Looking for the best karaoke app? The honest answer is that it depends on where you want to sing. Some karaoke apps are built for recording yourself and sharing duets with strangers around the world. Some turn your TV into a karaoke machine for a living room full of friends. And some are not karaoke apps at all, but party games that happen to involve singing. Picking the wrong type is the most common reason people download three apps in one evening and delete all of them.
This guide covers what to look for, the established karaoke apps worth knowing, who each one suits best, and when a karaoke party game is the better fit. App features and prices change often and differ by country, so treat the details here as a starting point and check the store listing before you subscribe.
What to look for in a karaoke app
Before comparing names, decide what you actually need. These six things separate one karaoke app from another far more than the logo does.
1. Lyrics on screen. Every real karaoke app shows timed lyrics, but how they look matters. Big, clearly highlighted words are easy to follow from across a room. Small scrolling text is fine when you hold the phone in your hand.
2. The song catalogue. The size of the library is only half the story. What matters is whether the songs you want are there, in a version that sounds like the original. Some apps use licensed karaoke recordings, some lean on user uploads or online videos, and quality varies a lot.
3. Free vs subscription. Most karaoke apps are free to download, then limit what you can sing or record until you pay. Common limits are a few songs per day, a smaller free catalogue, or recording features locked behind a VIP plan. Look for a free trial and read what happens when it ends.
4. TV casting. For a party, singing into a phone that one person holds is a poor experience. If you want everyone to see the lyrics, check whether the app has a TV app or supports casting, and whether guests can add songs from their own phones.
5. Duets and social features. Some apps are essentially social networks for singers: you record half a duet and someone on the other side of the world finishes it. That is wonderful if you love singing alone at home and useless at a house party.
6. Party use. Ask how the app behaves with ten people in the room. Is there a queue? Can guests pick songs without passing one phone around? Can anyone use it without creating an account?
The best karaoke apps, compared
Here are the karaoke apps and features most people will come across, with an honest note on who each one suits. None of them is the best karaoke app for everyone, which is why the "best for" line matters more than any ranking.
1. Smule. One of the best-known singing apps, available on iPhone and Android. You sing along to scrolling lyrics, record solo performances, and join duets and group songs with other users or with recordings from artists. The app is free to download, and a VIP subscription unlocks more, including solo recording and starting your own duets. Best for: people who love singing alone at home and want an audience and duet partners online.
2. StarMaker. A social karaoke app where you record songs with voice effects, make music videos with filters, duet with friends, and join live party rooms and communities. It is free to download with in-app purchases and a VIP subscription. Users report that a growing part of the song library sits behind VIP, so check the free selection first. Best for: singers who enjoy the social, live-streaming side of karaoke as much as the singing.
3. Yokee. A karaoke app known for letting you sing along to free karaoke videos, alongside a paid VIP catalogue with extra songs and features. Recording and some video features are limited in the free version. Best for: casual singers who want a large free selection and do not mind some limits.
4. Singa. A karaoke streaming service from Finland with a licensed catalogue that it says includes original recordings. It runs on phones, in a web browser, and on Android TV and Apple TV, and iPhone users can send it to a TV with AirPlay. There is a limited free tier and a Premium subscription, monthly or yearly, with a free trial for new subscribers. Best for: living room karaoke on a big screen, with a catalogue that leans toward polished, licensed tracks.
5. KaraFun. A karaoke service with a very large catalogue, apps for phones and tablets, and TV apps. Its standout party feature is the remote control mode: guests open it on their own phones, browse the catalogue and add songs to a shared queue. Remote control needs an active subscription and an internet connection. There is also a Pro version for bars and venues. Best for: hosting a proper karaoke night at home where the queue runs itself.
6. Apple Music Sing. Not a separate app but a feature inside Apple Music. It shows real-time lyrics and lets you turn the vocals down on a large part of the Apple Music catalogue, and the vocal slider lowers the singer rather than removing them completely. It works on recent iPhones and iPads and on Apple TV 4K (3rd generation), where an iPhone can act as a camera or as a microphone. It requires an Apple Music subscription. Best for: people who already pay for Apple Music and own Apple devices, and want karaoke without another subscription.
Karaoke apps for iPhone and Android
If you are looking for karaoke apps for iPhone specifically, everything above runs on Apple devices, and Apple Music Sing is the most tightly integrated option because it lives inside an app you may already use. On Android, Smule, StarMaker and Yokee are the familiar names, and Singa and KaraFun cover Android TV and other big-screen setups. Always check the current store listing, because availability and pricing differ by country.
Is there a good free karaoke app?
Mostly, "karaoke app free" means free to download. Almost every app above has a free tier, but it is a taste rather than the full meal: a few songs a day, a smaller library, or no recording. If you only sing occasionally, rotating through free tiers works. If you host karaoke nights every month, one subscription to a TV-friendly service will save you a lot of frustration. Apple Music Sing is free only in the sense that it comes with a subscription you might already have.
Karaoke apps vs karaoke party games
Here is the part most comparisons skip. A karaoke app is built to play backing tracks and lyrics so one person can sing a full song. That is great for a karaoke night, but at a party it often stalls. People scroll the catalogue for ten minutes, the shy guests never put their names down, and the same three confident singers hold the mic all night.
A karaoke party game works the other way round. Nobody sings a full song, nobody needs a backing track, and the game decides when it is your turn. Formats like song association have worked this way for decades: someone says a word, and you have a few seconds to sing a line from any song that contains it. Boxed karaoke games such as Grab the Mic turn the same idea into a race for a foam microphone, and our Grab the Mic guide explains how it plays.
Grab The Phone Karaoke is our own karaoke party game, and it is honest to say what it is not: it is not a backing track or lyrics app, and you will not find a song catalogue in it. Instead, the phone lies flat on the table and a word lights up. Whoever grabs the phone first has 15 seconds to sing any song they know with that word in it, recorded on the phone. The other players vote thumbs up or thumbs down, and after the last round a leaderboard crowns the winner. It plays with 2 to 8 people on one phone, it is free, and there is no account to create. An optional VIP upgrade adds more players, categories and rounds and removes ads.
The short format is the point. Fifteen seconds is over before anyone gets nervous, so even the friend who would never pick a karaoke song ends up singing. If your group prefers listening games to singing ones, our guide to games like Hitster has options too.
Which should you choose?
If you want to sing full songs with lyrics on a TV, pick a karaoke service with a TV app and a shared queue. If you sing mostly alone and love duets, pick a social singing app. If you already pay for Apple Music, try Apple Music Sing before paying for anything else. And if you want a quick karaoke game that gets the whole room singing in short bursts, try a party game. Many groups use both: a party game to warm up, then a karaoke app once everyone is brave enough for a full song from our list of the best karaoke songs.
If a karaoke party game sounds right for your next night in, you can download Grab The Phone Karaoke for free on iOS and Android.
Smule, StarMaker, Yokee, Singa, KaraFun, Apple Music, Apple TV, iPhone, Android and Grab the Mic are trademarks of their respective owners. Grab The Phone Karaoke is an independent app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them. App features and prices change over time and differ by country.
