Simply Piano vs Piano Marvel

These two often come up when someone has started with Simply Piano and wants to read better. They suit different stages and setups, and it helps to see exactly where.

Prices in US dollars; Simply Piano’s vary by country and offer. Scroll sideways on a phone.

Reading: the real difference

Simply Piano teaches you to read the music in its courses, beginning with the free Piano Basics¹. It’s a good first step, and for many people enough.

Piano Marvel treats reading as the skill to build. Its method runs to about 1,200 lessons in 18 levels, its library holds tens of thousands of pieces of real sheet music, and the SASR test measures your sight reading on new pieces, raising the level while you score 80% or more^2,9,3. Because it reads your keyboard over MIDI, it knows exactly which notes you played and when⁹.

Your piano and your screen

This often decides it. Simply Piano works through the microphone with any piano, acoustic included, on iPhone, iPad and Android, but not on a computer^6,10. Piano Marvel runs on computers and on iPhone and iPad, and wants a MIDI keyboard; its microphone option is iPhone and iPad only and, by its own account, less accurate^8,13.

Where Simply Piano is stronger

• An easier, more playful start for complete beginners and children¹.
• Any piano through the microphone, on Android as well as iPhone and iPad^6,10.
• Duo and Family plans¹⁴.

Where Piano Marvel is stronger

• Sight reading: a standard test and a large graded library to practise on^3,2.
• Computers as well as iPhone and iPad⁸.
• Precise MIDI grading, with a mode that waits for you¹⁵.
• Published prices and a lasting free plan².
• Plans for teachers, studios and schools².

Which to choose

Choose Simply Piano for a gentle start on a phone or tablet, especially with an acoustic piano or for a child.

Choose Piano Marvel if you have a digital piano with MIDI and want to read well: a method, lots of real music and a score that shows your progress.

Many people do one after the other. If you’re between the two, the guide to sight reading for adult beginners explains what to practise. Pianomi, our own app, is another reading-focused option for MIDI keyboards; it’s in the round-up with its limits.