Comparison

Tabla vs DrumToolz

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

Head to head
About

Tabla

Learn and play Indian tabla drums on your smartphone or tablet. Access over 100 video lessons, a variety of percussion instruments, and loops to practice with. Enjoy studio-quality audio and share your performances.

Highlights
  • Over 100 video lessons
  • Realistic tabla set and percussion instruments
  • Variety of loops for playing along
  • Studio-quality audio
  • Export recordings to MP3
  • Share performances on social media
  • MIDI support
Features
Read full description

The Tabla app provides all the tools necessary to master the art of playing the tabla instrument on your smartphone or tablet. Now you can easily play any music, anywhere! Excellent for anyone who is passionate about the instrument and music! What is a Tabla? The tabla is a Hindu percussion instrument widely used in Indian devotional and meditative music. It consists of a pair of drums, the smaller, higher-pitched DAYA and the larger, deeper-sounding BAYA. Why haven't you started learning to play the tabla drums yet? Tabla offers various video lessons to assist you, along with a variety of loops to play along with. Don't have access to a real tabla instrument or an electronic tabla? No problem! The Tabla app offers a realistic tabla set and a diverse range of other percussion instruments with high-quality sounds, allowing you to play any music you desire! You don't need a tabla drum to learn to play! The Tabla is an excellent choice for practicing or playing quietly, without causing disruptions or requiring much space. Enjoy the freedom to play tabla wherever you like! Show your friends how good you are at playing tabla! Share videos of your performances with friends and on social media! The Tabla app allows children and adults to learn drumming while having fun, enhancing their cognitive and motor skills. This drum game will stimulate your musical talent, making it easy to learn drum beats as if using a real tabla kit. So what are you waiting for to become a tabla player? Explore Tabla features: - Over 100 lessons to learn how to play the tabla - Various percussion musical instruments - Wide variety of drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments - Loops for playing along - Studio-quality audio - Export your recordings to MP3 format - Share your recordings and custom drum sets on social media - New tabla lessons and loops introduced weekly - Compatible with all screen resolutions - Phones and Tablets (HD images) - MIDI support - Free app The app contains the following subscription: - Premium Version (Remove ads; Unlock all loops; and Unlock Metronome) - Monthly payment ($3,90). - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. - The subscription is automatically renewed unless cancelled 24 hours before the renewal. - The subsequent monthly subscriptions are automatically renewed unless cancelled 24 hours before the next renewal (considering the day of the effective monthly subscription). - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy Policy: http://www.kolbapps.com/privacy_policy_and_terms.pdf Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Designed for drummers, percussionists, professional musicians, enthusiasts, and beginners! From the creators of the Real Drum app! Download the Tabla app and turn your fingers into drumsticks right now! Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for tips on using the app: @kolbapps Kolb Apps: Touch & Play!

About

DrumToolz

Compose and practice drum cadences and beats on your mobile device. This app allows manual input of exercises, generation of new ideas, and practice of rudiments. Share your creations and learn from a community of drummers.

Highlights
  • Compose drum cadences and beats
  • Manual exercise input
  • Generate new rhythmic ideas
  • Editable music score
  • Practice snare rudiments
  • Library of dynamic exercises
  • Social profile and sharing
Read full description

Compose cadences on the go! Choose from snares, tenors, bass drums, cymbals, and even drumset if you want. In a league of its own, DrumToolz also lets you manually input exercises for drum set, marching snare, tenors, and bass drums while generating new creative ideas using what you input, all shown on an editable music score. You can also upload your beats to your social profile, play what other users are playing, save rhythms, practice snare drum rudiments, and learn from a full library of dynamic exercises for both snare drum and drumset! It's perfect for all skill levels, from beginner to extremely advanced, drum wizards. Works great for sharing drum cadences with your drumline. Isolate individual snare, tenors, etc. parts. Practice the simplest to the most complex of beats and rhythms. If you can think of it, you can input it and practice it! Anything from beginner rock beats, to the most complex of jazz beats and fills. Lastly, top off the notes with ornaments: stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese. Input up to 50 measures. When practicing drum set beats, choose from a ride cymbal, hihat, hihat foot, kick drum, snare drum, and three toms. Input everything from whole notes to thirtysecond notes and tuplets. Also, for tenors, choose from four tenors and a spock. Bass drums - five bass drums. Marching snare - a realistic marching snare and a ping sound. Generate new ideas (modifications) using beats that you input into the score. Choose from several modification methods: Add, Shuffle, Substitute, Permutate, Repeat, and Random. Modify individual parts of the beat (ex: kick drum only) or the entire beat if desired. Custom snare exercises. Choose the time sig, subdivisons, tuplets, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, cheese, drags. Save the beat in the score for later practice, keeping the modifications if desired. If the modifications are kept, this turns the beat into an endless, dynamic exercise! Each time you generate an exercise, it uses the modifications to give you an entirely new beat. String together saved rhythms and practice them as one exercise, perfect for practicing beats followed by a drum fill. Upload your beats to your profile. Find and follow other drummers in the social network. Learn from them as you see and practice what they have uploaded to their profile. Share your beats through PDF links and files. Also, share your entire score with a link that pre-populates the score into the app. Learn from a full library of dynamic drum set and snare drum exercises, essential and hybrid rudiments included. For highlighted rhythms, shuffle around groups of notes, stickings, accents, flams, diddles, and cheese.

Screenshots

Tabla4 screens
DrumToolz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DrumToolz at none against Tabla's 10. DrumToolz also leads on ads (none vs shown). Tabla's advantage is ratings volume (1.2K vs 314). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Tabla sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. DrumToolz asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tabla holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.2K and 314 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of Tabla's written reviews are positive against 58% of DrumToolz's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tabla ships an update every 3 weeks, DrumToolz monthly. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Tabla versus DrumToolz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTablaDrumToolz
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.2K ratings) — better4.2 (314 ratings)
Positive reviews63.4% of reviews — better58.1% of reviews
Number of ratings1.2K — better314
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.614.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKOLB SISTEMAS - EIRELIJared Simon

Customer experience

Tabla

All ratings1,215 ratings
Positive84.9%
Neutral5.8%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews71 reviews
Positive63.4%
Neutral5.6%
Negative31.0%

DrumToolz

All ratings270 ratings
Positive78.1%
Neutral8.5%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews43 reviews
Positive58.1%
Neutral25.6%
Negative16.3%

User reviews

Tabla

From 1.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Very good and very nice
  • 👍 This heavenly app changed my life
  • 👍 Amazing product
  • 👍 Very nice wonderful
  • 👍 Tabla is so cool

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Very weird and has no ghe that resonates
  • 🐛 Don't want score in every 30 sec
  • 🔋 ADs
  • 🐛 too many spam you can not turn off
  • 🐛 Very bad.. hung most of the time and need to restart

DrumToolz

From 314 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for writing music
  • 👍 Helpful for drumline
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Good sounds
  • 👍 Good for practice

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Tutorial not helpful
  • 🐛 Hard to find features
  • 🐛 UI issues
  • 🐛 App crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Saves progress poorly

Bugs and requests

Tabla

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Very weird and has no ghe that resonates
  • Very bad.. hung most of the time and need to restart
  • No sound on iPhone 6S
  • There is no sound
  • Using latest IOS, no sound

Requested features

3 requests
  • Leers for certain known thekas / taals
  • Option to control the speed of the loop while learning and practicing
  • Harmonium app

DrumToolz

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • App crashes and deletes progress
  • App won't open
  • Repeat function doesn't stop
  • Repeat save fails
  • Accents, diddles, flams added automatically
Show 8 more
  • Buzz roll cannot be removed
  • Font camouflages in dark mode
  • App crashes when opening after saving
  • App crashes when opening
  • App crashes when adding notes
  • App crashes after saving
  • App crashes when trying to reopen
  • App crashes a lot

Requested features

15 requests
  • Turn off metronome
  • Add rum shot for snare
  • Add rim shots for other drums
  • Add triplets, fivelets, sixlets
  • Add dynamics (forte, piano)
Show 10 more
  • Cymbals sizzle option
  • Add buzz roll for snares
  • Add diddle feature
  • More measures
  • Add bass drum notes
  • Add open hi-hat sound
  • Improve UI for tuplet measurement
  • Improve UI for measure change
  • Ability to hear multiple instruments simultaneously
  • Fix replace button for bass drums

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Tabla

Subscriptions9
  • Premium Version$1.991 Month
  • Premium Version - 3 Days Free3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Premium Version1 Month trial$2.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Premium Version$3.991 Month
  • Premium Version3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Premium Version$6.997 Days
  • half-yearly subscription$9.996 Months
  • annual subscription$12.991 Year
  • Premium Version3 Days trial$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • Remove Ads$99.99
None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tabla free?
Tabla is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DrumToolz free?
DrumToolz is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tabla or DrumToolz?
Tabla is rated higher. Tabla averages 4.4 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while DrumToolz averages 4.2 from 314 ratings.
Do Tabla or DrumToolz have ads?
Tabla shows ads; DrumToolz does not.
Which is updated more often, Tabla or DrumToolz?
Tabla ships an update every 3 weeks, and DrumToolz monthly. Most recently, Tabla was updated on November 6, 2026 and DrumToolz on November 6, 2026.

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