Comparison

Tempo vs Snacks Tuner

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

Head to head
About

Tempo

Features
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The fastest way to write and save drum notation. Capture the bar you keep coming back to. Every drummer has that one part. The one that slows you down. The one you repeat over and over. Tempo lets you pull it out, keep it with you, and actually nail it. Built for real practice - Quickly input drum notation (including cymbals) - Save bars for later - Export and share as clean images - Play back and hear what you've written - Follow along for that consistent practice experience Perfect for: - Drummers working through tricky sections - Teachers sharing bite-sized exercises - Capturing ideas without friction No clutter. No learning curve. No timelines. No full compositions. Just fast, focused notation when you need it. Terms and conditions for Tempo Premium: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Snacks Tuner

Features
Read full description

Snacks Tuner is a free tuner that opens straight to the needle. No ads, no account, no subscription, and nothing tracked. Play a note and it shows what it hears, how many cents off you are, and whether to go up or down. A strobe strip catches the smallest drift, and each string turns green when it lands. What's in it • Guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo and mandolin, plus violin, viola, cello and double bass • Resonator guitar, cavaquinho, mandola, octave mandolin, bouzouki and balalaika • Trumpet, clarinet, alto and tenor sax and French horn show the written note, the one you read. Trombone and flute show concert pitch. • A chromatic mode for anything else • Search every instrument and tuning, with the ones you've used lately on top • Alternate tunings: drop D, half and whole step down, drop C, DADGAD, open G, D and E, baritone, 7 and 8 string guitar, 5 and 6 string bass, double C and sawmill banjo, and fiddle cross tunings • Artist tunings, found by player or band: the setups 19 well-known guitarists actually use, plus C standard, open C and drop B • Sweetened tunings, including James Taylor's published offsets and "sweet thirds" • Reference pitch from 415 to 466 Hz, with sharps or flats • Tap a string to lock it, so a low string can't jump an octave • Reference tones, so you can hear the note you're aiming for • A little buzz when a string lands • Flip the display for a phone on a music stand. The screen stays awake while you tune. Intonate Intonate checks your guitar's setup. Play the open string, then the same string at the 12th fret. It tells you how far sharp or flat the 12th is, which way to move the saddle, and how far, in mm and the nearest 64th of an inch. Private by design The microphone is only on while the tuner is running. The sound is analysed on your phone and never recorded or sent anywhere. There are no accounts, ads, analytics or crash reports, and the app doesn't talk to a server at all. It works offline. Why it's free Snacks is a design studio. Snacks Labs is where our designers build real software and put it out in the open. Most free tuners are a sales funnel, with chromatic mode behind a subscription and an ad between strings. A tuner is a basic tool, so we built a good one and gave it away. It's also on the web at tuner.snacks.design.

Screenshots

Tempo3 screens
Snacks Tuner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Snacks Tuner at none against Tempo's 1. Snacks Tuner also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Tempo sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per year. Snacks Tuner asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tempo ships an update every 5 days, Snacks Tuner every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Tempo versus Snacks Tuner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTempoSnacks Tuner
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDean HetheringtonSnacks Design

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Tempo

Subscriptions1
  • Premium$14.991 Year
None

Snacks Tuner

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tempo free?
Tempo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Snacks Tuner free?
Snacks Tuner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Tempo or Snacks Tuner have ads?
Neither Tempo nor Snacks Tuner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tempo or Snacks Tuner?
Tempo ships an update every 5 days, and Snacks Tuner every 2 days. Most recently, Tempo was updated on October 31, 2026 and Snacks Tuner on October 29, 2026.

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