Songsterr Vs Ultimate Guitar: Is One Better?

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been playing for years. You’re probably always on the lookout for new and better ways to learn songs and improve your skills.

Two of the most popular options for online tablature and lessons are Songsterr vs Ultimate Guitar. In this Killer Rig article, we’re going to compare the two sites and see which one comes out on top.

What Is Songsterr?

Songsterr is a website that offers tablature and sheet music for guitarists and other musicians. The website has over 500,000 songs in its database, which can be searched by song title, artist, or genre.

In addition to offering tablature and sheet music, Songsterr also provides practice tools. This includes a metronome and chord charts. The website is interactive and so you can play along to the song while following the tab, even on the free plan.

Songsterr is a great resource for guitarists of all levels. But it’s especially useful for beginners. Those who are looking for an easy way to learn how to play their favorite songs.

What is Ultimate Guitar?

Ultimate Guitar is a website that offers tablature and chord charts for guitarists. It’s one of the largest online guitar communities, with over 1.6 million members.

The website offers a wide range of popular, classic, and even hard-to-find tabs for many songs. As of this writing, Ultimate Guitar has roughly 1,100,000 tabs!

Also, the site offers a variety of instructional videos and articles. This is to help guitar players improve their skills. Ultimate Guitar is essential for any guitarist looking to improve their playing.

Additional reading: Is Guitar Easy To learn?

Comparing Features

Now that we’ve taken a look at what each site has to offer, let’s compare them. We will look at both the free versions and the paid subscriptions.

Free Versions

As you can see, both options have some pros and cons for the free versions. Songsterr is great because it has a playback option. This lets you follow along when playing songs.

Ultimate Guitar is simply plain text tabs and some videos. But they do have a great community and so much more resources to be found on their website.

Paid Versions

Once you upgrade to the paid versions, things get quite a bit different.

Songsterr Pro

All features included in the free version of Songsterr are still available. The subscription to the pro version unlocks these features:

• Print.
• Tempo Control.
• Loop.
• Mute.
• Solo.
• Pitch Shift.
• Ad free.

All the tabs are still user-submitted and are suggested by the community. They are not monitored by the Songsterr staff. Instead, users submit the tabs or corrections to Songsterr. Then they get updated with little to no screening.

Ultimate Guitar Pro

The Ultimate Guitar pro subscription is completely different from the free version. With this subscription, you get a platform that is like Songsterr. But it’s packed with even more features.

It’s a very impressive dashboard and the playback features are more powerful. The tabs are all staff-created, so they are error-free and as accurate as anyone would need.

Some of the features include:

• Multiple Instrument parts like drums, bass and vocals.
• Play along tab notation with time signatures.
• Slow down, pause and loop features.
• Fretboard views.

And so much more! If you have not had a look at this service yet, we suggest you do. It can help anyone who wants to succeed with playing or learning acoustic or electric guitar.

Prices

Now that you understand how each service works, the next thing to touch on is the cost.

Songsterr offers a monthly subscription plan for $9.99/month.

Ultimate Guitar also offers two different subscription plans:  

• Monthly plan for $9.99/month.
• Annual plan for $39.99/month.

This makes Ultimate Guitar so much more affordable if you choose the annual plan. We feel it’s an incredible value that most players should be able to afford.

Pros and Cons of Each

Now that we’ve looked at the features and prices of each site, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each one.

Songsterr

PROS:

• Over 500,000 songs in their database.
• More powerful free version.
• The site is interactive, so you can play along to the song while following the tab.
• The practice tools are very helpful.

CONS:

• There is no forum or online community.
• Not all the tabs are accurate and are user submitted.
• There are some ads on the free version (which is understandable).

Ultimate Guitar

PROS:

• Over 1,100,000 tabs in their database.
• Tabs are staff created for Pro subscribers.
• Instructional videos and articles.
• Forums and online community.
• Incredible Paid version with a powerful platform for players.

CONS:

• Plain text tabs for free version.
• Tabs are user submitted in free version.
• Website can be hard to navigate as it’s very busy.

Which One is Better?

We feel that using the free version of Songsterr is great for anyone who can’t afford a subscription. Someone who needs some limited but very interactive features.

We also think that the monthly fee is very fair. Especially with what is already offered and then unlocked.

It’s also great for anyone who doesn’t want to be locked into an annual subscription and just wants to pay as you go. If this is you, then Songsterr is a perfect choice.

But we feel that the paid version of Ultimate Guitar is the better choice! It’s an incredible value for what you get. The annual subscription is only $39.99/month. This gives you access to over 1,100,000 tabs that are monitored by professionals.

Plus the added benefit of the interactive platform. Not to mention all the features that come with it, you really cannot go wrong here.

Conclusion

After looking at both sites, we feel that the clear winner is Ultimate Guitar Pro. It’s perfect for anyone looking for a paid subscription.

It’s an essential resource for any electric or acoustic guitar player. Especially if you are looking to improve their skills.

The annual subscription is an incredible value and gives you access to over 1,100,000 tabs. These are monitored by professionals. It’s a value that is hard to beat once you start to play around with the platform!

FAQs

Is Songsterr legal?

Yes, Songsterr is legal. Royalties are paid to music creators. This is why they charge for the pro subscription and put ads on the free version.

Is Ultimate Guitar worth it?

Yes, we feel that Ultimate Guitar Pro is very much worth it. It’s a powerful platform that can help beginners and experienced payers alike.