Sibelius vs Practice Wheel
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sibelius
Professional music notation software is now available on mobile devices. Create, edit, and hear your compositions anywhere with a full suite of tools optimized for touch and stylus input. Seamlessly sync across platforms and access different feature tiers to suit your needs.
- Professional music notation
- Cross-platform synchronization
- High-quality sample library
- Apple Pencil and touch optimization
- Innovative note entry
- Command Search functionality
- Scalable subscription tiers
Read full descriptionHide full description
Sibelius brings professional music notation to iPad and iPhone, putting the workflows used by countless composers, orchestrators, and arrangers at your fingertips. Seamlessly move between iPad, iPhone and desktop, and from studio to coffeeshop to scoring stage, and write anywhere inspiration strikes. # Work on scores anywhere Sibelius for mobile puts the #1 selling music notation program at your fingertips—literally. Work with the same tools and features used by countless composers and production houses every day on your iPad and iPhone. Whether writing down ideas, creating full-blown compositions, or reviewing scores, you have the freedom to create wherever you’re comfortable. #Take your portfolio to go Forget having to bring and break out your laptop when meeting with clients and collaborators. Instead, you can conveniently take the world’s most powerful notation toolset and your entire music portfolio with you wherever you go—ideal for those unexpected opportunities. And for tandemly working through last-minute revisions. # Hear your music in stunning detail Sibelius includes a high-quality sample library filled with a variety of musical instrumentation, so you can hear what your music will sound like when performed by real musicians. The Espressivo advanced notation interpretation even lets you adjust rhythm and swing to create a more humanistic feel. # Speed your workflow Sibelius for mobile is designed to take full advantage of Apple Pencil and iPad touch capabilities. Its elegant, streamlined interface provides the most intuitive and efficient workflows possible while supporting the same keyboard shortcuts you know and love from working on the desktop version, so you’ll feel right at home. # Get innovative note entry Experience the pen and paper workflow reimagined. Enter notes with the onscreen Keypad or a keyboard, and Sibelius takes care of all note layout. Touch a note and drag up or down to change its value, or drag left or right to add a flat or sharp. With an Apple Pencil, tap a note and tilt up or down to add a flat or sharp, or tilt left or right to choose the note value. # Have everything you need In addition to the Keypad, Sibelius for mobile features a Create menu that’s optimized for iOS, making it easy to add clefs, key signatures, time signatures, barlines, symbols, text styles, and more to your score from searchable galleries. You can also quickly search through all Sibelius commands using the Command Search, putting the entire app at your fingertips. # Move tiers to meet needs Sibelius is designed to grow with you to support your creative aspirations and project needs. From the introductory (and free) Sibelius First to the industry-standard Sibelius Ultimate, you can add more notation capabilities and instrument parts to take on more creative opportunities by simply upgrading your subscription tier. # Have everything on one creative platform Seamlessly move from desktop to tablet and back without ever having to import or export files. That’s because whether on mobile or desktop, you’re always in Sibelius. With files saved to iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or other iOS-supported cloud service, you have easy anywhere access to all your ideas and scores. # Enable a hybrid workflow While Sibelius for mobile is fully featured, providing many of the same tools as its desktop counterpart, there are some notation and layout features only available in the desktop version, making it an integral part of a complete workflow (compare versions). Plus, the mobile version comes free with the desktop version, enabling you to work where and how you want.
Practice Wheel
This app transforms music practice into an engaging experience by letting you build a song library and use a spinning wheel to randomly select what to play. It helps you track your progress, organize music into folders, and includes a metronome and iTunes cleanup tools.
- Random song selection wheel
- Organize songs into folders
- Practice session tracking
- Built-in metronome
- iTunes metadata cleanup
- Customizable themes
- Teacher-student class management
Read full descriptionHide full description
Practice Wheel takes the guesswork out of practice. Build your repertoire, spin the wheel to pick what to play, and watch your progress add up. SPIN THE WHEEL Add your songs, spin, and play. Smart Spin leans toward the songs you've practiced least, so nothing gets forgotten. Spin from all your songs or from a set, like a recital program or your warm-ups. TAKE THE STAGE One tap starts a focused practice session: a timer toward your daily goal, a metronome with tap tempo, a tempo ladder that walks you up to full speed, and a built-in tuner. CHORD CHARTS Keep a chord chart with any song. Transpose it to a new key and let it autoscroll at your tempo while you play. On iPad it sits beside the timer. YOUR JOURNEY Every session is logged with how it felt and your notes. See your streak, a 16-week heatmap, milestones, and semester and year recaps. FRIENDS Share a friend code, cheer each other on, and collect stickers on your weekly cork board. FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS Teachers create classes, share a join code, see each student's week at a glance, and send assignments and encouragement. Class spin picks who plays next and what they play, right in the lesson. Students join with a code and get their assignments in the app. MAKE IT YOURS Let each song's album art color the app, or choose from over a dozen themes, or build your own.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Practice Wheel at 100% against Sibelius's 36%. Practice Wheel also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Sibelius's advantage is ratings volume (1.8K vs 4) and iOS requirement (13.4 vs 17.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Sibelius sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Practice Wheel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Practice Wheel holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sibelius has 1.8K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Sibelius's written reviews are positive against 100% of Practice Wheel's.
Sibelius ships an update every 2 months, Practice Wheel every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 15, 2026.
| Parameter | Sibelius | Practice Wheel |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (1.8K ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.8K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.4 GB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Avid® | Blaine Asbury |
Customer experience
Sibelius
Practice Wheel
Bugs and requests
Sibelius
Reported bugs
4 issues- Scores disappearing or not saving properly
- Subscription issues and inability to log in
- Crashes when performing basic actions
- Compatibility problems with newer iPad OS versions
Requested features
7 requests- Ability to enlarge chord symbols
- More time signature options
- Support for MIDI input
- Better Apple Pencil integration
- Autosave and improved file management
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Export options like MusicXML and PDF
- Customizable shortcuts and toolbars
Practice Wheel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Sibelius
- Sibelius Artist for iOS1 Month trial$5.991 Month
- Sibelius Ultimate for iOS1 Month trial$12.991 Month
Practice Wheel
No in-app purchases









