Ultimate Guitar still holds the biggest crowdsourced tab and chord library on the internet with around 1.5 million entries. The app is something else though. Free users have lost features over the years to a Pro tier that now costs more than many full streaming services, autoscroll runs roughly inside the free app but flawlessly inside Pro, and the offline tab limit on free was cut sharply in 2024. If any of that has soured you, the guitar app space has matured around tab readers, chord recognition tools, and proper lesson platforms. These seven Ultimate Guitar alternatives cover real tabs, chord-from-audio recognition, structured lessons, and tuning so you can mix what each one does best.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Songsterr | Interactive tab playback | 90-second preview | £6.99/mo | Plays the tab back at any tempo |
| Chordify | Chord recognition from any song | 5 free songs/week | £4.99/mo | Detects chords from Spotify/YouTube |
| Yousician | Guided lessons | Limited daily time | £12.99/mo | Listens to your playing and grades |
| Simply Guitar | Beginner-friendly lessons | 7-day trial | £9.99/mo | Audio recognition through phone mic |
| GuitarTuna | Tuner with chord features | Yes, with ads | £4.99/mo | Most accurate free chromatic tuner |
| Fender Play | Structured by Fender pros | 7-day trial | £8.99/mo | Filmed at Fender’s LA studio |
| Tonebridge | Get the right tone for a tab | Yes, with ads | £4.99/mo | 9,000+ artist-accurate amp presets |
Why people leave Ultimate Guitar
Reddit and the Play Store reviews come back to a few specific gripes.
The Pro paywall keeps moving. Features that used to be free, like saving more than a handful of tabs offline and using the Tab Pro interactive playback, are gated behind a subscription that now runs £8.99 per month or £64.99 per year.
The autoscroll on the free tier is clunky. Pro users get smooth tempo-locked scrolling; free users get a constant-speed scroll that does not track the actual tempo of the song.
The submitter quality varies. The same song can have 40 different tab uploads with wildly different accuracy, and the rating system favours old, popular versions over newer, more accurate transcriptions.
Ads in the free version are intrusive. Banner and interstitial ads break up the tab reading flow, and the prompt to upgrade appears multiple times per session.
The alternatives
1. Songsterr — best for interactive tab playback
Songsterr’s selling point is interactive tabs. Each transcription plays back at your chosen tempo with synchronised cursor highlighting and instrument-by-instrument muting. Slow a guitar solo to 50 percent, mute the rhythm guitar, and learn the part at speed. The catalogue is around 800,000 tabs, all professionally verified rather than crowdsourced.
The free tier shows tabs but limits playback to the first 90 seconds. Plus unlocks full playback, offline, and printing.
Pricing. Free preview. Plus £6.99/month or £29.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Search song by name. Most major songs are covered, with slightly different transcriptions than UG. Your UG favourites do not import.
Download: Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Songsterr if you learn by playing along at slowed-down tempo.
2. Chordify — best for chords from audio
Chordify takes any audio source, YouTube, Spotify, your own MP3, and produces a chord chart in seconds. Accuracy is good on clear pop and rock recordings and patchy on dense jazz or heavily produced electronic music. For a song nobody has tabbed yet, Chordify gets you to playable chords faster than waiting for Ultimate Guitar contributors.
The free tier limits you to a handful of chord generations per week. Premium opens unlimited recognition and exports.
Pricing. Five free songs per week. Premium £4.99/month or £39.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Not direct. Use Chordify when the song you want is not on UG or when you want chords rather than tabs.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Chordify when no tab exists or when you want chords from a song’s audio in seconds.
3. Yousician — best for guided learning
Yousician covers guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, and voice with a single subscription. The guitar mode listens to your playing through the phone’s mic and grades you in real time. The lesson tree goes from picking up the instrument to intermediate lead playing, with daily exercises and streak tracking.
The free tier limits daily playing time and locks the song catalogue.
Pricing. Limited free play. Premium Plus £12.99/month or £89.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Skill assessment sets your starting level. Your UG tab library does not transfer because Yousician uses its own song catalogue.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Yousician if you want a teacher that grades your playing as you go.
4. Simply Guitar — best for beginners
Simply Guitar by JoyTunes is the entry-level cousin of Simply Piano. The app listens to your playing through the phone’s mic and walks you through the first six months of guitar with structured lessons, theory, and a song-based reward loop.
The catalogue leans modern pop and rock licensed for the app. Premium is required to progress past the first few lessons.
Pricing. 7-day free trial. Premium £9.99/month or £79.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Simply Guitar starts at zero, so it is best for true beginners rather than UG users who already read tab.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Simply Guitar if you have never played guitar and want a step-by-step path.
5. GuitarTuna — best free utility
GuitarTuna is the most-downloaded guitar tuner ever, with chromatic and instrument-specific tuning that handles guitar, bass, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and dozens of alternative tunings. The Pro tier adds chord library, song learning, and a metronome.
For anyone who wants Ultimate Guitar mainly for the tuner and the chord library, GuitarTuna covers both needs for free or for a much cheaper subscription.
Pricing. Free with ads. Pro £4.99/month or £29.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Not a direct tab swap. Use GuitarTuna as your tuning and chord-reference layer.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick GuitarTuna if you mainly want a reliable tuner and a clean chord library without UG’s clutter.
6. Fender Play — best for filmed lessons
Fender Play is the brand-owned lesson platform from Fender. Lessons are filmed at Fender’s LA studio with professional teachers and structured paths by genre: rock, blues, folk, country, pop. Each path teaches songs that match the style rather than picking from a fixed difficulty ladder.
The catalogue is around 5,000 lessons. Production quality is the highest of any guitar app.
Pricing. 7-day free trial. Subscription £8.99/month or £49.99/year.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Skill assessment on first launch. Fender Play does not use tabs in the UG sense, so the focus shifts from reading transcriptions to following filmed lessons.
Download: Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Fender Play if you want lessons that look and feel like a private teacher in a studio.
7. Tonebridge — best for tone matching
Tonebridge solves the problem of having a tab but not the right amp tone. The app loads 9,000-plus artist-accurate amp and pedal presets so you can plug in your guitar and immediately sound close to the recording. Useful for anyone working through a UG tab who wants the tone to match.
Made by the same team behind Ultimate Guitar, Tonebridge plays nicely alongside the main app.
Pricing. Free version covers basics. Premium £4.99/month or £39.99/year for full preset catalogue.
Migrating from Ultimate Guitar. Tonebridge does not replace UG, it complements it. Use UG for the tab, Tonebridge for the sound.
Download: Google Play · App Store
Bottom line. Pick Tonebridge if your UG tabs sound flat through your amp and you want artist-accurate tones.
How to choose
Pick Songsterr if interactive tempo-locked playback is what you want from a tab app.
Pick Chordify if you keep wanting chords for songs nobody has tabbed.
Pick Yousician if you want a guided teacher with real-time scoring.
Pick Simply Guitar if you are starting from zero.
Pick GuitarTuna if you want a free tuner and chord library and you read tab elsewhere.
Pick Fender Play if you want filmed lessons that look like a private teacher.
Pick Tonebridge as a companion to your existing tab app, not a replacement.
Stay on Ultimate Guitar if you need the biggest possible tab catalogue and you accept the Pro paywall to use the interactive Tab Pro mode. No alternative comes close to UG’s 1.5 million entries on long-tail songs.
FAQ
Is Ultimate Guitar free? The base app is free with ads and a limited offline tab cap. Pro removes ads, unlocks Tab Pro interactive playback, and raises the offline limit. Pro is £8.99 per month or £64.99 per year.
What is the best free tab app? Songsterr and Chordify both have generous free tiers. Songsterr shows the tab but limits playback to 90 seconds; Chordify gives you five chord recognitions per week.
Can I import my Ultimate Guitar tabs to another app? No automated import. UG tabs are stored server-side and cannot be exported in bulk. You can copy individual tab text and paste into note apps for personal use.
Which app has the most accurate tabs? Songsterr’s tabs are professionally verified, so accuracy is consistently high. UG’s tabs are crowdsourced, so quality varies by song and uploader.
Is Chordify accurate? For clear pop, rock, and folk recordings, Chordify hits about 85-90 percent of chords correctly. For dense jazz, classical, or heavily processed electronic music, accuracy drops significantly.
Does any guitar app teach by listening to my playing? Yousician, Simply Guitar, and Fender Play all use the phone’s microphone to listen to your playing and grade in real time. Yousician’s scoring is the most refined.
