Comparison

TuneWave vs Complete Ear Trainer

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

Head to head
About

TuneWave

A minimalist and efficient instrument tuner that offers quick and easy tuning with a focus on visibility and glanceable feedback. It allows for transposition and base frequency adjustments, along with input volume control for optimal sound.

Highlights
  • Sleek, minimalist design
  • Quick and easy tuning
  • Glanceable feedback
  • Transposition feature
  • Adjustable base frequency
  • Adjustable input volume
Features
Read full description

Sleek, efficient, and responsive, TuneWave is the no-nonsense utility that lets you tune your instrument quickly and easily. TuneWave puts everything you need front and center for optimal visibility and glanceable feedback. It can transpose if you’re using an instrument that requires it, and it can even adjust the base frequency to fit your needs. You can even adjust the input volume based on your instrument or surroundings for the best possible results. Forget big dials and fake wood, just get in, get ready, and then get back to your music. "the design is modern and the app has few distracting bells and whistles...minimalist and speedy." - The New York Times

About

Complete Ear Trainer

Develop your musical ear and music theory knowledge with this comprehensive training app. It offers progressive drills, various sound options, and a gamified learning experience to improve improvisation, composition, and performance skills.

Highlights
  • 150+ progressive drills
  • 11 drill types
  • 24 intervals, 36 chord types
  • Melodic dictations and chord progressions
  • Gamified learning with star system
  • Custom drill and program creation
  • Cloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

The ultimate ear training app for musicians. Develop your relative pitch to the full by improving your aural skills and your music theory knowledge. This will better many aspects of your life as a musician, be it regarding improvisation, composition, arrangement, interpretation, singing, or playing in a band. Designed like a video game and with strong pedagogical concepts in mind, this app will make you truly master each interval, chord, scale, etc. before taking you to the next one. Features • 150+ progressive drills arranged over 4 levels / 28 chapters • 11 drill types, 24 intervals, 36 chord types, chord inversions, 28 scale types, melodic dictations, chord progressions • Easy mode: 50+ progressive drills arranged over 12 chapters especially designed for beginners • Play a selection of 21 drills in arcade mode • 5 octaves of actual recorded grand piano sounds • 7 additional sound banks are available, all with actual recorded sounds: vintage piano, Rhodes piano, electric guitar, harpsichord, concert harp, strings and pizzicato strings • In each chapter, a theory card will introduce you to the concepts you will need to know • No need to know how to read music on a staff • Designed like a video game: earn 3 stars in each drill of a chapter to unlock the next one. Or will you be able to obtain perfect 5-star scores? • Don't want to follow the preestablished path of progression? Create and save your own custom drills and rehearse them at your own convenience • Create full custom training programs and invite friends or students to join them. If for example you're a teacher you can create custom programs for your students, add drills every week and view their scores on private leaderboards • Never lose any progress: cloud sync across your various devices • 25 achievements to unlock • Worldwide leaderboards (global, per level, per chapter, easy mode, arcade mode) • Nice and clean user interface with 2 display themes: light and dark • Designed by a musician and music teacher with a Royal Conservatory master's degree Full Version • Download the app and try out the first chapter of each mode for free • One-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version on all your devices Having a problem? Got a suggestion? You can reach us at hello@completeeartrainer.com Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

TuneWave2 screens
Complete Ear Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Complete Ear Trainer at Free against TuneWave's $0.99. Complete Ear Trainer also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.5) and review sentiment (85% vs 44%). TuneWave's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and device support (5 vs 2). On ads 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

Complete Ear Trainer is free to download; TuneWave costs $0.99 up front. Complete Ear Trainer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. TuneWave asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Complete Ear Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Complete Ear Trainer has 199 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of TuneWave's written reviews are positive against 85% of Complete Ear Trainer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TuneWave ships an update every 5 months, Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
TuneWave versus Complete Ear Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTuneWaveComplete Ear Trainer
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating2.5 (4 ratings)4.7 (199 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.4% of reviews85.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4199 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.5
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB78 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperforScore LLCBinary Guilt

Customer experience

TuneWave

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive44.4%
Neutral16.7%
Negative38.9%

Complete Ear Trainer

All ratings199 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral7.5%
Negative7.5%

In-app purchases

None

TuneWave

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Complete Ear Trainer

Subscriptions2
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$0.991 Month
  • Cloud Sync and Web access$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Full Version$6.99

Questions

Is TuneWave free?
TuneWave costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Complete Ear Trainer free?
Complete Ear Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, TuneWave or Complete Ear Trainer?
Complete Ear Trainer is rated higher. TuneWave averages 2.5 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Complete Ear Trainer averages 4.7 from 199 ratings.
Do TuneWave or Complete Ear Trainer have ads?
Neither TuneWave nor Complete Ear Trainer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TuneWave or Complete Ear Trainer?
TuneWave ships an update every 5 months, and Complete Ear Trainer fortnightly. Most recently, TuneWave was updated on October 8, 2026 and Complete Ear Trainer on October 20, 2026.

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