LACE AI Pro Alternatives: What Else Is Out There

Three reasons come up most. The price is steep for one person to cover. Registering through a hearing care provider adds a hoop to jump through. And plenty of people want to try auditory training before putting down $499 to see if it works for them.

All fair. Here is what else is out there.

Hearoes is a game-style auditory training app covering sound awareness, phonetic discrimination, and listening in noise. It works across hearing device brands. The download is free with limited content, and full access is a subscription. Its own surfaces disagree about how many activities it holds, so treat any single count as soft.

It does not have the same depth of published evidence as LACE, and some users report bugs. But for someone who wants a free entry point into auditory training, it is a solid option. Our Hearoes cost page lists what you can play for free and what needs a plan.

CoPilot is free and well-designed, with active listening exercises and real-world practice tips. It is backed by Cochlear's own research.

The limitation is hearing device lock-in. It is only available to people with a Cochlear-brand cochlear implant. If you use a different manufacturer, this is not an option.

eargym offers hearing checks, training games, and progress tracking. It is UK-based and classified as a Class 1 medical device. The free tier gives you a hearing check, with the training and tracking behind the subscription. One App Store reviewer reports having to subscribe before the 7-day free trial would start.

The subscription model and limited free tier frustrate some users. The app has about 10,000 downloads, so the community is small.

SoundSteps takes a different path than LACE. Instead of one broad program, it focuses on guided daily practice with a calmer progression. It starts with a listening check, uses one steady voice first, and builds toward harder real-life listening over time.

It has a free version, works across hearing device brands, and needs no provider registration. Your first 7 days include full access, with no card to start. After that, Premium is $9.99/month or $89.99/year. The trade-off: it is newer, and its research base is still growing.

Angel Sound is a free training tool from the Emily Shannon Fu Foundation, though it has not been updated in years and the interface feels dated. WordSuccess, from Advanced Bionics, offers free word-discrimination practice and works with any brand of hearing device. ReDi from MED-EL is free, actively updated, and open to hearing aid and cochlear implant users alike.

None of these are direct LACE replacements, but each covers part of what LACE does.

If your audiologist includes LACE in your care at no extra cost, it can be worth doing with their guidance. Just know that its published studies come from earlier versions of the program.

If you are paying out of pocket and want to try auditory training first, start with a free option. Use it for a few weeks and see whether structured practice makes a real difference to you, then decide if the $499 is worth it.

Our page on what auditory training costs puts every price above on one list, plus BrainHQ.