Head to head
Soundtrap is a polished browser studio built around recording vocals, collaborating live and running a music class. This instrument is built around making the notes: a grid you can see, blocks that transform it, and a co-producer that explains every change. They overlap less than you would think.
Last checked . Facts about Soundtrap come from the pages listed at the end.
Soundtrap, owned by Spotify since 2017, is the browser DAW that schools know. It has a real multitrack timeline, recording with a full vocal suite, tens of thousands of loops, live collaboration where two people edit the same project, and an education edition with class management. After a free trial it is a subscription, from about ten dollars a month.
Its AI is applied to audio: a vocal cleanup tool, mastering, tuning. Those are good tools, and they are not a collaborator. There is nothing in Soundtrap you can ask to make the chorus lift, watch it do so in your project, read why, and undo in one press.
That is what the co-producer here is for. The instrument around it is deliberately smaller than Soundtrap's studio: a step grid instead of a timeline of waveforms, recipe blocks instead of plugin chains, notes that stay in key. Small enough to understand, with an assistant that makes sure you do.
Soundtrap AB, owned by Spotify
The other column
Short answers on purpose. The difference is usually in the how, so each row says what happens rather than ticking a box.
| Capability | Soundtrap | Riffgarden |
|---|---|---|
| What kind of thing it is | A browser DAW: multitrack timeline, recording, loops, effects, a mixer, and live collaboration. | A browser instrument: a step grid, recipe blocks, sounds you shape, and an arranger that stacks patterns into a song. |
| Runs in a browser | Fully, with apps for phones and tablets and a Chromebook-friendly education edition. | Fully, on a laptop or desktop. No phone version. |
| Price to start | A free trial, then a subscription from $9.99 a month. | Free, and the free plan is the whole instrument with a limited amount of co-producer time each month. |
| Generates songs | It does not generate songs. You record, arrange loops and play instruments. | It does not either. You start from a loop that already sounds good and change it. |
| An assistant that edits your project | We could not find one. Soundtrap's AI is applied to audio: vocal cleanup, tuning, mastering. | The co-producer changes your project with the same operations you use, in front of you. |
| Undo an assistant's turn in one step | Normal undo for your own edits. There is no assistant turn to undo. | Every co-producer turn is a single undo, however much it changed. |
| Explains what it did and why | Not applicable to its tools; the help centre and blog explain the features. | Every change comes with one plain sentence about what changed and why it works. |
| Notes that stay in key | Instruments play any note. Loops are tagged by key and Soundtrap can match them. | Melodies and basslines are steps of a key. A wrong note is not something you can click. |
| Recording and vocals | Its strength: record from a microphone, tune in real time, double, clean up and add presets. | No recording. You can import audio and slice it. |
| Collaboration | Two people can edit the same project at once, with chat and video. | Projects can be forked and shared songs can be remixed. No live co-editing. |
| Classrooms | An education edition with classes, assignments and privacy controls, sold per seat. | Everything is private by default and free to start, but there are no classroom accounts. |
It has a free trial, then paid plans that started at $9.99 a month, or $7.99 a month billed yearly, when we checked. This instrument is free to start and the free plan is the whole thing, with a limited amount of co-producer time each month.
It has AI tools for audio: vocal cleanup, tuning and mastering. We could not find an assistant that edits your project when you ask. The co-producer here does exactly that, explains each change, and can be undone in one press.
For learning to write music, this instrument: notes stay in key, every term explains itself, the lessons are loops you play with, and the co-producer says why each change works. For learning to record and produce vocals, Soundtrap.
Yes. Write the beat and the parts here, record the song to audio, and bring it into Soundtrap to add vocals, or into any DAW.
Anyone can use it, it is private by default, and the lessons are free. There are no classroom accounts, assignments or teacher dashboards yet, so a teacher who needs those should look at Soundtrap for Education.
Everything about Soundtrap on this page was read on September 22, 2026 from these pages. Prices and features change; if something here is wrong or out of date, tell us through the contact form and we will fix it.
Open a project that already sounds good, change one thing, and ask the co-producer why it worked. Free to start, and everything you make stays yours.