You can pull up free tabs for almost any song on Ultimate Guitar, so paying for a subscription feels strange at first. Why hand over money for something the site already gives away?
Ultimate Guitar Pro is the paid tier of that same hugely popular site. The free version still works fine, which is exactly why the upgrade question is worth thinking through.
The answer really comes down to how you practice. A player learning a new song every week gets very different mileage than someone who strums the odd chord chart.
After plenty of practice time on it, this guide lays out what Pro adds, what stays free, and who should pay. First, let’s cover what Ultimate Guitar Pro actually is.
What Is Ultimate Guitar Pro?
Ultimate Guitar Pro builds on the free site that millions of players already use for tabs and chords. Two upgrades stand out the most.
Interactive tabs: Everyone knows you can download GP files from Ultimate Guitar for free. What many people miss is that you also get free access to an interactive version of any GP tab for all kinds of songs.
The team decided that hiding the basic tab player behind a paywall made no sense, so you can play a GP tab even if you aren’t a Pro member. Free users get the basic version of the player, while Pro users get extra tools like speed control, looping, a virtual fretboard, a mixing console, and more.
Official tabs: These are available to Pro members only. In short, they’re made by professional guitarists and include a polished, interactive Ultimate Guitar tab with synced lyrics, a backing track, a Tonebridge preset, and a chord version.
If you want to know more about the site overall, our general guitar info section covers the basics.
What Are the Features of Ultimate Guitar Pro?
There’s a lot of nuance to the Pro tabs in Ultimate Guitar, which makes them far more practical, accurate, and useful compared to the free, plain-text versions. Here are the clearest upgrades that Ultimate Guitar Pro offers its members:
- Guitar Pro-style tab notation with timing and sight-reading elements.
- Multiple instrument parts, often including bass, synth, vocals, and drums.
- Fretboard view for various instruments.
- Guitar chord-only versions of the songs.
- Tonebridge compatibility and other handy features.
These are the main features that represent the bigger value of what you’re paying for if you buy Ultimate Guitar Pro. For anyone who wants a little more detail, here’s each feature, one at a time.
Notation Style
Guitar tabs are traditionally shown in a Courier font typed up in a plain text document. While that can be useful in certain settings, it limits the data you can show on a tab sheet.
The Guitar Pro-style tabs solve this by showing timing, bars, and a wide range of notation elements that can’t be displayed in a plain text file.
Multiple Instruments
The most impressive thing about Ultimate Guitar Pro is that most tabs have several instrument channels for each part of the song. For example, a tab may not only have bass, but separate channels for every bass part.
To stick with a typical multi-part song, you might see:
- Bass 1
- Bass 2 (drive)
- Bass solo
Fretboard View
The fretboard view in Ultimate Guitar Pro shows you a fretboard from an angle that looks like you’re gazing down at the neck, and it highlights the fret location for each note in the tab sheet. As the tab and sound play, this feature lights up with a yellow dot on the fret and string for each note.
Combined with the ability to slow down the tab, this is very useful and works as a strong teaching tool. When I taught lessons, plenty of students would ask me to help them learn a specific melody, and this resource would’ve been incredibly helpful for that.
What Are Each Song’s Chord Versions?
One of the coolest low-profile features of Ultimate Guitar Pro is the inclusion of chord-only versions of every song. This lets you quickly pick up the basic chord progression for a tune, whether it’s played in a traditional acoustic or chord-friendly strumming style.
While the chord version itself isn’t a full “playing” arrangement, it’s great to have a chord reference like this for getting the overall idea and following a bass line. Then, if you want more detail, you can look at the instrument sections for the different parts of the tab.
Printable tabs: It’s technically possible to print the free Ultimate Guitar lessons, but that isn’t really the intent (there’s no print button), and the printable version of each song is only available in Pro tabs. You can see the print button to the right of the screen, above where the tab begins.
Either the chord version or the Pro tab version of each song is printable, like a PDF file.
Other features: There are a few more features that don’t need a full section. Instead, here they’re at a glance:
- Zoom in and out
- Tonebridge functionality (effects and amp guitar tone settings)
- Left-handed view
- Countdown before songs start
- Metronome
What Does Ultimate Guitar Pro Cost?
To judge the value of this program, you need to know how much it costs. This was surprisingly tricky to find, but after using a private browser window and filling out a form about the music and instruments I played, I finally got to see the pricing.
The pricing is very reasonable given what you get in return. My guess is that it covers the cost of licensing the songs, accessing databases to pull notes and tabs, and paying extra staff to support paying members.
While the monthly plan looks a little high, the yearly billing option is a great value. For roughly $40 per year, you get access to essentially any tab you could ever want, built to a high standard of quality and accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a free version of Ultimate Guitar?
Yes. The core Ultimate Guitar site is free and includes a massive library of user-submitted tabs and chords, plus a basic version of the interactive tab player.
Pro mainly adds official tabs, advanced playback tools, printing, and an ad-free experience.
Does Ultimate Guitar Pro have a free trial?
Ultimate Guitar Pro typically offers a free trial so you can test the interactive features, official tabs, and app before you pay. We recommend using the trial to learn a few of your favorite songs and see whether the upgrade fits how you practice.
Can I use Ultimate Guitar Pro on my phone?
Yes. There’s a companion mobile app that syncs with your account, so you can pull up interactive tabs, slow them down, loop sections, and use the fretboard view on your phone or tablet.
The app is one of the strongest reasons to go Pro if you practice away from a computer.
Is Ultimate Guitar Pro good for beginners?
It can be. The chord-only versions and the slow-down feature make it easier to learn songs at your own pace, and the official tabs are more accurate than many free user submissions.
Beginners may still want to pair it with structured lessons and our beginner guitar chords guide for the fundamentals.
Final Thoughts
In my experience, Ultimate Guitar Pro is one of the easiest and most functional ways to learn a song online. It makes plain text tab feel like a relic of the past.
While it’s hard to review a tab program the same way you’d a full lesson program, my experience with Ultimate Guitar Pro has been completely positive. It’s a simple, genuinely helpful resource that improves significantly on what the free site offers.
On top of that, the roughly $40 per year asking price is completely reasonable, which makes Ultimate Guitar Pro a strong value for a wide range of players. Members of cover bands, church worship teams, and acoustic cover artists should all take a look.
Even people who do a lot of YouTube covers or just like to learn songs as part of their practice routine would really enjoy this subscription.
If you’re a guitar player weighing your options, it’s also worth checking out Fender Play, JamPlay, or Guitar Tricks and reading reviews of each before you commit.
