Simply Piano is the most polished way to go from never having touched a piano to playing songs you recognise, and it is the biggest app in this comparison by a wide margin. SightReader does one thing: it puts real graded music in front of you, listens to your MIDI keyboard, and marks both which notes you played and whether they landed on the beat. If you are starting from nothing and want to be playing something in a week, Simply Piano. If you can already play a bit and reading is the thing holding you back — especially if there is a graded exam in the diary — SightReader is the tool for that job, at about a third of the annual cost.
Full disclosure: we make SightReader. Learning to play and learning to read are different problems, and the sections below set out which one each product solves.
Not sure which end you are starting from? The three-minute placement check will tell you.
Is Simply Piano a sight-reading app?
They are not really competing
It is worth being plain about this rather than manufacturing a fight. Simply Piano’s job is to get a beginner playing. It teaches a song, has you play it, and moves you on. Notation is introduced along the way as a means to that end.
Sight reading is a different skill: playing music you have never seen before, at tempo, first time. It is trained by reading a lot of unfamiliar material at a level slightly below your playing ability, and by having something tell you what went wrong afterwards. Simply Piano does not do that, does not claim to, and reviews of it as a sight-reading tool tend to be reviews of the wrong product.
Where the comparison does bite is at the point people actually hit it: a year or two into Simply Piano, when you can play the songs you have learned and still cannot open a new piece of music and get through it.
Does a microphone work as well as a MIDI keyboard?
Microphone versus MIDI
Simply Piano listens through your phone’s microphone as well as over MIDI. With an upright and a phone propped on the music desk you are practising in two minutes with no hardware, which is genuinely convenient and is why the feature exists.
What it costs is the accuracy of the verdict, and you do not have to take our word for that — Simply Piano’s own help centre says that connecting a MIDI keyboard “will give perfect note recognition and will solve any issues with note recognition, particularly when playing more advanced music”. The surrounding advice is about room noise, phone cases covering the microphone, and playing louder.
That is not a criticism of Simply Piano — it is what audio transcription is. The best published real-time system runs at roughly 174ms of latency and mislabels a few notes in every hundred, and neither number is visible to you while you play. For a lesson app checking you got through the song, that is a fair trade. For a tool whose whole output is a verdict on what you played, and a millisecond figure for when you played it, it is not one we are willing to make. SightReader is MIDI-only for that reason, and the full argument with the research figures is here.
What do you get free with Simply Piano?
The free line
Simply Piano has a 14-day trial and no permanent free tier. When the trial ends, so does access.
SightReader’s free tier does not expire: 54 pieces, the full note-by-note scoring, both practice modes including Pitch & Rhythm, unlimited note and scale drills, and the first five levels of every grade from Initial to Grade 5. Pro adds the rest of the 4,000-piece library, grades 6 to 8, daily practice, MusicXML upload and progress analytics.
Neither approach is wrong. It is worth knowing which one you are signing up to.
Side by side
| SightReader | Simply Piano | |
|---|---|---|
| How it grades you | ||
| How it listens | MIDI, exact | Microphone, inferred — or MIDI |
| Independent rhythm scoring | Yes — on-time %, early/late split, ms tendency | ✗ |
| Works with an acoustic piano | ✗ | ✓ |
| What you get after a run | Per-note diagnosis + timing breakdown | Pass and progress |
| Material | ||
| Exam-syllabus alignment | ABRSM Initial–8 (aligned, not affiliated) | ✗ |
| Library | 4,000+ real pieces, graded | Licensed pop in simplified arrangements, plus classical |
| Bring your own music | Any MusicXML file (Pro) | ✗ |
| Practical | ||
| Free tier | 54 pieces, both modes, permanent | 14-day trial only |
| Monthly | £5 | $17.90 |
| Annual | £48 | $169.90 |
| Platforms | Any browser, iOS, Android | iOS, Android |
| Offline practice | ✓ | — |
| Teacher and class tools | ✓ | Separate teacher product |
| Languages | English, Spanish, French, Italian | Multiple |
The rows most people came for are rhythm scoring and the free tier. Both are on the free plan — 54 pieces, no card.
When Simply Piano is the better choice
You have never played before. Simply Piano will have you playing something recognisable in a first sitting, which matters enormously for whether you are still practising in March. SightReader assumes you can already find your way round a keyboard.
You have an acoustic piano and no MIDI keyboard. SightReader is MIDI-only by design, for the reason set out above. Its on-screen piano covers two octaves — enough to try the app, not to practise on. If a keyboard is not on the cards, Simply Piano works today.
You want to play songs you actually like. Licensing costs money and Simply Piano has paid it. SightReader’s library is public-domain repertoire — Schäfer, Schytte, Bach, Schumann and several thousand others — chosen because it is the best reading material there is, and no help at all if you came to play Adele.
You are teaching a child who needs the game. Streaks, unlocks and encouragement are a real pedagogical tool at eight years old. SightReader is deliberately plainer.
When is SightReader the better choice?
And if you want the opposite of that
If you have done a year of tapping through songs and the thing that still defeats you is a new piece of music on the stand, the missing ingredient is reading practice with an honest verdict attached. Real repertoire, graded to a syllabus, marked note by note, and told plainly when your timing rather than your notes was the problem.
Bring the pieces you are already working on, too — export MusicXML from MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico and they go straight in.
FAQs
Is Simply Piano good for sight reading?
It is not built for it. Simply Piano teaches you to play songs, and reading notation is something it introduces along the way rather than the skill it measures. There is no graded reading curriculum, no exam alignment, and no rhythm score reported separately from pitch. If you want to get playing from a standing start it is one of the best products in the category. If sight reading is the specific thing you are trying to improve, a dedicated reader will do more.
Does Simply Piano work without a MIDI keyboard?
Yes — that is one of its real advantages. It listens through your device’s microphone, so it works with an acoustic piano and no extra hardware. The trade-off is note-recognition accuracy, and Simply Piano’s own help centre is direct about it: connecting a MIDI keyboard “will give perfect note recognition and will solve any issues with note recognition, particularly when playing more advanced music”. SightReader is MIDI-only, so it cannot help you with an acoustic piano at all.
How much does Simply Piano cost?
The individual plan was listed at $17.90 a month or $169.90 a year when we checked on 1 August 2026, with a Family plan at $23.90 a month or $209.90 a year. There is a 14-day free trial but no permanent free tier — when the trial ends, access stops. SightReader Pro is £5 a month or £48 a year, and its free tier is permanent: 54 pieces with the full scoring and both practice modes.
Does Simply Piano score your rhythm?
Not as a separate figure. Its feedback is about whether you played the right notes and kept up. SightReader’s Pitch & Rhythm mode grades timing independently: with the metronome on, every note is measured against the beat, and the results card reports what percentage landed on time, how the rest split between early and late, and your average tendency in milliseconds.
Can I practise my own sheet music in Simply Piano?
No. Simply Piano is a closed catalogue — you practise what is in it, which is largely licensed pop in simplified arrangements plus a classical selection. SightReader accepts any MusicXML file on the Pro tier, so the pieces your teacher set you can go straight in. Exporting MusicXML from MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico takes about twenty seconds.
How we checked
Simply Piano details come from its own product and help-centre pages and its App Store listing, read on 1 August 2026. Prices are the US list prices advertised on that date; Simply Piano prices regionally and promotes frequently, so check the figure you are shown. Where we say a feature is absent, that means we looked for it on the vendor’s own pages and did not find it. SightReader figures are our own.
Elsewhere: SightReader vs flowkey, SightReader vs Skoove, and the best sight-reading apps for piano.
