Comparison

Real Percussion vs DrumToolz

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

Head to head
About

Real Percussion

Learn to play a wide variety of percussion instruments on your smartphone or tablet. This app offers video lessons, loops, and realistic sounds to help you master drumming and develop musical skills. Practice quietly anywhere, anytime, and share your performances with others.

Highlights
  • Over 100 drum lessons
  • Realistic 3D percussion kits
  • Wide variety of instruments
  • Studio-quality audio
  • Export recordings to MP3
  • Share performances on social media
  • MIDI support
Features
Read full description

The Real Percussion provides all the tools necessary to master the art of playing percussion musical instruments on your smartphone or tablet. Now you can easily play any music, anywhere! Experience the sensation of your fingers transforming into drumsticks and feel like part of a real band! What is percussion? A percussion instrument is an object designed to produce sound through shaking, scraping, or striking with the aid of drumsticks or hands. Why haven't you started learning to play percussion yet? The Real Percussion offers various video lessons to assist you, along with a variety of loops to play along with. Don't have access to real percussion instrument or drum set? No problem! The Real Percussion offers a diverse range of percussion musical instruments and drum sets with high-quality sounds, allowing you to play any music you desire! You don't need an acoustic or electronic percussion to learn to play! The Real Percussion is an excellent choice for practicing or playing drums quietly, without causing disruptions or requiring much space. Enjoy the freedom to play percussion wherever you like! Show your friends how good you are at playing percussion! Share videos of your performances with friends and on social media! The Real Percussion 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 beats as if using a real percussion kit. With Real Percussion, you can play instruments like: - Xylophone - Marimba - Maracas - Tambourine - Timpani - Guiro - Agogo - Vibraphone - Castanets - Cajon - Hang drum - Cabasa - Vibraslap - Bongos - Conga - Drum - Cymbal - and more! So what are you waiting for to become a percussionist? Explore Real Percussion features: - Over 100 drum lessons to learn drumming - Various percussion kits, including realistic 3D sets - Wide variety of drums, cymbals, tambourines, and other percussion instruments - Loops for playing along - Studio-quality audio - Export your recordings to MP3 format - Share your recordings on social media - New percussion sets, 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; Unlock all lessons 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. Terms of use and Privacy Policy: http://www.kolbapps.com/privacy_policy_and_terms.pdf Designed for drummers, percussionists, professional musicians, enthusiasts, and beginners! Download the Real Percussion 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

Real Percussion4 screens
DrumToolz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DrumToolz at none against Real Percussion's 10. DrumToolz also leads on ads (none vs shown). Real Percussion's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (1.7K vs 270). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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. Real Percussion sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. DrumToolz asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Real Percussion holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Real Percussion has 1.7K ratings behind it against 270, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 53% of Real Percussion's written reviews are positive against 58% of DrumToolz's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Real Percussion ships an update every 3 weeks, DrumToolz monthly. Both last shipped on September 25, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Real Percussion versus DrumToolz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReal PercussionDrumToolz
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.7K ratings) — better4.2 (270 ratings)
Positive reviews53.4% of reviews58.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.7K — better270
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
Size83 MB93 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKOLB SISTEMAS - EIRELIJared Simon

Customer experience

Real Percussion

All ratings1,653 ratings
Positive85.8%
Neutral6.4%
Negative7.9%
Written reviews58 reviews
Positive53.4%
Neutral17.2%
Negative29.3%

DrumToolz

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

User reviews

Real Percussion

From 1.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎉 Fun and enjoyable to use
  • 🎨 Wide variety of instruments
  • 👍 Easy to play
  • 🎶 Helps with music creation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Tuning issues with certain instruments (e.g. tenors, timbales)
  • 🔊 Some sounds not realistic or off-beat
  • 💰 Too many ads, subscription required to remove them
  • 🔌 Compatibility issues with other apps (e.g. GarageBand)

DrumToolz

From 270 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

Real Percussion

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Incorrect positioning of tenor drums
  • Latency issues when playing
  • Glitches causing incorrect drum sounds to play

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more instrument options (e.g. timpani, buffalo drum)
  • Implement MIDI support for integration with other apps
  • Add loop/pattern recording functionality
  • Improve tuning and realism of drum sounds

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

Real Percussion

Subscriptions9
  • Premium Version$1.991 Month
  • Premium Version - 3 Days Free$2.991 Month
  • Premium Version1 Month trial$2.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Premium Version3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Premium Version$3.991 Month
  • Premium Version$6.997 Days
  • Premium Version (6 months)$9.996 Months
  • Premium Version (1 year)$12.991 Year
  • Premium Version3 Days trial$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • Remove Ads$99.99
None

DrumToolz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Real Percussion free?
Real Percussion 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, Real Percussion or DrumToolz?
Real Percussion is rated higher. Real Percussion averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while DrumToolz averages 4.2 from 270 ratings.
Do Real Percussion or DrumToolz have ads?
Real Percussion shows ads; DrumToolz does not.
Which is updated more often, Real Percussion or DrumToolz?
Real Percussion ships an update every 3 weeks, and DrumToolz monthly. Most recently, Real Percussion was updated on September 25, 2026 and DrumToolz on September 25, 2026.

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