Comparison

HEXBEAT vs Boom Lab

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

Head to head
About

HEXBEAT

Features
Read full description

Make music like a pro โ€” right from your iPhone or iPad. HEXBEAT is a fully-featured iOS synthesizer and beat machine for musicians, producers, and beatmakers who want studio-quality sound in their pocket. No samples, no imports โ€” every sound is generated in real time using advanced audio synthesis. STEP SEQUENCER Build rhythmic patterns with a 16-step grid sequencer and 8 programmable drum tracks including kick, snare, hi-hat, clap, 808 bass, tom, and cymbal. Fine-tune your groove with BPM control from 60โ€“200 and swing up to 100%. Save up to 64 patterns across 8 banks and 8 slots each. SYNTH PAD Play melodies with a responsive XY touch pad. Choose from 8 musical scales including Major, Minor, Dorian, Pentatonic, and more. Slide your finger to control filter brightness and pitch simultaneously โ€” up to 5 simultaneous notes for expressive, real-time performance. POWERFUL SOUND SYNTHESIS Shape your sound with 6 oscillator types (Sine, Square, Sawtooth, Triangle, Noise, Super Saw), full ADSR envelopes for amplitude and filter, a resonant low-pass biquad filter, and a 4-waveform LFO with destinations including pitch, cutoff, volume, pan, and PWM. 8-CHANNEL MIXER Mix your tracks withper-channel volume faders, pan control, mute/solo buttons, reverb and delay sends, and real-time peak meters. A master channel with limiter keeps your mix clean and loud. BUILT-IN FX RACK Add depth and character with Reverb (5 room presets from Small Room to Cathedral), Delay with tempo sync, multi-preset Distortion, and a 10-band parametric EQ. BUILT FOR LOW LATENCY HEXBEAT runs at 44.1kHz with 32-bit internal processing and configurable buffer sizes down to 128 samples โ€” delivering under 10ms latency for live performance feel. Whether you're sketching beats on the subway, performing live on stage, or producing tracks at home, HEXBEAT gives you the tools to create. Compatible with iPhone and iPad.

About

Boom Lab

Features
Read full description

Boom Lab is a futuristic mobile music creation app for building beats, mixing tracks, recording original sounds, and organizing project ideas on your device. Start in Beat Lab with glowing pads, BPM controls, loop recording, quantize, swing, and a collapsible mini synth keyboard. Move into DJ Lab to load two decks, blend tracks, scratch virtual vinyl, adjust deck volume, and save sample ideas back into your crate. Stem Lab tools provide the interface for vocals, drums, bass, and instrumental separation workflows as the app evolves. Boom Lab is designed around local device storage. Saved projects, sample metadata, and recorded sounds are kept on your device so you can keep working smoothly and offline. Current features include: - 4-pad beat machine - Loop recording controls - BPM, swing, and quantize controls - Collapsible mini piano synth - Landscape-style DJ mixing board - Two deck import and playback controls - Virtual vinyl scratch interaction - Sample crate for saved sounds - Original sound recorder - Stem Lab placeholder workflow - Saved project vault - .boom project export and import - Device-first offline workflow Boom Lab is free with ads. The only paid upgrade is Boom Lab Premium, which removes ads. Core creation tools are not locked behind a paywall.

Screenshots

HEXBEAT4 screens
Boom Lab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Boom Lab at none against HEXBEAT's 1. Boom Lab also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. HEXBEAT sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Boom Lab asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
HEXBEAT versus Boom Lab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHEXBEATBoom Lab
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS18.615.1 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size19 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGregory HoganJoseph Wright

In-app purchases

1 purchases

HEXBEAT

One-time1
  • HEXBEATOTP$7.99
None

Boom Lab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HEXBEAT free?
HEXBEAT is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Boom Lab free?
Boom Lab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HEXBEAT or Boom Lab have ads?
Neither HEXBEAT nor Boom Lab shows ads.

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