Comparison

SimpleTone vs spool.

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

Head to head
About

SimpleTone

This application provides a straightforward virtual tuning fork. Simply select your desired pitch to tune your instrument. It aims to offer a no-nonsense, ad-free experience for musicians.

Highlights
  • Virtual tuning fork
  • Pitch selection
  • Ad-free experience
  • Simple interface
Features
Read full description

It's a virtual tuning fork. Select the pitch you want to tune to. That's it. I got tired of all the BS tuning apps that have ads and purchases built in. C'mon, we're better than this.

About

spool.

Create full songs on your phone with this pocket music studio. It offers a variety of sound engines, sampling capabilities, step sequencing, and a 4-track tape recorder for recording and mixing your music. Effects and MIDI controller support enhance the creative process.

Highlights
  • Multiple sound engines
  • Sampling and sequencing
  • 4-track tape recording
  • Extensive effects rack
  • MIDI controller support
  • Step sequencer
Features
Read full description

Make a whole song on your phone. Spool is a pocket music studio inspired by the joy of hardware grooveboxes — play, sample, sequence, and record to tape, all in one playful instrument. Fourteen sound engines. From punchy FM and fat subtractive Pulse to shimmering Cluster, plucked String, granular Cloud, the TALK vocoder, the WIDE stereo engine, THUMP bass, a Sampler, and two drum machines — each with its own animated, touchable visualizer and four hands-on controls. Sample anything. Record straight from the mic into the sampler or drum kits, trim it, and play it across the keyboard. Drums & beats. Build kits, chop a sample into a playable kit, and lock in grooves with the step sequencer. Playful sequencers. Pattern and arpeggiator to start; unlock Stream, Taps, and the bouncing-ball Gumball machine for happy accidents. Six minutes of 4-track tape. Record, overdub, varispeed (including reverse), scrub, and bounce your jam to a finished mixdown — export to WAV. Your tape is saved with your project. Effects & mixer. A deep rack — delay, spring reverb, drive, compressor, chorus, multimode filter, phaser, tremolo/auto-pan, beat-repeat stutter, and a pitch-shifter/harmonizer — many tempo-syncable. Plus a master EQ and brickwall limiter so it always sounds finished. Plays with your gear. Connect a USB or Bluetooth MIDI controller and play Spool like hardware. AUv3 plugin support is planned for a future update. Free to download and make music with a starter set of engines and sequencers. A single one-time Spool Pro purchase unlocks the full instrument — all engines, sampling, every effect and sequencer, unlimited projects, export, and MIDI. No subscription. Spool is an original, independent work by a solo developer — affiliated with no hardware maker.

Screenshots

SimpleTone4 screens
spool.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SimpleTone at none against spool.'s 1. spool.'s advantage is ratings volume (7 vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.1). On price, rating, ads and device support 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. spool. sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. SimpleTone 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 SimpleTone against 5.0 for spool.. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: spool. has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
SimpleTone versus spool.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimpleTonespool.
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings17 — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.117.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEvan BrassKristopher Yang

Customer experience

SimpleTone

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

spool.

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

SimpleTone

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

spool.

One-time1
  • Spool Pro$9.99

Questions

Is SimpleTone free?
SimpleTone is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is spool. free?
spool. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, SimpleTone or spool.?
SimpleTone and spool. are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 7 ratings respectively.
Do SimpleTone or spool. have ads?
Neither SimpleTone nor spool. shows ads.

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