Comparison

Bongos! Bongos! vs Instruments Free

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

Head to head
About

Bongos! Bongos!

Experience realistic bongo drumming with this app, designed for all skill levels. Learn rhythms with interactive lessons and enjoy high-fidelity sounds and customizable controls. Record your sessions and share them easily.

Highlights
  • Realistic bongo simulation
  • LearnNPlay rhythm teaching feature
  • 10 diverse drum layouts
  • High-fidelity 44.1 kHz sound
  • Touch volume sensitivity
  • Multi-track recording
  • Play along to music
Features
Read full description

Bongos! Bongos! is the closest thing to playing the real bongos as you can get. Created with both beginners and pros in mind, Bongos! Bongos! combines the latest drum app technology available with decades of real percussion experience to create the most realistic bongo app available today for the iPhone or iPad. Bongos! Bongos! also teaches drum rhythm with our exclusive Learn'NPlay feature. 30 different percussion loops for both beginner and advanced will have you playing the Bongos and other percussion instruments in no time! When playing a Learn'NPlay loop, the drums light up and emits colorful musical notes when tapped simultaneously as the drum being played, which shows you are in rhythm. There are 10 different drum layouts, with different layouts and sizes of Bongos, Congas, and Timbale drums. The incredible 44.1 khz high fidelity sound, retina display for incredibly crisp graphics, as well as realistic features such as touch volume sensitivity, pitch, reverb and delay controls, combine to make you feel as if you are actually playing real drums. Other features include multi-track recording, and the ability to play along to music on your iPod, or to our 30 Drum, Music and Percussion Loops and 20 different metronome sounds. Bongos! Bongos! amazing sounds, graphics and features combine to provide drummers of all ages and levels a truly realistic percussion experience. Bongos! Bongos!........so good you have to say it twice! FEATURES: • 10 different drum layouts, including various combinations of large and small Bongos, Congas, Timbale, Cowbell and Woodblock • Professionally recorded 44.1 khz high fidelity sounds • Exclusive LearnNPlay feature teaches rhythm in a fun and easy way – each drum layout has 6 different loops to play along to, in beginner and advanced categories. A unique, fun, and easy way to learn rhythm! • Colorful graphics and animation- musical notes appear wherever/whenever drum is hit • Touch Sensitivity Volume Control-the volume responds to your touch: the harder you hit the drums, the louder they sound • Reverb and Delay Controls – slider adjustments allows limitless drum sounds • Pitch Control – lower or raise the pitch of the drums • Retina Display for both iPad and iPhone for incredibly crisp graphics • 10 each (30 total) Unique Percussion, Drum, and Music Loops to play along to • Realistic Rolls – simply swirl your finger around to create faster or slower realistic sounding rolls • 20 different Metronome Sounds and 4 Time Signatures to play to, with BPM adjustment • Multi-track recording – easily add or delete tracks, save and loop recordings • Share your recordings through email, Facebook, and Twitter • Export your recordings to your computer • Lefty Mode – reverse the entire drum layout • Play along to the music on your iPod, iPhone, or iPad PRIVACY POLICY: http://codyrotwein.com/privacy.html

About

Instruments Free

Explore a vibrant sound picture book with a collection of musical instruments. Tap images to hear their authentic sounds and see their names spoken in one of 78 languages. Ideal for early learning and language development.

Highlights
  • Interactive sound picture book
  • Real instrument sounds
  • Spoken instrument names
  • Supports 78 languages
  • Adjustable slideshow mode
  • Offline functionality
  • Parental gate
Features
Read full description

Instruments is the best interactive sound picture book featuring a lot of musical instruments: tap the image to hear the instrument and see its name in your chosen language (78 languages). Large images, real sounds, spoken names. Who is it for? Ages 1–5 for the picture-book experience. Ages 3–15 for language learning and instrument vocabulary. How it works The interface lets a child, alone or with an adult, discover each instrument and its sound. Images can advance automatically like a slideshow (adjustable speed) or manually by swiping the screen. The display order is configurable (random or sequential). A long-press on the instrument name lets you choose another display/spoken language. Multilingual (78 languages) Spoken names and interface available in your language of choice, to build vocabulary and train the ear from an early age. Tip: in your device settings, download Apple’s premium voices (higher-quality voices provided by iOS). Why you’ll love Instruments? Clear, reassuring musical discovery for young children. Natural pronunciations and authentic sounds. Multilingual (78) to support early learning, vocabulary, and listening. Works anywhere Works offline and in airplane mode: all images and sounds are stored on device No connection required. Orientation Portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad. Parents and schools – Parental gate (settings protected by a random math question). Supported languages (displayed and spoken) Afrikaans, Albanian, German, Amharic, English, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Bengali, Belarusian, Burmese, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Croatian, Danish, Spanish, Estonian, Filipino/Tagalog, Finnish, French, Galician, Welsh, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Uzbek, Persian/Farsi, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Czech, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba, Zulu Contact us contact@iburgerapps.com

Screenshots

Bongos! Bongos!4 screens
Instruments Free4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Bongos! Bongos! at 4.1 against Instruments Free's 1.0. Bongos! Bongos! also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 19 months) and ratings volume (14 vs 1). Instruments Free's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment 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. Bongos! Bongos! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Instruments Free asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bongos! Bongos! holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bongos! Bongos! has 14 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Bongos! Bongos!'s written reviews are positive against 54% of Instruments Free's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Bongos! Bongos! ships an update every 3 days, Instruments Free every 19 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Bongos! Bongos! versus Instruments Free: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBongos! Bongos!Instruments Free
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (14 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews — better54.1% of reviews
Number of ratings14 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 19 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB30 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperDrum StarzChristophe Burdin

Customer experience

Bongos! Bongos!

All ratings14 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral7.1%
Negative21.4%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative42.9%

Instruments Free

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive54.1%
Neutral8.1%
Negative37.8%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Bongos! Bongos!

One-time1
  • Remove ads$0.99
None

Instruments Free

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bongos! Bongos! free?
Bongos! Bongos! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Instruments Free free?
Instruments Free is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bongos! Bongos! or Instruments Free?
Bongos! Bongos! is rated higher. Bongos! Bongos! averages 4.1 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Instruments Free averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Bongos! Bongos! or Instruments Free have ads?
Bongos! Bongos! shows ads; Instruments Free does not.
Which is updated more often, Bongos! Bongos! or Instruments Free?
Bongos! Bongos! ships an update every 3 days, and Instruments Free every 19 months. Most recently, Bongos! Bongos! was updated on September 25, 2026 and Instruments Free on September 21, 2026.

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