15 Best Synth Apps for iPhone (Free and Paid)

The best synth apps for iPhone are GarageBand and AudioKit Synth One J6 if you want to spend nothing, and the Minimoog Model D app or BLEASS Alpha if you will pay once for a classic sound. Every app below runs on iPhone; several famous iOS synths are iPad-only, and they’re listed separately near the end. We make Gelato Synth, number 14 here, so read that entry knowing it’s ours. For the other 14 apps, we checked each US App Store listing’s price model and device support in September 2026.

Best free synth apps for iPhone

Free here means you can download it and make sound without paying. Four of these six are free with nothing locked. Animoog Z and Polywave are free downloads with a paid full version.

1. GarageBand (Apple). Free, no in-app purchases, iPhone and iPad. The Alchemy synth sounds in its Keyboard come with a Transform Pad of eight snapshots you drag between, plus XY pads, so one sound can morph between eight versions of itself while you play. Tap the Scale button and the keys become note bars that only play one scale, and the built-in arpeggiator turns a held chord into a pattern. GarageBand also hosts AUv3 plug-ins, so 11 of the apps below can play inside a GarageBand song.

2. AudioKit Synth One J6 (AudioKit Pro). Free, optional tip purchases, iPhone and iPad. A polysynth inspired by Roland’s Juno and Jupiter synths, where every function has its own slider or knob. It ships with 400+ presets, two arpeggiators, a step sequencer, chorus and tape delay, and it runs as an AUv3 plug-in. Start with the pad presets and the chorus, the pairing Junos are loved for. Giving your email during setup adds a bonus bank of 120+ presets.

3. Animoog Z (Moog Music). Free with in-app purchases, iPhone, iPad and Mac. Moog’s 16-voice synth sends a sound along an orbit through a space of timbres, so a held note keeps changing color. The on-screen keyboard has selectable scales and pitch correction, which makes it gentler than it looks. The free download is limited; one purchase opens up the full app ($29.99 in the US when we checked), and preset packs are extra.

4. AudioKit Synth One (AudioKit Pro). Free, no ads or in-app purchases, iPhone and iPad. The original Synth One is open source and was built by more than 100 volunteers. It’s a hybrid analog and FM polysynth with five oscillators (two main, an FM oscillator, a sub and noise), a 16-step sequencer, an arpeggiator and 300+ presets. It needs at least an iPhone 6-size screen and packs a lot of controls onto it, so a bigger phone helps. AUv3 support is still only on its roadmap, so it plays as a standalone app.

5. Polywave (Fingerlab). Free with an in-app purchase, iPhone, iPad and Mac. A wavetable synth made with Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, where you draw waveforms with a finger and step through them, in the spirit of Korg’s Wavestation. The free version has 12 presets and the core features. The Full Version purchase adds the rest of the 100+ presets and the remaining features.

6. King of FM (AudioKit Pro). Free, no ads or in-app purchases, iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs. The 1980s FM synthesis sound, free. Its 300+ presets are built from samples of Yamaha’s DX7, DX7II, TX81Z and SY77, and the E Piano and Full Tines patches get 20+ sample layers each. Because it plays samples, you choose presets and effects but can’t reprogram the FM itself. KQ Dixie and BLEASS Omega below are for building your own, and our FM synth apps for iPhone list goes further.

Best paid synth apps for iPhone (one-time price, no subscription)

Each of these is a single purchase. The Model D, both BLEASS synths and Drambo also sell optional preset packs or extensions. All seven run as AUv3 plug-ins, so they can play inside GarageBand: open its Sound browser, swipe to External and tap Audio Unit Extensions.

7. Minimoog Model D (Moog Music). Paid, optional preset packs, iPhone, iPad and Mac. Moog’s own recreation of the Minimoog, with 160+ presets and a few things the 1970s original never had: chords of up to four notes, an arpeggiator, a looping recorder with unlimited overdubs and a ping-pong delay. For fat mono basses and singing leads, it’s the first paid synth to consider.

8. BLEASS Alpha (BLEASS). Paid, optional preset packs, iPhone and iPad. A virtual analog synth with three oscillators, two filters with drive, three envelopes, two LFOs and a Motion Sequencer that works alongside the arpeggiator. The layout follows the signal path, which makes it a good app for learning how an analog-style synth is wired. It also supports MPE controllers, keyboards that send pressure and slide for each note.

9. BLEASS Omega (BLEASS). Paid, optional preset packs, iPhone and iPad. A four-operator FM synth that shows all four operators on one screen, with 11 algorithms plus a waveshaper and a filter. Seeing every operator at once takes most of the mystery out of FM. Reach for it for electric pianos and bells.

10. KQ Dixie 26 (Ryouta Kira). Paid, iPhone and iPad, plus Apple silicon Macs. A six-operator FM synth with 32 algorithms and DX7-compatible parameters, so it loads DX7 patch banks as .syx files, even zipped ones. If you want the full DX7 architecture on a phone, this is the one. Skip KQ Dixie Legacy, the older edition still on the store: its developer marks it deprecated.

11. Poison-202 (JimAudio). Paid, iPhone and iPad. Inspired by 1980s and 1990s hardware, with two oscillators, a super-saw mode that stacks seven saws, a sub oscillator, noise and 592 factory presets. It’s at its best on rave hoovers and trance strings, and it costs less than most of the paid synths here.

12. Sunrizer (BeepStreet). Paid, iPhone and iPad. On the App Store since 2011, with its last update in 2025. The reason to buy it is the SuperSaw, the stacked and detuned saw sound first heard on Roland’s JP-8000, backed by two filters per voice and 380+ presets.

13. Drambo (BeepStreet). Paid, optional extensions, iPhone and iPad. A modular groovebox: you build synths, drum machines and effects from modules that connect themselves as you add them, then sequence the lot. It’s the deepest app here and asks the most of you, so pick it when you want to build instruments from parts.

Best synth apps for iPhone beginners

Most synth apps assume you can already play a keyboard. These two don’t, and GarageBand (number 1) with its Scale button and Animoog Z (number 3) with its scale-locked keys are gentle places to start too.

14. Gelato Synth (ours) (Gelato Audio). Free with one $4.99 in-app purchase, iPhone. There is no keyboard. You pick a root note and one of nine scales, and the pads play only those notes, three rows for three octaves, so nothing clashes. Each sound page does one job with big sliders (oscillators, FM, noise, envelope, filter, LFO, echo and reverb), and the free version has every scale and slider with a few sounds per category. The purchase adds a chords mode, all 52 presets and a loop recorder. It’s a standalone app with no MIDI or AUv3, so it won’t load inside GarageBand. More on our synth page.

15. KORG iKaossilator (Korg). Paid, one optional sound set, iPhone and iPad. The app version of Korg’s handheld Kaossilator: you rub an XY pad instead of pressing keys, and a scale and key setting keeps every note in tune. It has 150 sounds aimed at dance music and a loop sequencer with up to five parts, so you can build a loop one part at a time. Its last update was in 2020, though Korg’s compatibility chart lists it as working on iOS 26.

In any of these apps, change one control at a time and listen. A good first exercise: load a pad preset, hold C, E and G (a C major chord), and sweep only the filter cutoff from closed to open. Then pull the release down until the chord stops the moment you lift your fingers. To hear a pad next to a pluck before you download anything, the free chord player on this site plays both in your browser.

iPad-only synth apps that won’t install on iPhone

These well-known iOS synths are sold for iPad only, so the App Store won’t install them on a phone:

• KORG iMS-20 and KORG iPolysix for iPad
• Waldorf Nave
• Arturia iSEM
• Moog’s Mariana bass synth

If it’s the Korg sound you’re after, Korg’s iM1, iWAVESTATION, iMono/Poly and ARP ODYSSEi all run on iPhone. Before you buy any synth, open the listing’s Compatibility section and look for iPhone.

How to choose a synthesizer app for iPhone

Start with the sounds you want, because each synth type has a home turf:

Then check four things on the listing:

• In-App Purchases: “Free” can mean fully free (GarageBand, both Synth Ones, King of FM) or a demo with a paid full version (Animoog Z, Polywave). The list shows that price before you tap Get.
• AUv3 support, if you want the synth inside GarageBand next to your drums and vocals.
• MIDI, if you plan to plug in a USB keyboard. Apps 1 to 13 all take MIDI input; Gelato Synth doesn’t, and iKaossilator’s listing doesn’t mention it.
• Screen size: dense apps like Synth One and Drambo are easier on a larger iPhone.

One more thing that has nothing to do with the app: Bluetooth headphones add a delay between your tap and the sound, which makes pads feel fine and drums feel sloppy. The iPhone speaker or wired headphones feel tighter, and our guide to AirPods latency in music apps has the fixes.