freetar - an open source alternative front-end to ultimate-guitar.com

May 30, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

This is like Invidious but only for Ultimate Guitar.

Instances

Features

  • no ads, popups, AI, blockchain. Just a simple design
  • search for tabs and view them
  • save your favorite chords as favs (everything is stored in session storage (not send to the server), no account needed)
  • dark mode
  • auto scroll
  • useful for printing chords
  • show chords
  • prvent screen from turning off (using WakeLock API)

How to use it

After successful installation, there is an executable called freetar in the PATH. Execute it without parameters and it listens on 0.0.0.0:22000. You can specify a custom listen host or port by using environment variables.

Environment variables

  • FREETAR_HOST
  • FREETAR_PORT
  • FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT (how log should tabs be cached in memory, reduces the requests to Ultimate Guitar, defaults to 0 (inifnity))

PyPi
Package: https://pypi.org/project/freetar/

pip install freetar

Docker
Image: https://hub.docker.com/r/kmille2/freetar
Port: 22000

sudo docker pull kmille2/freetar
sudo docker run -p 127.0.0.1:22000:22000 kmille2/freetar

Or use Docker compose:

sudo docker compose up -d

Set a custom bind port with the environment variable FREETAR_PORT

You can also build and run the local repository instead of pulling from Docker Hub:

docker compose build
docker compose up -d

Dev environment

You need uv. Then:

FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT=1 uv run freetar/backend.py
vim freetar/*.py
Visit localhost:22000 in browser

# static files: freetar/static/*
# html templates: freetar/templates/*
FREETAR_CACHE_TIMEOUT=1 uv run freetar

Future work

  • improve UX on mobile devices
  • package it as PGA (Progressive Web App)
  • share chords (qr code)? (done by #12 with export/import functionality)
  • save favs encrypted server side?
  • Browser Extension like Invidious Redirection (done)
  • show qr code to quickly share a tab?

Contributions

Feel free to contribute, but please create an issue before with a proposal of the feature. I don't want freetar to be bloated (neither UI nor functionality).