Comparison

Square Note vs Cedar

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

Head to head
About

Square Note

Access a vast library of Gregorian Chant scores with over 800 unique chants. Learn to read square note notation and hear melodies with adjustable speed and pitch. Ideal for choirs, scholas, or personal study.

Highlights
  • Extensive library of Gregorian Chant scores
  • Learn square note notation
  • Adjustable melody playback (speed, pitch)
  • Customizable chant viewing settings
  • Bookmark favorite chants
  • Search by name or full text
  • Includes Mass Propers, Commons, and Kyriale
Features
Read full description

Gregorian Chant for the Masses! Square Note puts a huge library of Gregorian Chant scores—over 800 unique chants and counting—right at your fingertips. Always wanted to learn how to read square note notation? Always wanted to have the amazing Gregorian Chants of the Catholic Church on your iPhone and iPad? Square Note brings the ancient music of the Church to your mobile devices, ready for you to utilize in your schola, your choir, or your home. * Beautifully rendered chant that automatically formats itself to fit nicely on your screen. * Hear the melodies of the chants, adjusting speed and pitch, to learn how the chants are sung. * Easily adjust chant viewing settings, including zooming in, zooming out, and toggling certain chant markings. * Bookmark your favorite chants or the ones you'll be practicing in your schola. * Search and find chants by name or even by searching through the full text of the chant. * Automatically include Gloria Patri paradigms to your Introit and Communion antiphons. CURRENT CHANTS: Mass Propers for the Proper of Seasons (Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form); some propers for major Feasts and Solemnities; most commons for both the OF and EF; Latin Kyriale, including all traditional 18 Masses and 6 Creeds; some Marian antiphons (simple and solemn forms) and a smattering of other antiphons and hymns. More chants to come--let us know what you'd like to see included!

About

Cedar

This app helps traditional Catholics establish daily prayer, fasting, and discipline. It offers pre-built and custom routines with streak tracking and reminders. An optional subscription unlocks advanced analytics and more custom routine options.

Highlights
  • Daily, weekly, and monthly routine creation
  • Pre-built Catholic devotions
  • Streak tracking and history statistics
  • Custom routine creation with encrypted text
  • Prayer catalogue and favorites
  • Missed-routine grace periods (subscription)
  • Detailed completion insights (subscription)
Features
Read full description

Cedar is a simple and focused routine tracker for traditional Catholics who want to bring Catholic prayer, fasting, and discipline into everyday life. There are no complex menus or cluttered screens. View all your day's routines and mark them complete directly from the home screen. Create daily, weekly, or monthly routines, build streaks through consistent completion, and review your history through detailed statistics. Each routine follows its own schedule, so your streak reflects whether you completed it by its due date, not simply whether you opened the app that day. FREE FEATURES • Create daily, weekly, and monthly routines • Use pre-built routines for common Catholic devotions such as First Fridays, First Saturdays, and Friday penance • Track routine completions and build streaks over time • Set reminders to help you remain consistent • Create custom routines with your own prayers, tasks, and activities (all user-entered text is encrypted) • View prayer catalogue and save favorite prayers • A clean, familiar design to make viewing and completing your routines effortless BUILT-IN CATHOLIC ROUTINES Cedar includes special routine types for Catholic practices and devotions, including: • First Fridays • First Saturdays • Weekly Friday Penance • Ember Days • Monthly Confession • Stations of the Cross CEDAR RULE Upgrade to Cedar Rule for additional tools designed to support a more thorough analysis of your prayer discipline: • View detailed completion history, trends, and growth insights • Create up to 25 custom routines • Add private encrypted notes to routines and individual routine items • Use missed-routine grace periods to record a routine shortly after its deadline and preserve a streak when you completed it but forgot to mark it on time. Grace periods give you a limited window to record a routine you completed but forgot to mark on time. Because completions cannot be added indefinitely after the fact, your streak remains a meaningful reflection of your actual consistency.. Cedar Rule is available as a monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscription. Pricing is shown in the app before purchase. PRIVACY Cedar does not store your email address, name, IP address, or any other personally identifying information. Any text you manually enter in Cedar, such as custom routine names, routine items, and notes, is end-to-end encrypted on your device before it is sent to our servers using AES-256-GCM encryption. Only your device holds the decryption key. Cedar’s servers cannot read or decrypt your personal text. Operational data needed for the app to function, such as routine type, dates, completion status, and internal identifiers, is not end-to-end encrypted. Terms of Use License Agreement: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula Privacy Policy: https://cedar.baanmagnificatapps.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Square Note4 screens
Cedar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Square Note at none against Cedar's 2. Square Note also leads on ratings volume (70 vs 2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). Cedar's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, ads 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

Both are free to download. Cedar sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Square Note asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cedar holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Square Note has 70 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Square Note ships an update every 4 weeks, Cedar fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Square Note versus Cedar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSquare NoteCedar
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (70 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews92.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings70 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOblates of St. JosephBaan Magnificat Apps LLC

Customer experience

Square Note

All ratings67 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral6.0%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews54 reviews
Positive92.6%
Neutral5.6%
Negative1.9%

Cedar

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Square Note

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Cannot get music to play on iPhone
  • Playback won't work after iOS 14 update
  • Sundays of paschaltide enumerated differently in OF & EF

Requested features

25 requests
  • Add liturgical calendar for 1962 missal
  • Add traditional nuptial propers (deus Israel)
  • Include psalm tones for singing psalms
  • Add common chants of the Divine Office
  • Add different tones of the Te Lucis hymn
Show 20 more
  • Add the antiennes des Vêpres
  • Include parts of the Divine office (e.g., compline)
  • Add the Exultet
  • Add chants from the breviary (Roman Breviary hymns)
  • Add Mass XVIIII and Feast of All Saints Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion
  • Add the Benedicamus Domino for Masses
  • Separate Marian antiphons from other Marian chants
  • Add a keyboard for playing notes
  • Add the Jubilate Deo sequence (beginners compilation)
  • Provide alternate chant sounds
  • Allow transposition into other octaves
  • Include English translations of each chant
  • Add sung chants, not just notes
  • Offer a crisper sound option for chant tone
  • Provide a choice of different types of chant tones
  • Add notation for punctums or scalici
  • Add notation for the Exultet
  • Add notation for breviary hymns
  • Add notation for Mass XVIIII and Feast of All Saints
  • Add notation for Benedicamus Domino

Cedar

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Square Note

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Cedar

Subscriptions2
  • Cedar Rule Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Cedar Rule Yearly$12.991 Year

Questions

Is Square Note free?
Square Note is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cedar free?
Cedar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Square Note or Cedar?
Cedar is rated higher. Square Note averages 4.7 out of 5 from 70 ratings, while Cedar averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Square Note or Cedar have ads?
Neither Square Note nor Cedar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Square Note or Cedar?
Square Note ships an update every 4 weeks, and Cedar fortnightly. Most recently, Square Note was updated on November 2, 2026 and Cedar on October 31, 2026.

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