Comparison

AmenBeats vs Tonkro

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

Head to head
About

AmenBeats

This app offers a dual-mode music creation experience. Kids can enjoy a simplified interface with big buttons and playful beats, while adults can access a full studio with advanced features and MIDI capabilities. All creations are saved locally and securely.

Highlights
  • Kid-friendly interface with large buttons
  • Variety of playful and legendary drum breaks
  • Step sequencer for beat creation
  • Live drum playing
  • Performance recording and playback
  • Parental controls for customization
  • Full studio mode with advanced features
  • MIDI export and Ableton Link integration
Read full description

AmenBeats is a real drum machine built for kids — with a full studio hiding behind a grown-up gate. KID MODE: ONE SCREEN, BIG BUTTONS A focused instrument with big controls and a row of picture buttons for choosing beats. Open it and the row spins like a slot machine and lands on a groove, ready to play. Kids can: • Pick from playful beats — Boom Bap, Rock, Disco, Marchin', Shuffle, Techno, Reggae, Waltz — and eight legendary breaks • Tap the grid to add and remove drum hits, on a 4, 8, 12, or 16-step canvas • Bash the four drums live — Open Hat, Closed Hat, Snare, Kick — right from the grid • Flip power switches: SWING for groove, WILD to loosen it up, FILL! for a snare roll, DROP! to cut the beat out and slam it back • Speed up and slow down with big plus and minus buttons • Spin the wheel any time for a surprise beat SAVE A BEAT. SAVE THE WHOLE SHOW. Everything a kid plays is quietly recorded — the beat, the tempo changes, every live tap. One button saves the entire performance, however long it ran, and one tap plays it back exactly as it happened. Their beats and shows sit in their own list, ready to hear again. GROWN-UPS SET THE RULES Kid Setup tailors the app to each child: • Choose exactly which beats and famous breaks they can reach • Set the tempo range they can dial between • Cap the volume • Turn on mute and solo for older kids learning how a kit fits together • Set up more than one child, each with their own beats, limits, and saved work Kid Mode stays put. A six-digit parent PIN protects access to the studio. Set up your PIN before the first Kid session and save your private recovery code. Tap the lock to unlock; hold it for help. Your PIN and recovery code stay on that device. THE GROWN-UP STUDIO Behind the gate is a proper 16-step, 4-voice sequencer: • Eight study templates of the most sampled breaks ever recorded: the Amen break, the Funky Drummer, Apache, Think, Impeach, When the Levee Breaks, Cold Sweat, and the Big Beat • Tap any step through on, stomp (accent), and ghost — stomps add punch, ghost notes add the feel that makes a break breathe • Tempo from 40 to 220 BPM, swing, and per-voice mute and solo • Humanize and per-voice lay-back for a relaxed, human pocket • Save your grooves and chain them into a looping song, each pattern held for as many bars as you like MIDI AND ABLETON, SET UP BY A GROWN-UP The studio talks to real gear, and every bit of it is configured on the parent side — never in the child's reach: • Send MIDI on GM channel 10 so your pattern drives a drum rack in Ableton Live or any DAW • Export any pattern as a Standard MIDI clip and drag it straight into a session • Import a .mid clip back onto the grid • Sync tempo with Live and other Link-enabled apps over Ableton Link SAFE BY DESIGN No account. No sign-in. No ads. No in-app purchases. No analytics, no tracking, and no servers — AmenBeats collects nothing, and everything a child makes stays on the device. Every drum sound is synthesized as the app runs, so nothing is ever downloaded and the app stays tiny. It plays through the speaker even with the ring switch set to silent. Free.

About

Tonkro

Features
Read full description

MAKE MUSIC BY TOUCHING THE MACHINE Tonkro is a playful music workstation for iPad: part synthesizer, sampler, drum machine, sequencer, recorder, editor, mixer, and DJ performance space. SHAPE ORIGINAL INSTRUMENTS Explore distinctive synth and drum engines through four expressive controls. Each workshop is built to feel immediate: touch the illustrated machinery, hear the result, and let the characters react to your performance. SAMPLE THE WORLD Record through the microphone or import audio. Play one sound chromatically, divide it into untransposed slices, or map multiple samples across keys and pads. Trim, crop, loop, reverse, fade, change speed, transpose, and preserve the original recording with non-destructive editing. FIND RHYTHMS YOUR WAY Seven sequencer personalities turn taps, held notes, patterns, gestures, and playful systems into musical motion. Tempo, transport, MIDI, and recording stay connected, so a sketch can become an arrangement without breaking the flow. RECORD AND ARRANGE Build with eight stereo tracks. Record audio or notes, edit clips and piano-roll performances, overdub, punch, loop, lift, drop, mix, export stems, and save portable project bundles. PERFORM WITH MONSTER DECKS Load two tracks, set beat grids, sync, use key lock, cue points, hot cues, quantized loops, EQ, filters, pitch bend, and the crossfader. Record the performance or print it directly into the tape arrangement. MADE FOR PLAY Tonkro keeps its creative tools visible, touchable, and full of character. It works without an account, advertising, or third-party analytics. Your projects, recordings, and imported samples remain on your iPad unless you choose to export or share them.

Screenshots

AmenBeats4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: AmenBeats at daily against Tonkro's every 3 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AmenBeats ships an update daily, Tonkro every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
AmenBeats versus Tonkro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAmenBeatsTonkro
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPad
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB48 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer1041Soft LLCBipasha Nayak

In-app purchases

None

AmenBeats

No in-app purchases

None

Tonkro

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AmenBeats free?
AmenBeats is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tonkro free?
Tonkro is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do AmenBeats or Tonkro have ads?
Neither AmenBeats nor Tonkro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AmenBeats or Tonkro?
AmenBeats ships an update daily, and Tonkro every 3 weeks. Most recently, AmenBeats was updated on October 31, 2026 and Tonkro on October 31, 2026.

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