Pick JustinGuitar if you want to start free: its structured website course from beginner to advanced costs nothing, with a paid app as an option. Pick Fender Play if you want a polished app with short lessons for guitar, bass or ukulele and Feedback Mode that listens through your mic, at $19.99 a month or $149.99 a year. We score Fender Play 4.5/5 and JustinGuitar 4/5. Read our Fender Play review, and see JustinGuitar in our guide to the best online guitar lessons.
Both are well known places to start guitar online, but they work differently. Fender Play is the guitar maker’s paid app with short lessons on set paths. JustinGuitar is a structured course led by one teacher, Justin Sandercoe, and its website course is free. If you are just getting started, our guide to how to play guitar covers the first steps. For the other big free versus paid matchup, see Guitar Tricks vs JustinGuitar.
Backgrounds of Fender Play & JustinGuitar
Fender Play is the company’s own lesson platform for guitar, bass and ukulele. It offers 3,000+ lessons and thousands of songs, aimed at beginner and intermediate players.
JustinGuitar, on the other hand, is built around one teacher, Justin Sandercoe, with more than 20 years of teaching behind him.
Its website offers more than 1,300 free guitar lessons and about 800 song tutorials.
Registration & Prices
Both have mobile apps. Fender Play runs on the web and in apps for iOS and Android; JustinGuitar has a free website course and a separate app with paid options.
You can sign up for Fender Play on its website or in the app. New members get a free trial: 7 days on the monthly plan or 14 days on the annual plan. It rolls into a paid plan unless you cancel during the trial, and partial months or years are not refunded.
- Fender Play monthly: $19.99 a month
- Fender Play annual: $149.99 a year
JustinGuitar takes a different approach: the website course is free to start, from Beginner Grades 1 to 3 through Intermediate Grades 4 to 6 and Advanced Grade 7.
Some extras cost money. A few website courses and Tabs are sold separately, and the JustinGuitar app is free to download with in-app purchases and a 7 day free trial. The website and app run on separate systems.
Content & Progression Systems
After a few questions about your instrument, level and style, Fender Play puts you on a learning path. The guitar path runs from Level 1 to Level 7, across rock, pop, R&B, country, blues and folk.
If you mainly want to play your favorite songs, you can skip ahead to song lessons, though the path teaches the skills those songs need.
JustinGuitar organizes its website course by grade, from beginner to advanced, with a chord library, metronome and tempo calculator alongside it, plus community clubs.
Experienced players can start at the grade that matches their level.
Like Fender Play, JustinGuitar has song lessons too, with about 800 song tutorials on the website.
Paid website extras, such as a Practical Music Theory course, are optional and sold separately.
Teaching Methods
Fender Play’s course layout makes it clear which lesson comes next and how to move between courses.
Lessons are filmed in 4K with multiple camera angles, and Practice Mode adds auto scrolling tab and a built in metronome.
Lessons are short and paced for beginners.
On JustinGuitar, one teacher leads the whole course, so the teaching style stays consistent from the first lesson.
The JustinGuitar app adds a tuner, a song player and a 10 minute daily practice routine for beginner grades 1 to 3.
Do Fender Play or JustinGuitar actually correct your playing?
Online lessons give feedback in three ways: automatic (an app listens and scores your notes), asynchronous instructor video (you upload, a teacher replies) and live lessons (real time with a teacher). Here is how each platform handles it.
- Fender Play: automatic feedback. Feedback Mode listens through your microphone, gives real time feedback as you play and scores you so you can try to beat your high score.
- JustinGuitar: self paced video lessons with practice tools such as a metronome on the website and a tuner and song player in the app.
Our recommendation: Fender Play’s Feedback Mode helps with notes, but an app score does not judge tone, dynamics or hand technique. With either one, record yourself, practice with a metronome and book an occasional live lesson with a teacher to check technique.
Fender Play vs JustinGuitar: Which Should You Choose?
Pick JustinGuitar if you want a free, structured course led by one teacher. Pick Fender Play if you want a polished app, guitar, bass and ukulele in one plan, and Feedback Mode.
Fender Play costs $19.99 a month or $149.99 a year after a 7 or 14 day trial. JustinGuitar’s website course is free, so you can try it before paying for anything.
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