Comparison

Guitar Codex vs ZZZ FretHarmony

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

Head to head
About

Guitar Codex

This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for guitarists of all levels, from beginners to experienced players. It includes a tuner, metronome, interactive chord and scale libraries, and a structured 140-lesson course covering theory, technique, and songwriting.

Highlights
  • Chromatic tuner with multiple presets
  • Metronome with tap tempo
  • Interactive circle of fifths
  • Extensive chord and scale libraries
  • 140 structured lessons
  • Fretboard diagrams with color-coded notes
Features
Read full description

Guitar Codex is the app you reach for every time you pick up a guitar. Find a chord, run a scale, tune up, or sit down for a proper lesson. It works for total beginners and for players twenty years in. THE TOOLS Chord Finder: tap the frets on a blank fretboard and watch the chord names appear. Play a shape you can’t name and find out what it is, or build a chord note by note and see how it’s made. Note Map: every note on the neck, lit up by octave. Pick a note and see every place it lives, then open a tip and watch the octave pattern drawn right on the fretboard. Chromatic tuner with a smooth needle and presets for Standard, Drop D, Open G, DADGAD, and more. Reference pitch is adjustable from 432 to 445 Hz. Metronome with tap tempo, time signatures, and a visual beat indicator. An interactive circle of fifths: tap any key and see its seven chords, its key signature, and its relative key. THE LIBRARIES Every chord, scale, arpeggio, and triad renders on the same big, high-contrast fretboard diagram, with each note color-coded by its job in the shape: root, 3rd, 5th, and so on. You learn why a shape works, not just where your fingers go. Chords: every common type and voicing, with CAGED positions up the whole neck Scales: five boxes per scale, a full-neck view, and advice on when to use each one Triads: three string sets, three inversions each, all on one page Arpeggios: chord tones mapped across the neck for every quality THE COURSE 140 lessons in 12 modules take you from holding the guitar for the first time through chords, scales, theory, the CAGED system, progressions, modes, songwriting, technique, genre studies, and fretboard and ear mastery. Lessons teach with diagrams and real songs, and they’re written to be read with the guitar in your hands. All of Module 1 is free. Guitar Codex has no subscription and never will. The free version includes the Chord Finder, the Note Map, the full tuner, the metronome, and a real taste of everything else. Two optional one-time purchases unlock the rest: Pro, the complete reference toolkit, and Complete, which adds all 140 lessons plus every lesson added in the future. Buy it once and it is yours for good.

About

ZZZ FretHarmony

Features
Read full description

A guitar practice app that draws the relationship between chords and scales on the neck itself. ■ The whole neck, drawn Chord tones, scale tones, extensions and avoid notes, muted and open strings — each told apart by colour and shape. Switch to degrees and a shape becomes the same shape in every key. ■ Every fingering a chord has From the chord book anyone learns first to every position on every run of adjacent strings. Choose by which string the root is on, and narrow it down by arrangement: close, drop 2, drop 3, shell, power chord. ■ Progressions written in degrees Diatonic or not, a progression is built from degrees. Change the key and the whole thing transposes; change key part way through and it modulates. Start from a preset or from nothing at all. ■ Arpeggios with a rhythm of their own Not only up and down: three-finger and Travis-style patterns that have a rhythm in them, and a different pattern for each bar if you want one. ■ Eight recorded instruments Electric, acoustic and nylon-string guitar, piano, organ, harp, cello and flute — each note pitch-corrected one at a time. A synthesised string is there too. ■ More than thirty scales Every mode of the major and minor scales, pentatonics, both blues scales, bebop, whole tone, diminished, altered, Hungarian minor, and the Japanese scales: hirajoshi, in sen, yo and ryukyu. ■ It all stays on your device No account, no sign-in. Settings and saved progressions live on the device only, and nothing about what you play is sent anywhere. On a tablet the neck stays visible while you work; on a phone it stays pinned while the controls scroll under it. ―――――――――― ZZZ FretHarmony Pro (auto-renewing subscription) - Length and price: 1 year / ¥360 - What it does: hides every advert and removes the limit on saved progressions - Renews every year unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends - Cancel any time in your App Store account settings; cancelling takes effect at the end of the period already paid for Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://smolt-stage.com/home/privacy/zzz-fretharmony-privacy-policy-ios-en.html

Screenshots

Guitar Codex4 screens
ZZZ FretHarmony4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Guitar Codex at none against ZZZ FretHarmony's shown. On price, in-app purchases, 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

Both are free to download. Guitar Codex sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and ZZZ FretHarmony sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Guitar Codex versus ZZZ FretHarmony: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuitar CodexZZZ FretHarmony
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.416.3 — better
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCampCheck Interactive LLCSMOLT STAGE, K.K.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Guitar Codex

One-time3
  • Guitar Codex Pro$9.99
  • Pro to Complete Upgrade$9.99
  • Guitar Codex Complete$19.99
1 purchases

ZZZ FretHarmony

Subscriptions1
  • ZZZ FretHarmony Pro$1.991 Year

Questions

Is Guitar Codex free?
Guitar Codex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ZZZ FretHarmony free?
ZZZ FretHarmony is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Guitar Codex or ZZZ FretHarmony have ads?
ZZZ FretHarmony shows ads; Guitar Codex does not.

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