7 HiChord Alternatives: Chord Synths and iPhone Apps Compared

The best HiChord alternatives are the Minichord ($174.99) for a cheaper chord synth you can strum, the Roland J-6 (about $270 new) for progressions that play themselves, the Orchid ($649) for songs that leave the key, and the Suzuki Omnichord OM-108 for the original strummed sound. To try chord buttons before buying hardware, three iPhone apps do the job for under $10.

The HiChord itself is $320 on pre-order from Pocket Audio as of September 2026, and every price below was checked the same month. We make one of the apps, Gelato Chord, so it is marked “ours” at number 5.

What the HiChord does, and what the $320 buys

The HiChord is a pocket chord synth that Pocket Audio designs in Toronto: an aluminum box about 4 by 2.8 inches with seven chord buttons, three function buttons and a joystick. The seven buttons play the diatonic chords of the key you choose, meaning the chords built only from that key’s scale, so nothing clashes. In Roman numeral terms they are I ii iii IV V vi vii°, which in G major means G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em and F#dim. Hold a button and push the joystick to recolor the chord: on the G button, right gives Gmaj7, up-right G7, down Gsus4 and down-right Gadd9, while up flips it to Gm. Let go and it snaps back.

Around that core sit more than 30 sounds (FM, samples and analog-style waves), a six-track looper, a drum machine with seven kits and 56 beat patterns, 13 play modes including Strum, Arp and Lead, a built-in mono speaker, and a microphone for sampling and a vocoder. Over USB-C it charges and doubles as an audio and MIDI device for a computer.

Those parts are where the money goes: a CNC-machined aluminum case, an OLED screen, a speaker, a microphone, a 2400 mAh battery and a 400 MHz processor. An app borrows every one of those from your phone. The price also covers a carrying case, a one-year warranty and 30-day returns, and orders outside the US ship with customs duties and import taxes prepaid, so nothing is due at the door. Next to the hardware below, $320 sits in the middle: the Minichord costs a little over half as much and the J-6 about $50 less, while the Orchid costs twice as much and the OM-108 about three times as much.

It is worth it if you will carry it. The point of the HiChord is an instrument in your jacket that plays through its own speaker and stacks loops with no phone involved, and nothing else on this list does that whole job. It is harder to justify if you mostly make music at a desk where a laptop is already open, or if you want to sweep a strum plate like an Omnichord player: on the HiChord, Strum is a play mode that fans the chord’s notes out when you press a button, and there is no plate to run a finger across.

The cheapest test is free. Our online chord player puts the chords of any key on pads labeled with Roman numerals, the same idea as the HiChord’s buttons. Play I V vi IV in G for a week (G, D, Em, C, all listed with their notes on the chords in G major page). If you are still playing on day seven, the $320 box is far less likely to end up in a drawer, and Pocket Audio takes returns for 30 days anyway.

HiChord alternatives: pocket chord synths and bigger boxes

Prices are in US dollars: the maker’s own store for the Minichord and the Orchid, and the usual US dealer price for the Roland and the Suzuki.

1. Minichord (Benjamin Poilve, sold by Seeed Studio). $174.99, hardware, open source.

   The closest thing to a miniature Omnichord: 21 chord buttons in seven columns ordered F C G D A E B, with rows for major, minor and 7th, plus a sharp button and a 12-section harp touch zone you can strum or tap note by note. Pressing two or three buttons in one column gives maj7, m7, diminished or augmented chords, and it adds 12 presets, a basic arpeggiator, about seven hours of battery and USB MIDI. The buttons follow roots, not a key, so unlike the HiChord you need to know which chords belong together; in G major the six you will use most (G, Am, Bm, C, D and Em) are one button each. There is no speaker, and plugging in headphones is what switches it on. Tinkerers get a bonus: the hardware and firmware files are published openly.

2. Roland J-6 (Roland). About $270 new, hardware.

   A chord synth from Roland’s AIRA Compact line, small enough for a bag but not a pocket (188 by 106 mm, 295 g), with a four-voice engine modeled on the JUNO-60 and 64 preset sounds. You pick one of 100 chord sets, from pop and synthwave to jazz and neo soul, and its chords spread across the keys; 9 styles with 12 variations each turn a held chord into arpeggios, strums or rhythms, and a sequencer stores 64 patterns. The battery lasts about 4.5 hours, but there is no speaker. Choose it if you want a progression that keeps looping while you tweak the sound, or a chord source for other gear over MIDI.

3. Orchid ORC-1 (Telepathic Instruments). $649, hardware, sold direct in limited batches.

   The desk-sized pick, at 305 by 190 mm and 1.8 kg. A one-octave, velocity-sensitive keyboard sets the root, a row of chord-type buttons picks the chord, modifier buttons add color, and two voicing dials walk the chord up and down through its inversions. Inside are three synth engines (subtractive, FM and a vintage electric piano) with more than 60 sounds, a looper with overdub and undo, 20 drum beats and two speakers. Because you choose any root yourself, chords from outside the key are one press away, which makes it the songwriter’s step up from seven fixed buttons. Key Mode gives you the HiChord’s safety net back: every key on the keyboard then plays a chord that fits your key.

4. Suzuki Omnichord OM-108 (Suzuki). About $900 to $1,000 new, hardware.

   Suzuki introduced the Omnichord in 1981 as an electronic autoharp, and the OM-108 brought it back in 2024 with chord buttons for 108 chords (sus4 and add9 among them) and the strumplate that made the original famous. Its omni1 and omni2 tones use analog circuitry to recreate the classic OM-84 sound, next to harp, celeste, FM piano and other tones and a rhythm section. It has a built-in speaker and runs on eight AA batteries or an AC adapter, both sold separately. Pick it if the shimmering strum is the sound you are after, and plan on a gig bag, not a pocket.

HiChord alternative apps for iPhone

An app trades physical buttons for a touchscreen and your phone’s speaker, and in return costs under $10. Our comparison of Omnichord apps for iPhone covers more chord-button apps.

5. Gelato Chord (ours) (Gelato Audio). Free with one $4.99 in-app purchase, iPhone.

   The closest app layout to the HiChord: one labeled key for each of the seven chords in your key, and a color wheel (labeled VOICING) does a job much like the joystick, pushing the held chord toward 7ths and 9ths or opening it toward sus sounds without changing the chord or its bass note. A melody plate lays the key’s scale out as twelve strings with the held chord’s notes lit up, and a bend strip bends everything by up to a whole tone. Everything above works for free in Play mode, with three sounds (Grand Piano, Rhodes and Saw); the $4.99 purchase adds Strum, Lead, Arp and Repeat modes, all 59 sounds and a loop recorder with drum grooves and up to eight layers.

6. C.ARP (Paolo Giorgi). Paid, $9.99, no in-app purchases. iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs.

   A chord keyboard inspired by old keyboards, omnichords and tape effects: hold a chord button, then swipe or tap the section to its right. A rhythm section follows every chord you choose, and arpeggios, a mod wheel, delay and reverb are built in. Its sampler records your voice or any other sound and turns it into playable chords, the nearest thing here to the HiChord’s microphone, and Bluetooth MIDI out lets it play a DAW on a Mac.

7. Navichord (Denis Kutuzov). Paid, $7.99, with a free Lite version. iPhone and iPad.

   Navichord swaps buttons for a harmonic grid of notes, laid out so that chords that work together sit close to each other. One finger plays a major or minor chord from any root, and two or three fingers play 7ths and 9ths. Chords are named in Roman numerals, 28 scales are built in, and the full version sends MIDI to other apps and hardware and loops progressions in time with other apps over Ableton Link. It was last updated in February 2021, so try the Lite version first to check it runs well on your phone; it suits songwriters who want to see why a progression works.

HiChord vs the alternatives at a glance

If pocket size and a speaker are both musts, the HiChord has no direct rival here: the Minichord and the J-6 fit in a bag but need headphones or a small speaker. For strumming, the Minichord is the budget route and the OM-108 is the original. The J-6 does the most work for you, since its chord sets and styles keep a progression running while you play over it. Songs that wander outside one key get the most freedom from the Orchid’s root-plus-type layout. For more strum-plate instruments, see our guide to cheaper Omnichord alternatives.