Comparison

Choral Lab vs Hive

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

Head to head
About

Choral Lab

Compose and study Bach-style four-part chorales. Harmonize melodies with automatic voice generation, explore a library of 410 Bach chorales, and analyze chords in real-time. Offers both score and piano roll views for detailed study.

Highlights
  • Automatic SATB harmonization in Bach style
  • Library of 410 J.S. Bach chorales
  • Interactive soprano piano roll
  • Real-time chord analysis
  • Score and piano roll views
  • MIDI export
Features
Read full description

Choral Lab brings the art of four-part Bach chorale writing to your iPhone. Whether you're a composer, music student, or theory enthusiast, explore one of the most refined harmonic styles in Western music. Harmonize your melodies. Draw a soprano line on the interactive piano roll and watch Choral Lab instantly generate alto, tenor, and bass voices following authentic Bach voice-leading rules — avoiding parallel fifths and octaves, resolving leading tones, and building natural cadences. Browse 410 Bach chorales. Explore the complete corpus of J.S. Bach's four-part chorales with full score display, real-time chord analysis, and playback with rich choir sounds. Two ways to read the music. Switch between a traditional four-part score view with proper notation and clefs, or a piano roll view to see the voice leading clearly laid out across time. Mute individual voices to focus on any single part or study how voices interact. Generate original chorales. Let the app create complete chorales from scratch in any key — major or minor — with realistic harmonic progressions, passing tones, and Picardy thirds. Study chord analysis. Follow along with real-time Roman numeral chord labels as the music plays. Features: • Interactive soprano piano roll with tie support • Automatic SATB harmonization in Bach style • Library of 410 J.S. Bach chorales • Score view with Bravura music engraving font • Piano roll view with per-voice muting • Real-time chord analysis • Choir, piano, and organ sounds • MIDI export • AUv3 plugin — works in GarageBand, AUM and other hosts • One-tap host tempo sync in plugin mode • MIDI output per voice (soprano, alto, tenor, bass on channels 1–4)

About

Hive

Features
Read full description

Hive is a honeycomb loop mixer. Pick a hive, tap a hex, and the loop locks to the beat. Every loop in a pack lives in the same key and tempo, so whatever you light up plays together. No timeline. No tracks. No menus. Just a wall of glowing hexes and a heartbeat that keeps the jam honest. Tap mid-cycle and the loop waits for the next downbeat, then drops in on time. Seven hives, seven moods. Tape Haze and Break Slice are free, forever. Pocket Groove, Stingray, Warehouse Pulse, Neon Current, and Crate Digger unlock with Hive Pro. Light up a mix you love and share it as a hive code. Anyone with Hive opens the same loops, on the same downbeat. Hive Pro is $4.99/month or $39.99/year. It unlocks every hive, all future packs, unlimited downloads, and mix recording. Cancel anytime in Settings. Works on iPhone and iPad, portrait or landscape. Pinch to zoom the bigger hives.

Screenshots

Choral Lab4 screens
Hive4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Hive at Free against Choral Lab's $6.99. Hive also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks). Choral Lab's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Hive is free to download; Choral Lab costs $6.99 up front. Hive sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Choral Lab asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Choral Lab ships an update every 6 weeks, Hive every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Choral Lab versus Hive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChoral LabHive
Price$6.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size186 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMartin AdlerENAMIC (PTY) LTD

In-app purchases

None

Choral Lab

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Hive

Subscriptions2
  • Hive Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Hive Pro Yearly$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Choral Lab free?
Choral Lab costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hive free?
Hive is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Choral Lab or Hive have ads?
Neither Choral Lab nor Hive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Choral Lab or Hive?
Choral Lab ships an update every 6 weeks, and Hive every 2 weeks. Most recently, Choral Lab was updated on October 13, 2026 and Hive on September 28, 2026.

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