Comparison

Ukulele Notepad vs Tab Buddy

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

Head to head
About

Ukulele Notepad

This app allows ukulele players to quickly create, edit, and share song ideas using a touch-friendly tab editor. It supports custom tunings, various musical techniques, and offers cloud saving and PDF export options.

Highlights
  • Create and edit ukulele tabs
  • Custom tunings and string support
  • Add chords, lyrics, and performance notes
  • Cloud saving and email sharing
  • Export to PDF or text
  • Autoscroll for playback
  • Left-handed view option
Features
Read full description

Ukulele Notepad helps you easily and quickly jot down song ideas in guitar tab, save them to the cloud and email them to band mates. I created this app as I found that when playing around with ideas on my own, or after a jam session, I was still using paper to jot down ideas. I have tried some of the other tab writing apps out there but none of them used the touch screen like a guitar fret board which really speeds things up. I'm keen to make this app as useful as possible so please feel free to contact me if you want any new features added. Create and Edit Tab: - Edit song details like title, artist, transcribed by and tempo - Add time signatures, lyrics and performance notes - Add chords, strum patterns and lyrics above your tabbed notes (no other apps I've seen support this!) - Add any number of strings and custom tunings including 4,5,6 and 7 string guitars/bass guitars - Use touch screen to quickly add notes with a single tap - Choose from common chord patterns to save time - Add techniques likes slides, hammer ons, pull offs muted notes, harmonics, tremolo, vibrato, ghosts/ties, tapping and more - Backspace as well as delete button for faster editing - Cut, copy and paste sections of tab, even between different songs - Undo button - the last 10 actions are recorded and can be undone - Continuous chord mode - saves having to perform an extra tap to start adding chords - Option to view notes on the fret board - Supports repeated bar notation - Tab Playback (no note modulation for now) - Can change guitar neck to left handed view - Supports note lengths from whole notes to 1/64, dotted notes and triplets - Add a capo View, Export and Share: - Export to PDF or text - Transpose songs up and down - Organize songs by artists or use tags to create albums and setlists - Use autoscroll to view tabs and play along - Layout optimised for both tablets and phones - Zoom in and out depending on your screen size - Print from device - Save songs to file in your cloud storage like Dropbox, or export via email. - Ability to perform a full backup and restore - useful if you are switching devices - Import songs shared from other people's Guitar Notepad apps - View and search through your songs by title, artist name or last modified time

About

Tab Buddy

This app helps musicians practice songs by displaying text-based or PDF tab files. Users can adjust scrolling speed, zoom, and font size for an optimal practice experience. It supports various instruments and offers a clean interface for easy file import and playback.

Highlights
  • Open .txt or .pdf tab files
  • Adjustable scroll speed
  • Pinch-to-zoom for font size
  • Clean, easy-to-read interface
  • Simple file importer
  • Support for monospaced text and PDF
Features
Read full description

Tab Buddy makes practicing your favorite songs easier than ever. Open text-based or PDF tab files, set your ideal scrolling speed, and focus on playing. Whether you're practicing guitar, bass, or other instruments, Tab Buddy keeps your sheet music moving smoothly in front of you. Features: - Open .txt or .pdf tab files instantly - Adjustable scroll speed for perfect practice tempo - Pinch-to-zoom to adjust font size dynamically - Clean, easy-to-read interface - Simple file importer — pick and play - Support for both monospaced text tabs and PDF sheet music - Designed for both iPhone and iPad

Screenshots

Ukulele Notepad4 screens
Tab Buddy2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Tab Buddy at 100% against Ukulele Notepad's 52%. Tab Buddy also leads on price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (5.0 vs 3.5). Ukulele Notepad's advantage is ratings volume (20 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Tab Buddy is free to download; Ukulele Notepad costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tab Buddy holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ukulele Notepad has 20 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Ukulele Notepad's written reviews are positive against 100% of Tab Buddy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ukulele Notepad ships an update every 2 months, Tab Buddy every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Ukulele Notepad versus Tab Buddy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUkulele NotepadTab Buddy
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (20 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews52.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings20 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCodefadGamic Arts LLC

Customer experience

Ukulele Notepad

All ratings20 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative30.0%
Written reviews21 reviews
Positive52.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative47.6%

Tab Buddy

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Ukulele Notepad

No in-app purchases

None

Tab Buddy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ukulele Notepad free?
Ukulele Notepad costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tab Buddy free?
Tab Buddy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Ukulele Notepad or Tab Buddy?
Tab Buddy is rated higher. Ukulele Notepad averages 3.5 out of 5 from 20 ratings, while Tab Buddy averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Ukulele Notepad or Tab Buddy have ads?
Neither Ukulele Notepad nor Tab Buddy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ukulele Notepad or Tab Buddy?
Ukulele Notepad ships an update every 2 months, and Tab Buddy every 3 months. Most recently, Ukulele Notepad was updated on October 1, 2026 and Tab Buddy on October 2, 2026.

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