FingerStyle vs Guitar Notebook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FingerStyle
This app helps guitarists of all levels master songs with tools like daily song additions, tab creation, and YouTube tutorials. It allows users to play along, adjust song speed, loop sections, and save songs for offline practice.
- Daily new songs
- Create guitar tabs
- YouTube tutorials integration
- High-quality song sheets
- Adjust song speed
- Loop song sections
- Offline song playback
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Are you struggling learning guitar? FingerStyle is a must have app for all guitarists. Whether you are a beginner or experienced player. FingerStyle is packed with many tools and features to help you master any guitar song. Features: ▶ New songs added daily ▶ Discover songs ▶ Create guitar tabs ▶ YouTube tutorials ▶ High quality song sheets ▶ Play through songs ▶ Slow down/speed up any guitar song ▶ Loop songs ▶ Save songs to play in offline mode
Guitar Notebook
Organize all your musical creations in one place. Add chords, lyrics, and audio recordings. Import songs from photos using AI. Streamline your songwriting with customizable organization and sharing options.
- Add chords and notes
- Record audio and lyrics
- Import songs from photos with AI
- Organize songs with labels and tags
- Print and share songs as PDFs
- Customizable page styles
- Offline access and cloud sync
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Keep all your songs and ideas together in one place! Add chords, audio recordings, lyrics, and more. Import songs from photos with SongSight AI! Perfect for songwriters and guitarists of any skill or music theory level. ADD CHORDS AND NOTES Use the Chord Keyboard and Automatic Chord Detector to quickly add chords to your song. With the virtual fretboard, you can also just tap to add notes for custom chords or any pattern. Add a capo, create custom tunings, and choose from beautiful page styles for your song. Show your notation as chord diagrams or expandable fretboard diagrams. Display notes on the fretboard as note letters, frets, chord degrees, or fingering. RECORD AUDIO & LYRICS Record your song to capture rhythm and tempo, and add as many recordings to a page as you like. Use the Text Editor to add notes and lyrics. With audio, text, and notation you have everything you need to save and recreate your idea, whether that’s a new song or part of a multi-track GarageBand / DAW project. IMPORT AND ORGANIZE YOUR SONGS Streamline your songwriting workflow with Folders and Tags. Group songs by Writing Phase, Category, Rating, Album, Style, or Instrument. SongSight imports your handwritten notebooks, photos of printed songs, or PDF chord charts, so you can keep all your songs together in one place. PRINT & SHARE Print songs, or save as PDFs to your Files. Share your songs as PDFs via email, text, AirDrop, and more! YOUR SONGS ARE SAFE Guitar Notebook was created by guitarists at SonaMetro. We understand how important your songs are to you. SongSync ensures your songs are private, secure, and available on all your devices using your personal iCloud account. You can even work offline and SongSync will upload any changes to your account when you come back online. GET MORE WITH PRO Get started songwriting with this limited version Guitar Notebook. Upgrade to Guitar Notebook PRO in-app with a Lifetime Buy or Yearly Subscription (your songs will always be there even if you end your subscription) for unlimited songs, pages, recordings, capo, custom tuning, and more. With Universal Purchase, your upgrade works on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. BEAUTIFUL PAGE STYLES • Paper: Crisp white with maple fretboard • Maple: Neutral off-white with maple fretboard • Rosewood: Dark Mode with rosewood fretboard • Blue Steel: Twilight blue with metal fretboard • Dark Studio: Ultra-dim and easy on the eyes during late night sessions • Sunburst: Classic orange sunburst with hardwood fretboard The FREE version of Guitar Notebook gets you started with: • Up to 5 Songs, 1 Page per Song • 1 Audio Recording per Page (up to 1 hour per recording) • Import songs from photos with SongSight AI • Chord Library and Chord Keyboard to easily add chords • Chord Detector helps you figure out what chord your notes are • All Page Styles with Auto Light/Dark Modes • Professional audio monitoring • Custom labels and tags to organize songs • Tap/strum and zoomable fretboard with sound • SongSync between devices • Work Online or Offline • Print, Save, and Share PDFs • Full portrait and landscape mode support Get Guitar Notebook PRO with a Lifetime Upgrade or Yearly Subscription and get all current and future Pro features! • Unlimited Songs and Pages • Unlimited Audio Recordings per Page (up to 1 hour per recording) • SongSight up to 500 photos • Guitar Capo • Custom Tuning with 128 note range • Remove Guitar Notebook header from PDFs • Universal Purchase - Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Family Sharing support (everyone has their own private notebook) Questions? Contact us at support@sonametro.com Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.sonametro.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Guitar Notebook at 4.6 against FingerStyle's 3.7. Guitar Notebook also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months). FingerStyle's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Guitar Notebook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. FingerStyle asks for nothing beyond the download.
Guitar Notebook holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 18 and 30 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of FingerStyle's written reviews are positive against 80% of Guitar Notebook's.
FingerStyle ships an update every 6 months, Guitar Notebook every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FingerStyle | Guitar Notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (18 ratings) | 4.6 (30 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.7% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 30 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 107 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jonathan Kopp | SonaMetro LLC |
Customer experience
FingerStyle
Guitar Notebook
In-app purchases
FingerStyle
No in-app purchases
Guitar Notebook
- Guitar Notebook Pro - 1 Year$4.991 Year
- Guitar Notebook Pro$19.99
Questions
Is FingerStyle free?
Is Guitar Notebook free?
Which has better reviews, FingerStyle or Guitar Notebook?
Do FingerStyle or Guitar Notebook have ads?
Which is updated more often, FingerStyle or Guitar Notebook?
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