# OnKey

23 Hacker News commenters recommended OnKey and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a fun, beginner-friendly way to see where your singing is off-key and compare against songs; the most common caveat is that pitch tracking is sometimes wrong.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful for beginners and learning (4 comments): "This kind of app is great for getting started and getting a taste of what singing involves" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205902)) "I like the idea, I definitely think there is potential in apps helping with teaching music" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206924)) "Looks nice, I sing so badly that I never dare to try if not alone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205233))
- Praised as brilliant and great (4 comments): "Wow, this is brilliant, thanks for sharing it!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50207350)) "Awesome, I'm checking it out right now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205787)) "This is great. Thank you, I love this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50212841))
- Scores your take against original songs (3 comments): "You built the scoring feature of karaoke that I failed to build a few years ago, this is awesome!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50209869)) "listen back to your take along with the original and see how you're tracking score wise" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50208749)) "i love the feature where you can select a song to compare to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50211178))
- Lets shy singers practice privately (2 comments): "I will definitely send the link at least to those who know themselves that they are terrible at singing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50206444)) "Looks nice, I sing so badly that I never dare to try if not alone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50205233))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Piano by ear memory game](https://hackerapproved.com/p/piano.md): 35 recommend
- [Music Theory for Programmers](https://hackerapproved.com/p/music-theory-for-programmers.md): 13 recommend
- [Soundslice](https://hackerapproved.com/p/soundslice.md): 9 recommend
- [Vocal Guide](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vocal-guide.md): 7 recommend
- [musictheory.net](https://hackerapproved.com/p/musictheory-net.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "OnKey", https://hackerapproved.com/p/onkey/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).