Anything Piano vs Simply Piano: which piano app is right for you?
Last updated August 20, 2026
Both apps listen while you play a real piano and show you how you're doing. The difference is what you get to play, and how each app teaches you to play it.
Simply Piano is a trademark of Simply (formerly JoyTunes). Anything Piano is not affiliated with or endorsed by Simply. Simply Piano details are drawn from Simply's own website, help center, and App Store listing as of August 20, 2026; tell us if something is out of date and we'll fix it.
tl;dr
Use Simply Piano if you want a guided course that teaches you to read sheet music.
Use Anything Piano if you don't want to be restricted by a catalog of songs, as it enables you to import songs from anywhere, or create piano covers of any song.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Anything Piano | Simply Piano |
|---|---|---|
| Songs you can play | AnythingA catalog of songs, or any song you import: YouTube/TikTok/Instagram links, audio files, or MIDI uploads | Its catalog of licensed songs |
| Structured beginner course | No | Yes |
| Teaches sheet music reading | No | Yes |
| Display | Piano roll (falling notes) | Interactive sheet music |
| Real-time feedback on an acoustic piano or MIDI keyboard | Yes | Yes |
| Wait mode, hands separately, speed control | Yes | Yes |
| Loop a section | Yes | NoNot documented |
| Platforms | iPhone and iPad | iPhone, iPad, Android, and XR headsets |
| Free tier | About 20 songs, plus 5 free song imports, creating a piano roll from any YouTube video or other import source | Two courses |
| Price | $25/mo or $179/yr | $119.99 to $149.99/yr |
The song you actually want to learn
Think about the song that makes you want to sit down at the piano. Maybe it's from a film score, or it's a cover only you seem to care about, or a friend wrote it and there's exactly one recording of it in the world. Catalog apps handle this moment with a search box, and even a good library will come up empty a lot, because a few thousand licensed songs is still a tiny slice of all the music out there.
Simply Piano's answer is a Request a Song button. You ask, and if Simply licenses and arranges it, it shows up in the library. Their help center is upfront that this can take several months and isn't guaranteed.
Our answer is to make the catalog optional. Anything Piano has a curated library too (about 20 songs are free), but when your song isn't in it, you paste a YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram link, upload an audio file, or record the song right there in the app. AI models we train ourselves turn the recording into a piano roll in minutes, and you practice it like any other song in the app.
How practicing actually feels
Simply Piano is a course, and a good one. You start with Piano Basics, work through the Essentials levels, and then pick a path that focuses on melodies or one that focuses on chords. Along the way you learn to read sheet music, which is a real skill that transfers to paper scores and to lessons with a human teacher. If that's what you're after, Simply Piano does it well.
Anything Piano shows you a piano roll instead: falling notes synced to the real song, green for your right hand and blue for your left. As the table above shows, the practice tools themselves are mostly matched between the two apps. The real differences are the format you're reading and which songs you can load in the first place.
The trade is that we don't teach sheet music yet, and we don't have a step-by-step curriculum. Simply Piano is ahead of us on both.
Choose Simply Piano if
- You're starting from zero and want a course that tells you exactly what to do next, every day.
- Learning to read sheet music is one of your goals.
- You're on Android (Anything Piano is iPhone and iPad for now; you can join the Android waitlist).
- You want kids profiles and a family plan that covers Simply's other apps.
Choose Anything Piano if
- There's a specific song you want to play, and it's not the kind of thing catalogs carry: something brand new, something niche, a game soundtrack, or a recording a friend made.
- You already play a little and you're practicing songs, not working through lessons.
- You've finished (or outgrown) a course app and want to keep going with music you choose yourself.
Pricing
Simply Piano
$24.95/mo or $119.99 to $149.99/yr
A 12-month Individual plan shows at $119.99 to $149.99, a Family plan (5 profiles, all Simply apps) at $179.99/yr, and a monthly Individual option at $24.95. The free tier includes two courses, and the 7-day free trial applies to the yearly plan only.
Anything Piano
$25/mo or $179/yr
The app is free to download with about 20 catalog songs and 5 free song imports (a YouTube link, a TikTok, an audio file, and more). Pro is $25/mo or $179/yr, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan, and lets you add unlimited songs.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, that's the whole point of the app. We've trained AI models for one job: turning a recording into a piano performance. If the recording is solo piano, the piano roll mirrors it nearly 1:1. If it's a full band, vocals, anything else, we build a piano arrangement that sounds like the original. You can paste a link, upload a file, or record live.
No. Simply Piano's materials document no way to import your own songs, audio files, or MIDI files. If a song is missing you can tap Request a Song, and Simply says added songs can take several months and aren't guaranteed.
For a guided path from your first note, Simply Piano. It's a structured course and it teaches sheet music from the start. Plenty of beginners start with Anything Piano too, usually because one specific song is the reason they're learning, and Wait mode plus hand-by-hand practice make that doable. But if you want a curriculum, we'd point you to a course app first.
Yes. Both listen through your device's microphone, and both also support MIDI keyboards if you'd rather plug in.
Not yet. Songs are shown as a piano roll. We get this request a lot and plan to add sheet music once our piano roll experience and our sheet music models are both where we want them.
Not yet, it's iPhone and iPad today. You can join the waitlist on our site and we'll email you when Android is ready.
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