Comparison

Cantus vs Gacha Chord

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

Head to head
About

Cantus

This interactive tool helps musicians explore harmony and chord voicings on a virtual piano. It allows users to visualize how notes move within chords, understand modal relationships, and develop a feel for harmony through focused practice.

Highlights
  • Interactive chord and voicing exploration
  • Piano keyboard visualization
  • Modal and scale-based harmony practice
  • Voice-leading movement analysis
  • Tone.js audio playback
  • Account-free operation
Features
Read full description

Cantus - Voicing Lab is an interactive harmony and chord-voicing tool by Nathaniel School of Music for pianists, composers, producers, and music theory students. Explore how notes move inside chords, hear voicings in context, and study color, tension, and modal relationships from the keyboard. Cantus is designed as a focused practice lab: pick a sound, inspect the voice leading, and build intuition for how harmony feels under your hands. FEATURES * Interactive chord and voicing explorer * Piano keyboard visualization * Modal and scale-based harmony practice * Voice-leading movement and pinboard-style comparison * Tone.js audio playback * Self-hosted fonts and bundled web assets * Works without an account BY NATHANIEL SCHOOL OF MUSIC Built for practical harmony learning, composition practice, and deeper chord fluency.

About

Gacha Chord

Features
Read full description

Write a song in bed. Transcribe one on the train. Then pick up your guitar and play it. Gacha Chord makes chord progressions simple: you just tap the chords you want. No keyboard, no DAW, so the idea gets built wherever you happen to be. 1. Let it suggest, and write in bed 2. Write down what you transcribe 3. Play it with guitar chord charts ■ 1. LET IT SUGGEST, AND WRITE IN BED The progression you would never have thought of. Place a chord and it offers what could come next: a weighted gacha built on functional harmony. Three safe picks and two adventurous ones. Every suggestion carries a one-line reason. Dominant resolutions, secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, modal interchange, passing diminished chords, chromatic mediants. A star marks the ones that connect most naturally. Press and hold a chord to swap it for a substitute. The further a chord strays from the key, the louder its color, so you can see how far you have wandered. ■ 2. WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU TRANSCRIBE Pull a song apart in the gaps of your day. It works just as well as a notebook for the chords you write or pick up by ear. - Scale degrees and real chord names, side by side. Change the key and the whole progression moves with it - Build the exact voicing: tensions, altered fifths, inversions, slash chords, octaves - Split the progression into verse and chorus, and transpose section by section - See dominant motion, ii-V pairs, pivot chords and the source of borrowed chords marked on the progression - Find saved progressions by name or tag ■ 3. PLAY IT WITH GUITAR CHORD CHARTS Your chart for singing along. In the section view, switch every chord to a guitar chord chart (Pro). Choose between open and barre shapes, and the shape you pick is saved with the song. Hit the play button at the bottom to loop the progression. The chord that is playing lights up, so you can follow along in time. Great for practice, or as a cheat sheet on stage. ■ GACHA CHORD PRO (ONE-TIME PURCHASE) A single purchase unlocks everything below. There is no monthly fee. - Unlimited saved progressions - Unlimited favorite chords - Recording: hum the melody in your head and play it back over the chords - Arpeggio playback - Notes and an image on a saved progression - MIDI export (opens straight in GarageBand, Logic and others) - Guitar chord charts, with both open and barre shapes - iCloud Backup, with or without your recordings. Bring everything over to a new device ■ OTHER - No account required - The free version shows ads. Pro removes them - Everything you make is stored on your device, and in your own iCloud if you use Pro's iCloud Backup

Screenshots

Cantus3 screens
Gacha Chord4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cantus at none against Gacha Chord's 1. Cantus also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence 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. Gacha Chord sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cantus asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Cantus versus Gacha Chord: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCantusGacha Chord
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 5 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJason ZachariahYUKI KIMURA

In-app purchases

None

Cantus

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Gacha Chord

One-time1
  • Gacha Chord Pro$6.99

Questions

Is Cantus free?
Cantus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Gacha Chord free?
Gacha Chord is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Cantus or Gacha Chord have ads?
Gacha Chord shows ads; Cantus does not.
Which is updated more often, Cantus or Gacha Chord?
Cantus ships an update every 5 days, and Gacha Chord every 5 days. Most recently, Cantus was updated on November 5, 2026 and Gacha Chord on November 10, 2026.

Other comparisons