Review Insights · Google Play
Ultimate Guitar: Tabs & Chords
Ultimate Guitar USA LLC · 12,314 ratings · ★ 4.9
4.9
★★★★★
12,314 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 60 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
20 negative reviews mention this · 33% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Remarkably frustrating and disruptive. Continually bombarding with surveys and advertisements upon login to pay for the app when I already pay for premium subscription. Very frustrating when you just want to get in, do some rehearsals and g…" - Ronnie Kreher
2
"tabs"
15 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "has good selection tabs. mostly taken from open source and a parasitic dark pattern app full of buy now buttons" - rod
3
"free"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "expensive and no different to free available tabs" - Scott Goode
4
"stop"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I used to love this app. But with constant price jumps even when you pay for ad free, you are bombarded with UG ads to pay more for more features. This was a platform for people to share their tabs that they create. Capitalising on this fre…" - Brandon Coleman
5
"paid"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This use to be a good app. I've paid for a subscription but can't get to the tabs because the makers have decided to force me into a terrible customer experience to sell me music lessons. I've played music for 40 years. Terrible experience …" - Aaron D'Souza
6
"guitar"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "slow, pop ups constantly, ads even if you pay. theres much better guitar tab options out there" - Sam Jacobs
7
"without"
7 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I downloaded this app to my guitar teachers recommendation, I deleted it soon after as everything was unavailable without premium, I did not authorise anything, around 5 days after I added money to my Google account it was charged, I had de…" - Berni Ryan
8
"money"
6 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "real pushy on the subscription and trying to "customise the app to you" by throwing unwanted questions at you frequently. I just want to access some music and just getting into the app is a pain. definitely wouldn't trust my money with them…" - Michael W
9
"paying"
6 negative reviews mention this · 10% of all complaints
★★★★★ "every update this app gets worse. more pop-ups, endlessly tries to get you to subscribe to more features despite already paying. infuriating. I will be leaving this app soon as subscription is over." - Joshua Taylor
📋 All 60 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Remarkably frustrating and disruptive. Continually bombarding with surveys and advertisements upon login to pay for the app when I already pay for premium subscription. Very frustrating when you just want to get in, do some rehearsals and get out. Would not be an easy bug to fix.
This use to be a good app. I've paid for a subscription but can't get to the tabs because the makers have decided to force me into a terrible customer experience to sell me music lessons. I've played music for 40 years. Terrible experience and shows contempt for their users. The product and commercial teams should hang their heads in shame as they have 0 respect for their users.
expensive and no different to free available tabs
slow, pop ups constantly, ads even if you pay. theres much better guitar tab options out there
I used to love this app. But with constant price jumps even when you pay for ad free, you are bombarded with UG ads to pay more for more features. This was a platform for people to share their tabs that they create. Capitalising on this free work of others seems wrong. At the very least if you pay for ad free, stop the bombardment of upgrading the plan.
The hard upsell in the latest version is ruining an otherwise excellent experience
stop all the rubbish when you start up the app. or at least put s skip in
real pushy on the subscription and trying to "customise the app to you" by throwing unwanted questions at you frequently. I just want to access some music and just getting into the app is a pain. definitely wouldn't trust my money with them.
I downloaded this app to my guitar teachers recommendation, I deleted it soon after as everything was unavailable without premium, I did not authorise anything, around 5 days after I added money to my Google account it was charged, I had deleted the app and made sure I had not subscriptions prior however the app still charged me conveniently after I had added money to my bank account, I do not know what has happened however I do not recommend this app
Literally one of the most frustrating apps I've ever used. I will use any other resources before UG.
I'm so fed up with this app and it's ever increasing unskippable bs every time you start it up.
Painful constant popups I pay and it keeps asking me to pay again infuriating waste of time
app totally sucks cant see anything without subscription, uninstalled app
every update this app gets worse. more pop-ups, endlessly tries to get you to subscribe to more features despite already paying. infuriating. I will be leaving this app soon as subscription is over.
the App is very Pushy and invasive concerning reviews and "Optimising usage". the app has fallen from it's probably consumer ways of the year 2017, Enshittification comes for everyone it seems. disappointing
can see any good tabs without paying
tried to start free trial. button to continue sits over my mobiles control buttons. cannot press continue as it presses phone controls. managedtk try 1 song. very basic home amateur tabbed. I do not reccomend paying fir this.
subscriptions are arse
Brotha ain't no way I be using an app that is functionless without them taking your precious money. sorry mate, this kid's broke and can't pay for tabs in this flamin' economy. yep.
The most annoying user experience, forced surveys and no control at times to just go to the tabs, despite paying for the app
thought I had signed up for the free trial and cancelled the subscription immediately after. got a notification today that the $67 year subscription fee has been taken out of my account.
great concept terrible execution.
Premium still give you adds, I open my app and here we go, a lot of question that I cant jump, just collecting information to sell me other services. PLEASE STOP!
I never leave reviews, but.. You provide a fantastic service and your website runs perfectly. Why is the app absolute dogsh*t? Half the time when I open it, it treats me like a brand new user and starts and unskippable series of questions about my playing ability and what I want to use the app for... rather than providing an [X] button and letting me just use the app. It does the same on free and premium versions. So I'm no longer bothering to pay for premium. Please, PLEASE make it usable.
constant ads to buy other products even after paying for a subscription
This app is a total scam and impossoble to cancel. I was a client for 10 years until the faithful day I decided im moving on. I changed the auto renew to off. to my surprise I was charged anyway. I contacted the support team to be pushed back to the play store to fix. the play store has never had access to my card details yet this meant nothing to these scammers. Their support is a joke with zero intelligence,don't bother with this hassle. Complete scam!!!!!!
I'll shout it from the rooftops stop with the personalisation. Nobody likes it. I've paid for a lifetime subscription to pro and I dont want or need anything more
Stop forcing me to take that stupid quiz every time we open the damn app!
signed up, keeps taking me back to the page to join up, just want to get to the songs I want to play.
new update is the buggiest its ever been. can't even navigate the app. can scroll down on tabs or access any transposition or chord diagrams. terribe
does not work
Makes you click through stuff just to get to use the thing, and then discover you're on the hook for $59 subscription to 'lessons' that you had no idea about! try get a refund and you talk to a bot! very poor!
Today I open up the app as I want a specific tab off UG. "ready to see AI in action" No, go away and ffs stop making me fill out surveys. You're an app for guitar tabs. Just show me guitar tabs when i search them, jesus christ. I grew up using UG, I'm a professional musician and I have completely swapped to Songsterr. Stop adding bloat garbage and just do your job. I don't want an account, I don't want AI. I don't want time wasting surveys.
didn't remind me of subscription
changing my review, absolutely terrible app and downright predatory in the way they try to lure you into subscriptions. poor functionality thats gotten worse over the years. real shame.
FRAUD BEWARE!!! I signed up for the 7 day free trial and was baited into signing up for 1 year discounted subscription at the same time. Ultimate Guitar stated that I could cancel at any time in the trial period and would not be charged. However , when I cancelled 3 days into the free trial period my card was charged $76.99. Google will not refund but I will take this further. This is consumer fraud!
stop trying to personalise my experience every freaking time i open the app.
Stop forcing these ridiculous questionnaires whenever I open the app!! I'm already a pro member and I'm still being forced to answer how good I am at guitar and if I want to buy another subscription. I just want to search for a tab!!
words jump as i scroll impossible to keep place
Paid for it once so it wouldn't hassle me to open in app continually on my preferred choice (webpage) and now yous have just voided my purchase to further monetise with your subscription service $$$ Can make money off subscription services without prompting people to go to buy app every time you open a page. Please consider making slightly less money in order to give people a good experience and then we will happily pay you then.
Cancelled subscription, received confirmation and survey, charged me $124 anyway, thieving company.
This app is bad as it was five years ago. when you open it it asks to you fill out information and signup. The app is riddled with ads.
Was great back in the day due to the community who made the tabs but has been gradually enshitified in order to push paid subscriptions.
You accept the trial and it tries to force you into the yearly paid plan, by not giving you an option to change it to monthly. So I cancelled the subscription straight away in App store, to avoid them charging me for a year when I don't even know if I want the app yet. Then when I log into the app, it says "I notice you cancelled your subscription" and when I check the plan, it appears to have cancelled the trial. I was told this app is really good, but with a predatory pay structure, no thanks!
Cancelled in Feb with confirmation from Google Play store. Was charged in Dec for a cancelled subscription. Be very careful as UG say they will not return my money as it was collected by Google. They have my money now however and I don't see why they should not return it.
everything is behind a paywall. I found it to be to the point that the app isn't usable without paying their absurdly high subscription rate. I used this website a lot in 2012 and it was fantastic, somehow it has gone backwards as it developed. literally all this app has to do is provide the tablature that OTHER PEOPLE provide to them. maybe throw in the odd ad and/or an ad free service if you really need.
UG used to be the number 1 site, the instant go to.. now I can't possibly hate it any more. Complete overkill on the app, forced gimmicks that don't achieve anything. Just give me the tab like you used to. Avoid avoid avoid.
I got a lot of use out of this until it refused to let me use it without activating some strange AI feature and filling out some forms and surveys.
has good selection tabs. mostly taken from open source and a parasitic dark pattern app full of buy now buttons
App closes when profile selected, unable to sign in.
+ 10 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
100%
Positive (4-5★)
0%
Neutral (3★)
0%
Negative (1-2★)