Updated by Bobby
Updated on July 1st, 2021
Both Fender Play and Justinguitar have changed their home pages. I've updated screenshots here to reflect those changes.
Fender Play VS Justinguitar (comparison)
Our pick: Justinguitar
Whether it's content, education, demonstration, or even song lessons, Justin Sandercoe's long-standing platform is in original, while Fender Play is - at best - an imitator.
I probably wouldn't endorse Justin Sandercoe's choice of hats. We're just two different guys from different continents. But in terms of his guitar lessons and courses, there's very little to complain about.
Thus:
When comparing Justinguitar to Fender Play, we'd give Justin Sandercoe's site the edge in nearly every category. In fact, these two programs are - in a lot of ways - polar opposites of one another. Fender Play is corporate, formal, and sterile, while Justinguitar is small, personal, and helpfully realistic.
Fender Play is also new and unproven, while Justinguitar is one of the two programs (the other being Guitar Tricks) that literally pioneered the idea of online guitar lessons, starting back in 1998. If you're unsure about how the two compare, I'll tell you up front that Justinguitar blows the doors off what you get from Fender Play.
You'll notice, I don't have a single Fender Play affiliate link in this article.
However, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't run these two programs through the same comparison structure I've used for other versus articles.
So for those of you still curious, we'll cover a multi-point comparison of Justinguitar VS Fender Play.
You'll notice, I don't have a single Fender Play affiliate link in this article.
Compare to Similar Programs
This website is entirely reader supported, without running traditional banner ads or sponsored articles. Instead, we run the site by recommending guitar programs, which you can browse in the comparison table below. Perhaps if Justinguitar and Fender Play don't suit your needs, one of our other recommendations might be helpful.
Keep in mind, we recommend programs regardless of whether or not they offer an affiliate link. Some do and some don't. Moreover, programs we don't recommend that do have affiliate links - like Fender Play - we avoid.
Know that you're getting an entirely unbiased and professional opinion from actual guitar players.
PROGRAM | DETAILS | RATING | TRY |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Guitar Tricks | 92.8 | |
 | Justinguitar | 85.1 | |
 | JamPlay | 88.7 | |
 | Fender Play | 70.2 |
Justinguitar VS Fender Play: A Direct Side-by-Side Comparison
Lets start with basic information about both programs, particularly as it relates to data that would apply to membership numbers, cost, and content.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Memberships as of 2020 | n/a | Unknown |
Free Trial Period | Forever | 30 days |
Total Number of Lessons | 863 | 200+ |
Styles (Genres) Covered | Widely varied | 5 total |
Instructors | 1 | 8 |
Price | Free | Note that with the annual membership, Fender offers a 10 percent discount off all Fender gear, namely guitars and amps. |
The only real weakness Justinguitar has in this comparison chart is its limitation to one instructor. Justin Sandercoe is - for the most part - the only personality teaching on Justinguitar, which means you only get his perspective. Yet, his platform is still vastly more comprehensive than Fender Play, boasting more lessons and even getting to a wider variety of styles.
The Justinguitar home page as of October 2022
The Fender Play home page as of October 2022
Remember, Justinguitar is not a membership site, so you don't even need to sign up to view the material. Most of it is also available on the Justinguitar YouTube channel.
Skill Level, Depth and Challenge
This section takes into account how thoroughly topics are explained, how well they are demonstrated, and how completely a program is able to prepare you to handle or learn a particular aspect of the guitar.
We measure this at three skill levels and then give a grade for topical organization and ordering of concepts. In other words: Do you learn the simple before moving onto more complex? Does the order of introducing ideas make sense and does it seem carefully thought out?
In the case of Justinguitar VS Fender Play, Justinguitar is stronger in all of these categories.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Beginner Lessons | A- | B- |
Intermediate Lessons | B- | C- |
Advanced Lessons | C- | D- |
Topical Order | A | D |
While Justinguitar isn't the strongest program when it comes to intermediate and advanced content (he's much stronger in the beginner topics), it's still far better than what Fender Play is able to offer. Fender Play is particularly faulty when it comes to organizing the material, regardless of skill level, with little to offer the intermediate or advanced players.
Some of the lessons in a beginner module in Justinguitar.
While Fender Play's interface is sleak and updated, the content is rarely challenging or effectively sorted.
Site Structure and Web Design
This is the only area where Fender Play gains a little bit of ground back from Justinguitar.
Though Justin Sandercoe revamped his site in 2019, the prior iteration of justinguitar.com had been around for a long time without any kind of interface update. Even now, Fender Play is just a cleaner and more intuitive design which we'd have to assume is due to them hiring better developers and designers.
Big companies usually get this right, even while it doesn't necessarily equate to substantive content.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Home Dashboard | C- | A |
Course Navigation | A | B |
Interior Course Navigation | A- | A |
Main Menu Navigation | B | A |
Modern Aesthetic | C | A |
Navigational elements - which also correlate with topical organization - are more effective on the Justinguitar side. Otherwise, Fender Play has a more sleek and polished interface with a distinctly modern aesthetic.
With a much-needed interface update, Justinguitar has produced a user interface more in-keeping with modern web design trends, but still lacks the sleekness and minimalist appeal that Fender Play has.
Fender Play employs a modern, minimalist design that's inviting, fast, and easy to work through.
Video Player Quality and Features
Both website have video platforms that are responsive, easy to use, and fairly fast. Justin Sandercoe just uses YouTube for his video backend, which means all of his content is available on his channel if you want to forgo the use of his website. Fender Play seems to have some kind of a private server for their videos, though still lack some of the advanced featured we like to see, such as a slow-down option and section looping.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Slow Down/Speed Up | A | No |
HD Options | Sometimes | Yes |
Section Looping | No | No |
Full Screen Quality and Pixelation | Sometimes | Yes |
Backend (Server) | YouTube | Unknown |
Social Features | n/a | n/a |
One complaint about Justinguitar is that some of his videos are very old, and thus display in much lower resolutions. As of writing this comparison, neither programs had implemented any kind of section looping feature.
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material like printable documents, diagrams, text-content, and audio files are largely non-existent in Fender Play. While Justinguitar charges for some of their written material, it's at least available, and in most cases the basics like chord diagrams and tabs are provided for free.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Tabs and Notation | A+ | C |
Chord Diagrams | B+ | n/a |
Audio Files | A | n/a |
Instructor Interaction | B | C- |
Guitar Pro Files | n/a | n/a |
Guitar Pro Files | Yes | n/a |
In some videos, Fender Play will provide text and tablature on-screen, though we still wouldn't consider this strictly "supplemental" as it's more so just part of the video.
Justinguitar usually has a written segment, chord diagrams, and tabs to accompany their lessons.
Fender Play usually provides little in terms of supplemental content, outside of a brief written explanation of their lesson.
Song Lessons Section
Justin Sandercoe does a ton of song lessons and - in recent years - has worked them into his organized courses. Fender Play's song lesson section is smaller, but also gets baked into the courses as part of the curriculum. We'd argue that Fender Play provides a good collection and platform for learning songs, but tends to introduce them into their courses too quickly.
| | |
|---|---|---|
Number of Songs | 549 | 150 |
Song Coverage (completeness) | A | C |
Navigation | B+ | C- |
Instructors | A | B- |
Easy Song Versions | Sometimes | Sometimes |
Justin Sandercoe's song teaching method is more effective than the Fender Play instructions. In Fender Play's lessons, they often won't teach the entire song, in favor of highlighting particular parts. If learning songs is a priority for you, Justinguitar has a clear advantage.
Concluding our Justinguitar VS Fender Play Comparison
Aside from Fender clearly having a larger web design budget than Justin Sandercoe, Justinguitar beats Fender Play in nearly every category. While there is some value in Fender Play for beginners, that same value could be found in Justinguitar with far more depth, more resources, and better execution.
And to top it all off, Justinguitar is completely free. It's better and it literally costs you nothing to use.
In fact, we'd recommend most beginners start with Justinguitar's program.
If you work through some material and need more structure, you can upgrade to something like a Guitar Tricks membership. Thus, even in a situation where you're considering a paid guitar lesson program, Fender Play probably shouldn't be the program of choice.
Questions about the Programs
If you have questions about Justinguitar, Fender Play, or another program we recommend, feel free to leave those in the comments section below and I'll do my best to help out.
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I want the comparison based on both apps. Not the website.
Hey Mark – thanks for mentioning this. Perhaps something I can do in future posts. Most of the content here, however, would apply to the apps as well. There isn’t a ton of difference.