Yousician vs. Simply Guitar: Which App Works for You?
Online Guitar Lessons for Beginners > Yousician vs Simply Guitar
Back in the day, there weren’t nearly as many options to learn how to play the guitar.
You find a tablature book in the back of a thrift store. You take lessons with a guitar teacher. You catch my drift.
Today, though, everything is different! There are so many other options to help you improve your guitar-playing skills.
I’m going to narrow down all those different options to look at two popular apps for learning guitar: Yousician vs. Simply Guitar. We’re going to take a deep dive into some essential differences between the two, such as beginner friendliness, pricing, features, incentives to keep you playing, and more.
If you’re looking for the best online guitar lessons out there, this article may help narrow things down for you!
Let’s get into it.
How Beginner Friendly Is It?
The best guitar teachers can all do one thing: break down complex ideas into manageable parts.
Like a skilled guitar teacher, a guitar lesson app needs to structure lessons so you can gradually build your skills. They need to ensure you won’t feel overwhelmed by crazy solos before you’ve mastered basic minor chords!
In other words, it’s all about progression.
Yousician and Simply Guitar break down guitar-playing skills, but they have some differences.
Yousician
Yousician focuses on beginners, and has a lot of cool lessons to explore and songs to play.
Once you finish the guitar basics section, you’ll have access to the rest of the app.
The app breaks down into three sections: Song, Learn, and Challenges. Each area has different features (I’ll cover those in a bit!) that focus on specific guitar-playing skills.
On top of beginner content, the app explores more intermediate-level guitar techniques like palm muting and barre chords.
Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar is also beginner-friendly. Like Yousician, the Simply Guitar app requires you to finish their Guitar Basics I section before you can access the rest of the app.
They have some neat features, like a scrolling fretboard, that make it easy to engage with the lessons.
Simply Guitar has several lessons to get any beginner guitar player up and running. That being said, they don’t have nearly as much content as Yousician.
Their strength is that they’ve made the app pretty simple to use. I’ll get into the details later, but its simplicity makes it really beginner-friendly.
What’s the Pricing Like?
A reasonably priced app for guitar lessons is essential – you have to find something that works for you. But this isn’t just a question of how much does Yousician cost; it’s about what you get in return.
It’s an investment in your guitar-playing journey, and you want to be sure it will pay off!
Yousician
Yousician offers access to three paid plans: Premium, Premium+, and Premium+ Family.
Here’s the breakdown of how much they cost and what you get with each plan:
- Premium costs $14.99 per month or $89.99 yearly. With it you get:
- Limited access to lessons
- Access Yousician songs only
- One account
- One instrument of your choice
- Premium+ costs $19.99 per month or $139.99 yearly. With it you get:
- Full access to lessons
- Full access to songs, including songs by top artists
- One account
- Five instruments: guitar, ukulele, piano, bass, and singing
- Premium+ Family costs $29.99 per month or $209.99. With it you get:
- Full access to lessons
- Full access to songs, including songs by top artists
- Four accounts
- Five instruments: Guitar, Ukulele, Bass, Piano, and Singing
- Progress tracking for each family member
You also have the option to downgrade to a free, basic membership. The free membership lets you play on the app for a limited time per day, and you only have access to specific lessons and Yousician songs.
Simply Guitar
As of writing this, there are only two options: a basic, free membership and a paid premium membership.
The basic membership gets you access to their lessons in Guitar Basics 1, but that’s it.
For the premium membership, you’ll pay $24.90 per month. With that, you get:
- Access to over 5,000 popular songs
- Full access to their lessons
- Up to 5 profiles per membership
Is There a Free Trial?
Free trials are important when comparing apps like Yousician vs. Simply Guitar. You wouldn’t buy a guitar without playing it first, right? The same is true for any guitar lessons!
The good news is that both Yousician and Simply Guitar offer free trials.
Yousician
Yousician offers a seven-day free trial for a premium membership, regardless of your chosen membership level. You’ll be downgraded to the basic free membership if you cancel the premium membership before the trial ends.
Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar also offers a seven-day free trial. Like Yousician, you must cancel your membership before the trial is over if you don’t want to continue.
If you cancel, you’ll be downgraded to their free, basic membership.
What About a Refund Policy?
A refund policy is a safety net when choosing a guitar lesson app and gives you peace of mind if life throws you a curveball or an app isn’t for you.
Luckily, both Yousician and Simply Guitar offer refund policies. However, keep in mind that the refund policies can differ depending on how you paid for the app, so you may have to claim the refund from the Google Play Store, the App Store, or directly from either of the app’s websites.
Yousician
On their website, Yousician lists three ways to pay for the app: Yousician, Apple’s App Store, and Google Play Store.
If you pay Yousician for access, you can request a refund through Yousician within fourteen days of the charge. Keep in mind that this only applies if you haven’t accessed the app at any time within those fourteen days.
Suppose you pay for Yousician through Apple’s App Store. In that case, you have to request a refund from Apple through their “Report a Problem” feature or Apple customer support. Their website doesn’t give a time limit for Apple, but I’d play it safe and keep it within that fourteen-day window.
If you pay for Yousician through Google’s Play Store, there are two windows to keep in mind.
If you want a refund within forty-eight hours of the charge, go through the Google Play Store’s online refund feature or the Google Play support page. If it’s been more than forty-eight hours but less than fourteen days, you have to contact Yousician support.
Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar has four ways you can pay for the app: through Apple’s App Store, the Google Play Store, a credit card, or PayPal.
If you use Apple’s App Store to pay for Simply Guitar, you request a refund from Apple’s
“Report a Problem” feature.
If you use the Google Play Store, Simply Guitar’s website says to follow Google Play’s directions on the Google Play Store’s refund page.
If you use a credit card or PayPal to pay for Simply Guitar, you have to reach out to Simply Guitar through their “Have a Question?” feature.
If you pay through the Google Play Store, a credit card, or PayPal, you’re eligible for a full refund within 30 days of purchase.
Any Incentive for a Weekly Commitment?
Having an incentive to keep a weekly commitment to playing the guitar is the heartbeat of your guitar-playing routine, and playing regularly helps you get better at guitar.
When an app has a weekly commitment incentive to keep you playing, it’s like having a practice buddy nudge you to pick up your guitar regularly.
Yousician
Yousician’s incentives come in the form of weekly challenges to motivate guitar players.
They let you compete against members of the Yousician community or even friends or family! The more you engage in the weekly challenge, which changes every week, the more points you can earn.
Yousician also includes an activity tracker in the app. While it’s not a direct weekly commitment, it can help motivate some guitar players to commit to playing a certain number of times a week.
Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar doesn’t offer any weekly commitment for guitar players. They do have something similar to Yousician’s activity tracker that lets players keep tabs on how many days they’ve used the app in a row.
One thing to remember about apps and weekly commitments is that staying motivated can take a lot of work.
That’s why I structured my own program – Tony’s Acoustic Challenge – around having fun while you play.
You’re constantly improving without the feeling of slogging through boring practice sessions. That way, you really look forward to picking up the guitar every day. Try this FREE lesson to see if this method works for you!
How’s the User Interface?
When you start as a guitar player, the last thing you want to do is spend fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to start a guitar lesson. That’s why the user interface (UI) is so important!
The more user-friendly an app is, the easier it will be for you to hit the ground running with a lesson.
Yousician
Yousician’s UI can be overwhelming and a little confusing – it has a LOT of content! While that’s cool, it can make things a little hard to figure out when you first open it up.
I talked about this earlier, but for a refresher, the menu has three areas you can choose from: Song, Learn, and Challenges. When you click on one of those areas, you have another menu with even more options.
If you try this app out, take the time to explore it so you know where everything is.
Yousician takes a game-heavy approach to its lessons. When you start a lesson, you follow a ball that bounces over a virtual scrolling fretboard that shows you what to play – think Guitar Hero. It’s a great way of gamifying the experience and encouraging you to hit new high scores.
Simply Guitar
The app lives up to its name – it’s simple. It takes the same approach as Yousician, using a scrolling fretboard to gamify the entire thing.
The difference is that everything is pared down. It has a simple user interface that makes it easy to navigate.
There are three sections for users: Songs, Chords, and Courses. They use videos and the scrolling fretboard for lessons.
Overall, its user interface is easy to pick up, making it much easier to use the app.
What Features Does Each App Offer?
The features of an app shape your experience. Whether it’s interactive lessons, real-time feedback, chord library, or access to popular songs, each feature can help you improve.
People look for different features in different apps – and that’s okay. The main thing is that you figure out what works best for you.
Yousician
Yousician has a lot of exciting features in the app. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot.
As I said, Yousician makes engaging with their community through weekly challenges easy. Players can create groups of other Yousician users to compete against, so it could be a friendly family competition every week.
Yousician uses game-like interactive lessons (remember the scrolling fretboard I mentioned?) and real-time feedback to make it easy to see where you may need extra playing time.
Real-time feedback occurs when a user moves through a lesson and makes mistakes, like hitting the wrong string. The app uses the phone’s microphone to listen to the playing and recognize when a mistake happens. The lesson doesn’t continue until the player plays the right note.
However, it’s worth pointing out that not everyone enjoys this way of playing. It’s a lot of pressure to keep up with the scrolling app, and doesn’t allow any time to get lost in the music and enjoy what you’re playing.
Yousician also offers courses by popular artists such as Jason Mraz or Metallica. This mixes up the learning process and lets users learn popular songs.
Simply Guitar
Simply Guitar may have only some of the features that Yousician has, but what they do have, they do it well.
Simply Guitar uses a similar scrolling fretboard that Yousician does, right down to the same kind of real-time feedback. It has a more pared-down, minimal look than Yousician, but that can make it easier for some users to focus on the chords they’re supposed to play.
Remember, there’s only one membership tier with Simply Guitar. Memberships automatically come with the ability to have up to five different profiles for one account. This makes it easy to split the cost with family or friends. With that, there’s also a progression tracker for each profile.
Simply Guitar bundles its sister app, Simply Piano, in the membership tier. If someone is thinking about learning guitar and piano, this may be something to consider.
A Good Alternative: TAC
Now listen, apps are great for beginners. They give you choices and make staying motivated when you first start easy. In short – they’re fun and easy to navigate.
However, there are two cons to apps and using them to play guitar:
- Guitar players tend to stall after a certain point
- It can be hard to figure out how to progress
That’s why I developed Tony’s Acoustic Challenge in the first place.
When you sign up, you’ll be given everything you need to see meaningful progress consistently in as little as 10 minutes per day. Every week, we rotate through all five guitar skills, ensuring you get a holistic and well-rounded experience.
Most importantly, I designed it to make sure that you learn the skills you need and stay motivated.
Transform Your Guitar Playing
In 10 Minutes a Day
Remember, the secret to a fulfilling guitar journey is consistency, not laborious practice.
Snag your FREE TAC Progress Tracker today and build the skills to learn songs faster in just 10 minutes a day!
Yes, I Want the FREE Download!The Final Verdict
If you’ve gotten this far and you’re still debating on Yousician or wondering, “Is Simply Guitar worth it?” I’ll be honest – I don’t have an answer for you.
That’s because all this comes down to what works best for you! Everyone has different factors that are important to them, from personal preferences to learning goals or budgets.
If you’re curious about Yousician or Simply Guitar, try them out. See what you like. Also check out our other comparison articles:
Remember that no single app will make or break you as a guitar player. Playing consistently is the biggest thing that helps you play the guitar better.
However you learn best, I want to tell you to get into the habit of playing the guitar daily. Even if it’s just ten minutes a day, this will help you progress much faster.
If that’s something you’re interested in, check out this FREE guitar class for three secrets to learning guitar faster in just 10 minutes a day.