14 Best Free Music Making Apps for iPhone (No Subscription)

The best free music making apps for iPhone are GarageBand for recording whole songs, BandLab for making music with other people, and AudioKit Synth One for a full synthesizer that costs nothing. All 14 apps below are free to download and usable without a subscription; when one sells an optional plan or a one-time unlock, its entry gives the price. We make two of them, marked (ours). Prices for the other twelve are from the US App Store in September 2026.

Which free music making app to start with

If you only install one app, make it GarageBand. Otherwise, start from what you want to do:

Free music production apps: DAWs and beat makers

A DAW (digital audio workstation) is where a song gets recorded, arranged and mixed. These four record or build whole tracks, and none of them needs a subscription to do it.

1. GarageBand (Apple). Free, no in-app purchases, iPhone and iPad, with a Mac version too.

   Apple’s studio records up to 32 tracks, builds songs from loops in its Live Loops grid, and adds Drummer tracks that play along. The Sound Library adds free loops and instruments. Keyboard sounds have a Chord Strips view, and in the key of C the strips are Em, Am, Dm, G, C, F, Bb and Bdim. For a first song, set the tempo to 90 BPM, add a Drummer, then tap C, G, Am and F: the I, V, vi and IV chords of C major, the 1-5-6-4 progression behind a pile of pop songs. When you outgrow it, see our list of GarageBand alternatives for iPhone.

2. BandLab (BandLab). Free with an optional Membership subscription, iPhone, iPad, Android and web.

   BandLab gives you unlimited multitrack projects and free cloud storage, so a song started on your phone opens later in a laptop browser. The free studio has a drum machine, a looper, hundreds of virtual instruments and a sampler with over 250,000 royalty-free samples. It doubles as a social network for musicians, so parents may want to read is BandLab safe for kids first. Membership ($14.99 a month) adds members-only instruments, effects and AI tools.

3. Roland Zenbeats (Roland). Free, with one-time unlocks or an optional Roland Cloud subscription, iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows.

   The free version has unlimited tracks, the ZR1 drum sampler with 20+ kits, the ZC1 synth with 57 presets, and 450 loops and presets in all. It needs a free Roland account and an internet connection. A Platform Unlock (one platform) or Max Unlock (every platform) is a single purchase, and Roland Cloud plans from $2.99 a month include the Max Unlock if you prefer to subscribe.

4. Launchpad (Focusrite). Free, with $1.99 soundpacks and an optional Premium subscription, iPhone and iPad.

   Launchpad is a grid of loops you trigger like a DJ: tap a beat, a bassline and a vocal, then throw filter, gater or stutter effects over the top. Every loop stays locked to the tempo, so nothing you tap falls out of time. Eight soundpacks (nearly 400 sounds) are free, extra packs are $1.99 each, and the $7.99 a month Premium plan is optional. On iPad it also works with Novation’s Launchpad controllers.

Free instrument apps: synths, keys, chords and guitar

These are apps you play. The three from AudioKit Pro have no ads and nothing to buy.

5. AudioKit Synth One (AudioKit Pro). Free, no in-app purchases, iPhone and iPad.

   An open-source hybrid analog and FM synthesizer with five oscillators (two main ones plus FM, sub and noise), more than 300 presets, an arpeggiator and a 16-step sequencer. You can drag the amp and filter envelopes with a finger and hear the change, which makes it a good place to learn what an envelope and a filter do.

6. AudioKit Synth One J6 (AudioKit Pro). Free, no ads or in-app purchases apart from an optional tip, iPhone and iPad.

   The follow-up to Synth One, inspired by Roland’s Juno-6 and Jupiter synths without cloning them. It comes with 400+ presets, two arpeggiators, a step sequencer, three LFOs, and a slider or knob for every function. Reach for it for warm pads and round basses. A record button exports WAV files, and on iPad it also loads as an AUv3 plug-in in GarageBand.

7. King of FM (AudioKit Pro). Free, no ads or in-app purchases, iPhone, iPad and Mac.

   More than 300 sounds, built from over 10,000 samples, recreate the tones of Yamaha’s DX7 and SY77, the classic FM synthesis keyboards (the app is not affiliated with Yamaha). The main E Piano and Full Tines sounds have over 20 sampled layers, so playing harder on a MIDI keyboard changes the tone as well as the volume. It records WAV files and also runs as an AUv3 plug-in inside GarageBand.

8. FM Essential (Yamaha). Free, iPhone and iPad.

   Yamaha’s own 4-operator FM synth, with eight algorithms and sounds from its DX100, TX81Z and V50. On its own it has 10 preset voices you can edit, plus 20 chord pads, 64 arpeggiator patterns, 25 scales and 16 drum pads. The full library of 271 voices, and saving your own, need a Yamaha MX synthesizer connected.

9. Gelato Synth (ours). Free with a one-time $4.99 unlock, iPhone.

   A chunky FM and wavetable synth we built for beginners. There is no keyboard: you pick a root and one of nine scales, and the pads hold only that scale’s notes, so nothing you tap sounds wrong. The free version has every scale, a few sounds in each category with every slider, and quick recording. The $4.99 unlock adds Chords mode, all 52 presets, the loop recorder and saving your own sounds.

10. Gelato Chord (ours). Free with a one-time $4.99 unlock, iPhone.

    A pocket chord instrument in the spirit of the Omnichord, with one chord of your key on each of its seven keys and a twelve-string melody plate that lights up the notes of the chord you hold. For free you get the whole instrument in Play mode, every key and scale, three sounds (Grand Piano, Rhodes and Saw) and quick recording. The unlock adds Strum, Lead, Arp and Repeat modes, the loop recorder and all 59 sounds.

11. SampleTank CS (IK Multimedia). Free, with one-time sound purchases, iPhone and iPad.

    A sound module with 23 free sounds across 16 categories, playable eight parts at once, with an 8-track MIDI recorder that exports audio. Extra sound packs are one-time purchases, and the full SampleTank upgrade is $24.99. Pick it for ready-made sampled instruments.

12. AmpliTube CS (IK Multimedia). Free, with one-time gear purchases, iPhone.

    Guitarists and bassists get 3 amps, 7 stompboxes, 3 cabinets, 2 mics, a rock drum groove pack, a tuner, a metronome and a 2-track recorder for free. You need an audio interface such as IK’s iRig to plug in. Extra amps are $4.99 and pedals $3.99 each, so you only pay for the tones you use.

Free to try, then pay once: no-subscription music apps

Both are free to download and sell the full app as one purchase, so you can try before you pay.

13. Animoog Z (Moog Music). Free download, one-time $29.99 unlock for the full app, iPhone, iPad and Mac.

    Moog’s Anisotropic Synth Engine moves each note along an orbit through a three-dimensional space of timbres, so a held chord keeps shifting color. The free version plays the presets, and the Celestial Dynamics pack of 10 more costs nothing. The paid unlock adds the full sound design tools. It supports MPE controllers and runs as an AUv3 plug-in.

14. Suggester 2 (Mathieu Routhier). Free download, then a one-time $24.99 iOS Key or $5.99 a month, iPhone, iPad and Mac.

    A chord progression helper: you pick chords by their job in the key, written as Roman numerals (I, IV, V, vi), and hear them on piano, guitar or ukulele. It exports progressions as MIDI or audio and runs as an AUv3 plug-in. The monthly plan passes the price of the key in its fifth month, so buy the key if you will use it longer than that.

Four more apps skip the subscription but cost money up front or after a trial, so they sit outside the count. Loopy Pro (A Tasty Pixel), a live looper that also hosts plug-ins, is free for 7 days, then $29.99 once. Koala Sampler ($4.99, from Elf Audio) chops beats out of anything your mic hears, Ableton Note ($6.99, from Ableton) makes sketches that open in Ableton Live, and FL Studio Mobile ($14.99, from Image-Line) is a full studio with a step sequencer and piano roll.

For something free with no download at all, Google’s Chrome Music Lab runs in Safari, and our online chord player plays the chords of all 24 major and minor keys with a tap.

Which free music apps hide a subscription

These popular apps are free to open, then stop you at a paywall. None is a bad app, but know the deal before you build songs in one.

To check any app before you download it:

• On its App Store page, scroll to Information and tap In-App Purchases. Names like “Drum Pad Machine Pro - Weekly” or “BandLab Membership - 1 Month” are subscriptions, and a single “Unlock” or “Upgrade” item is usually a one-time buy.
• A weekly plan is the loudest warning. $7.99 a week comes to more than $400 a year.
• If you start a free trial, put the end date in your calendar. Apple renews a subscription unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends, in Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions.