ChordU alternative
ChordU is a searchable catalogue of chords for videos, paid for by ads and a subscription. EarChord is an analyser you point at your own file. Here is the comparison.
EarChord and ChordU, side by side
| Feature | EarChord | ChordU |
|---|---|---|
| Analyse your own audio file | Yes, free | Uploads are a Premium feature |
| Ads | None | Free tier is ad-supported; ad-free is Premium |
| Price | Free | Free tier; Premium is 3.50 USD a month or 36.00 USD a year |
| Song catalogue | None. You bring the audio | Large searchable catalogue built on videos |
| Account required | No | Needed for Premium features |
| PDF, MIDI and WAV export | Plain text chord list, free | Premium |
| Stem isolation, capo, custom tunings, sheet-music notes | No | Premium |
| Where the audio is analysed | In your browser, on your device | On their servers |
When ChordU is the better choice
If the song you want is already in ChordU's catalogue, it will be faster than anything you can do with a file, and it comes with the video, a transposer, a digital capo and multiple chord versions for the same song. EarChord has no catalogue and no playback at all.
ChordU Premium also does several things EarChord does not do at any price: stem isolation, MIDI and PDF export, custom tunings, time-synced lyrics and notes as sheet music. If any of those is the reason you are looking, EarChord is not the tool.
EarChord is the better fit when the recording is yours, when you do not want ads in the way, or when you would rather not upload a file to find out what is in it.
The difference is where the audio goes
ChordU works the way most chord sites work: the audio is fetched and analysed on their infrastructure, and the result is stored and served to everyone who asks for that song again. That is what makes a catalogue possible, and it is also what makes ads and a subscription necessary, because someone has to pay for the servers.
EarChord has no catalogue because it has no server-side analysis. Your file is read by your own browser and the chord detection runs on your own processor. There is no upload step to opt into and no copy of your recording anywhere but your machine.
What you give up by going this way
You give up the catalogue, and it is a real loss. If a song has already been analysed by ChordU, looking it up is one search. With EarChord you need the audio in front of you first.
You also give up everything that depends on a stored account: playlists, offline practice, exports, synced lyrics. EarChord keeps nothing, which is the same sentence read from the other side.
Questions
- Is ChordU free?
- There is a free tier with ads. Uploading your own songs, removing ads, PDF, MIDI and WAV downloads, stem isolation, capo, custom tunings and time-synced lyrics are all listed as Premium features on ChordU's own subscription page.
- Can EarChord find chords for a video?
- Not from a link. The browser extension reads the audio a YouTube video is already playing in your tab and shows a chord ribbon under the player, which gets to the same place without anything being downloaded.
- Are there ads on EarChord?
- Not today. If advertising is ever added it will be on the page, never in the way of the analyser, and it will not become a reason to meter how many songs you can run.
Where these figures come from
Everything stated about ChordU above was read from its own site on the date shown. Products change their pricing and their limits; if you find something out of date here, tell us and it gets corrected.
- ChordU Premium subscription page: price and Premium feature listread 26 August 2026