your timeline. PERFORM IT Visual Stream (Pro): Send your camera and effects to a projector through the Mac companion. More than one phone can stream at once. Gesture Control (Pro): Hand poses seen by the front camera become MIDI. Twist your hand to ride a filter without touching the screen. MIDI Rig Switching (Pro): Assign layer visibility and effect presets to your pedalboard. One pad flips the whole scene. FILM IT Video Capture (Pro): Film the take with your backing track in the mix. 70+ real-time GPU effects that stack as layers and react to what you play. Preserve Me and Preserve Instrument shields keep you and your guitar untouched while everything else burns. Custom Shader runs your own ISF or Shadertoy code. Media Overlay adds photo and video layers. Section markers switch the look at the chorus. KEEP IT Time your lyrics line by line and they travel into your library as synced lyrics. Spatial audio with a 3D mixer and APAC export on iOS 26. Mixdown to your library or share a whole project as one file. Plex sync. PRO IS $9.99. ONCE. Everything marked Pro above, plus tracks 5 to 16, preset saving everywhere, and custom NAM profiles and IRs. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro. No subscription. No renewal. No account.

About

Graba

This app helps musicians capture, organize, and develop song ideas. It offers recording, lyric writing with chord suggestions, a tuner, metronome, and video recording features. All your musical creations are stored locally and backed up to iCloud.

Highlights
  • Two-tap recording
  • Interruption-proof takes
  • Lyric sheets with inline chords
  • Rhyme suggestions
  • Chromatic tuner with alternate tunings
  • Metronome with haptics
  • Video recording with scrolling lyrics
Features
Read full description

A pocket studio for musicians. Two taps and you're recording. Develop the idea, and keep every version you make. CAPTURE Two taps from your pocket. Audio or video, straight from launch. Calls, alarms, and force quits can't eat a take: interrupted recordings are saved and recovered. • Start recording from a Lock Screen widget, the Action Button, or Siri • Film when you need to see the hands, with your lyrics scrolling over the camera • When the idea shows up as words, Write opens a blank sheet with the keyboard up DEVELOP The tools you reach for next. Lyrics with chords over the words, a tuner for guitar, bass and ukulele, a metronome, a playable piano, ear training, and a chord library you can hear. • Rhymes while you write, in English and Spanish, all offline • Chord suggestions in your key, and one-tap transpose with capo hints • Alternate tunings: Drop D, DADGAD, Eb Standard, Open G • Tap tempo, odd meters, and a metronome that keeps time on the Lock Screen • Loop any section of a take to learn your own part back • Stand mode, for reading your lyrics on a music stand KEEP Nothing gets written over. Every take lands in your Vault with versions, notes, and trims. Local first, synced through your own iCloud if you choose. • Projects hold every version, with tempo, key, tags, and notes • Notes pinned to the exact second of a take • Trim a take and keep the trim as a new version • Bring finished mixes in from Files, Mail, or AirDrop and keep them with their demos • Add a title to a video take and send it to TikTok or Instagram • Old ideas come back around on their own Free, with no account, no ads, and no subscription.

Screenshots

homecrate4 screens
Graba4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Graba at none against homecrate's 1. homecrate's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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. homecrate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Graba 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 homecrate against 5.0 for Graba. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

homecrate ships an update weekly, Graba every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
homecrate versus Graba: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterhomecrateGraba
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size127 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeranthony burchellADRIEL CONDE MACKENZIE

Customer experience

homecrate

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Graba

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

In-app purchases

1 purchases

homecrate

One-time1
  • homecrate - Pro$9.99
None

Graba

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is homecrate free?
homecrate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Graba free?
Graba is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, homecrate or Graba?
homecrate and Graba are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do homecrate or Graba have ads?
Neither homecrate nor Graba shows ads.
Which is updated more often, homecrate or Graba?
homecrate ships an update weekly, and Graba every 3 weeks. Most recently, homecrate was updated on October 24, 2026 and Graba on October 17, 2026.

Other comparisons