Guitar Tricks Alternatives: Better Uses for the Monthly Fee

August 16, 2026by OpenFret Team

Guitar Tricks has been running since the late nineties and it shows in the good way: the library is deep, the beginner path is properly sequenced, and it does not abandon you at the intermediate wall the way shorter courses do. It is also a subscription for thousands of videos, and the uncomfortable truth about that model is how many people pay for a year and watch six lessons.

If you barely watched it

Be honest about this one first, because it is the most common reason people cancel and the least often admitted. A bigger library was never the problem. Attendance was. Nothing about switching platforms fixes a guitar that lives in its case, and a cheaper subscription you also do not open is not a saving.

What does move the needle is making the sessions small and making them count. Our notes on building a practice routine cover the structure, and a practice tracker with a weekly target turns good intentions into a number you cannot argue with.

If you wanted the curriculum without the bill

JustinGuitar covers the same beginner-to-intermediate ground for free and sequences it just as carefully. You give up the production values and the licensed song lessons. You keep the ordering, which was the part actually teaching you. Our 12-lesson beginner series adds playable tab inside the page, and the lead guitar series picks up where beginner material usually stops.

If nothing was checking your playing

Video is one-way. You watch, you copy, and then you are the one who decides whether that counted, which is a job beginners are bad at. Muting, timing, and a barre chord that chokes on the B string all survive a whole course because nobody in the room can hear them.

Guitar Quest is built around that gap. It listens through your microphone, grades the note or chord you played, and will not let you past until it is genuinely there. It teaches the fretboard, scales, modes, and theory as an RPG rather than a lesson list. It costs $30 once once rather than every month. Try the free demo before deciding.

If you wanted the theory to finally click

Theory taught as video is theory you nod along to. Our modes course works through it in order with fretboard diagrams you can click, and the circle of fifths stops being decoration the moment you use it to pick the next chord.

If you want a person

One lesson a month with a local teacher costs less than most annual subscriptions and catches what no library looks at: your right hand, your posture, and the specific reason your playing plateaued. It is the highest-value hour on this page.

Between those hours, the thing that keeps you honest is something that hears the note. Guitar Quest does that. Trying the demo takes a few minutes and settles whether that is what your subscription was missing.

Guitar Tricks alternatives FAQ

Is Guitar Tricks worth the subscription?

If you want a structured path and you actually watch the lessons, it is one of the better-organised libraries in the category. The failure mode is the same as every lesson subscription: people pay for months, watch four videos, and blame themselves rather than the format.

What is the best free alternative to Guitar Tricks?

JustinGuitar, which covers the same beginner-to-intermediate ground for nothing and sequences it just as carefully. You lose the production values and the song library. You keep the curriculum, which was the part doing the work.

Does Guitar Tricks listen to your playing?

No. It is a video lesson library, so nothing reacts to the sound of your guitar. If your problem is that you cannot tell whether you played it right, a bigger video library will not fix it and an app that grades your playing will.

Guitar Tricks or Fender Play?

Guitar Tricks has the deeper catalogue and goes further past beginner. Fender Play is tidier and more approachable early on. Both are video subscriptions with the same blind spot, so if the deciding factor is feedback rather than content, neither one is the answer.