Comparison

Composer's Sketchpad Lite vs Composer Pro

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Composer's Sketchpad Lite

Easily capture musical ideas with a visual interface. Draw melodies and rhythms with flexible notes, then hear them played back with over 100 instruments. Export your creations in various formats.

Highlights
  • Visual music sketching canvas
  • Flexible note drawing
  • Over 100 instruments
  • AAC and MIDI export
  • Apple Pencil support
Features
Read full description

Recent winner of the Children's Technology Review EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD! Jot down musical ideas with your fingers or the Apple Pencil and hear them come to life! Composer's Sketchpad lets you create music in a visual and intuitive way, minimizing the time and effort needed to invent new melodies, fiddle with musical experiments, or simply give life to the sounds rattling around inside your head. The notes you draw in Composer's Sketchpad have no limits on meter or pitch: sketch out bendy guitar solos and mind-boggling rhythms with almost no effort — or snap to the grid if you want to play it safe. No matter how fancy you get, there's no tangle of knobs or controls to get in your way. It's what sheet music always wanted to be! STELLAR FEATURES: - A massive, easily-navigable canvas to sketch your music onto. - Flexible notes that allow you to represent almost any kind of music. - Frictionless controls that let you to draw, edit, and play your music without delay. - Over 100 instruments and a percussion set available to use. - Several export options (including AAC and MIDI) for your compositions. - Support for the Apple Pencil and iOS 9 multitasking.

About

Composer Pro

Compose music scores with ease using a familiar keyboard layout. This app supports multiple parts, a wide range of instruments, and various musical symbols, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians.

Highlights
  • Keyboard-style note input
  • Support for up to 8 parts
  • Over 100 instruments
  • Variety of music symbols
  • Configurable parts and settings
  • Instrument transposition
  • Export without watermark
Features
Read full description

A handy sheet music writer app, make writing sheet music feels like typing notes. Tap on the keys with notation in a familiar keyboard layout. Provide a very easy way to compose music score. Support up to 8 parts, over 100 instruments, variety of music symbols and notations. It is very friendly for rookies while professional enough for experts. --------------------------------- UNLIMITED ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION - Support up to 8 parts - Config parts(add, delete, reorder) - Change key for each part - Change beat type and tempo - Config clef for each staff - Config sound for each part - No watermark image export - No Ads - Support 2nd voice part - Transpose instruments - Change keyboard size - Import data file - Unlock all 100+ instruments - The subscriptions are $9.99 monthly and $49.99 yearly with free trial - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period - Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that service, where applicable - Terms of use: https://service.notationpad.com/terms_service.html

Screenshots

Composer Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Composer Pro at 72% against Composer's Sketchpad Lite's 20%. Composer Pro also leads on rating (4.5 vs 2.4) and ratings volume (672 vs 5). Composer's Sketchpad Lite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (8.2 vs 13.0). On price, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Composer Pro sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. Composer's Sketchpad Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Composer Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Composer Pro has 672 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 20% of Composer's Sketchpad Lite's written reviews are positive against 72% of Composer Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Composer's Sketchpad Lite ships an update every 2 months, Composer Pro every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Composer's Sketchpad Lite versus Composer Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterComposer's Sketchpad LiteComposer Pro
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.4 (5 ratings)4.5 (672 ratings) — better
Positive reviews20.0% of reviews72.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5672 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS8.2 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size168 MB154 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlexei Baboulevitch嵩 张

Customer experience

Composer's Sketchpad Lite

All ratings5 ratings
Positive40.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative60.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative60.0%

Composer Pro

All ratings672 ratings
Positive86.6%
Neutral5.7%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews257 reviews
Positive72.0%
Neutral7.8%
Negative20.2%

Bugs and requests

Composer's Sketchpad Lite

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Composer Pro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Notes sometimes placed incorrectly
  • Measures and compositions randomly deleted
  • Inability to restore deleted content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more instruments beyond piano
  • Allow changing time signatures and key signatures without subscription
  • Improve note editing and placement
  • Add export options to save/share compositions
  • Provide more music notation tools and dynamics

In-app purchases

None

Composer's Sketchpad Lite

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Composer Pro

Subscriptions4
  • Unlimited Access$6.997 Days
  • Pro Access$9.991 Month
  • Pro Access$49.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro Access7 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Composer's Sketchpad Lite free?
Composer's Sketchpad Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Composer Pro free?
Composer Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Composer's Sketchpad Lite or Composer Pro?
Composer Pro is rated higher. Composer's Sketchpad Lite averages 2.4 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Composer Pro averages 4.5 from 672 ratings.
Do Composer's Sketchpad Lite or Composer Pro have ads?
Neither Composer's Sketchpad Lite nor Composer Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Composer's Sketchpad Lite or Composer Pro?
Composer's Sketchpad Lite ships an update every 2 months, and Composer Pro every 6 weeks. Most recently, Composer's Sketchpad Lite was updated on June 1, 2026 and Composer Pro on September 26, 2026.

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