Comparison

forScore vs Fingering XL

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

Head to head
About

forScore

This app digitizes sheet music, offering organization, annotation, and playback tools for musicians. It allows for easy import, library management, and hands-free navigation, enhancing the performance experience.

Highlights
  • PDF sheet music reading
  • Cloud sync and import
  • Library organization and search
  • Annotation tools
  • Hands-free page turning
  • Integrated metronome and tuner
Features
Read full description

Go paperless. Get organized. Download and play something new in seconds. With forScore for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS, your scores have never been better—it’s everything you can do with paper and so much more. As seen in Apple keynote addresses and retail stores worldwide! On your music stand or on the go, it's the complete PDF sheet music reading experience that has wowed musicians all over the world for years: CONNECT • Copy PDFs from other apps like Safari and Mail and sync them to all of your devices with iCloud • Import scores from popular cloud storage services and content providers like Musicnotes.com • Share scores and setlists with colleagues, whether or not they use forScore ORGANIZE • Add metadata to your scores for a perfectly browsable, instantly searchable library • Create smart bookmarks to manage longer files containing multiple parts or pieces • Group scores manually with Setlists to play through them from start to finish PLAY • View full pages in portrait orientation and crop them to better fit your device's screen • Turn your device sideways for bigger scrolling pages or view two pages side by side instead • Use Reflow on smaller screens to lay out systems of music end-to-end like a horizontal teleprompter REFINE • Annotate by drawing, typing text, or placing common symbols onto the page • Separate your annotations into layers and show or hide them at any time • Open scores and setlists in multiple windows or tabs to multitask with ease SIMPLIFY • Create links and buttons to handle repeats or perform common actions with a single tap • Rearrange and duplicate pages of a score to play without jumping back and forth • Connect your Bluetooth page turner for hands-free navigation EXTEND • Access integrated utilities like our metronome, pitch pipe, tuner, and piano keyboard • Link tracks to scores to loop regions, adjust pitch, and even use them to record and play back your page turns • Connect wirelessly to nearby devices and coordinate your page turns and program changes effortlessly There's much more than those highlights, though, so be sure to visit forscore.co to learn all about forScore's incredible features and find out why so many musicians agree that forScore is simply the best! Note: forScore also offers an optional, annual auto-renewing subscription called forScore Pro that unlocks additional features and content (visit forScore.co/pro for complete details). forScore Pro is a 1-year subscription that renews automatically until canceled. Should you choose to subscribe, payment will be charged to your iTunes Account upon confirmation of purchase. Your subscription will then automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage your subscriptions in your iTunes Account Settings after purchase. Complete terms of service are available on our website at: forScore.co/terms-of-serviceGo paperless.

About

Fingering XL

Access interactive fingering charts for a wide range of woodwind and brass instruments, including alternate fingerings and trills. Features a piano interface to display note names, locations, and musical notation for up to 8 pitches.

Highlights
  • Interactive fingering charts for woodwinds and brass
  • Alternate fingerings and trill fingerings
  • Piano interface with note names and notation
  • Supports multiple clefs for various instruments
  • Transposition for instrumental notation
  • Visual guides for key names and locations
Read full description

“This is a must have app for every music teacher, students and enthusiast.” Immediate access to fingerings (with alternates and trills) for each instrument’s entire playable range. Get fingerings from the written or concert pitch. Support for Key Signatures to more easily find a fingering in the music you're working on. Woodwinds: Piccolo, Concert, Alto and Bass Flutes, Oboe and Cor Anglais, Soprano, Alto, Bass and Contrabass Clarinets, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones Brass: F/Bb Double French Horn, A, Bb, C and D Trumpets (Cornet, Flugelhorn), Bb/F Tenorbass and Bb/F/Gb/D Bass Trombones, Euphonium and Baritone, BBb, CC, Eb and F Tubas The 'Piano' instrument displays the note names, the locations on the piano, and the musical notations of up to 8 pitches in either Treble, Alto, Tenor or Bass clef. The Notation can be transposed for most all instrumental transpositions. • All woodwinds have trill fingerings for minor 2nd and major 2nd intervals. • Flutes and Saxophones have additional fingerings for minor 3rd and major 3rd trills. • Alto and Tenor Sax include altissimo fingerings up to written F, two octaves above the top line F of the treble clef. • All Woodwinds include visual guides to the key names and locations on the instrument to understand the fingering charts better. • Trombones include position guides for the different valve combinations. Common Clefs for Select Instruments: • Bassoon and Contrabassoon include Treble, Tenor and Bass clefs. • Bb/F Tenorbass Trombone, Bb/F/Gb/D Bass Trombone, Euphonium and Baritone include Treble, Tenor and Bass clefs. • F/Bb Double French Horn, BBb Tuba, CC Tuba, Eb Tuba, and F Tuba include Treble and Bass clefs. Treble clef on the brass instruments follow British Band tradition of being in transposing notation for non-transposing instruments. Affects Bb/F Tenorbass and Bb/F/Gb/D Bass Trombones, Euphonium, Baritone, and BBb, Eb and F Tubas. How to Use: Pick a written note (touch the staff) and have the fingering displayed and concert pitch played on the piano. Play a concert pitch on the piano, and have that pitch's fingering displayed and the transposed note written on the staff. • If there are alternate fingerings available for a note or trill, a button will allow you to navigate through them. • Use the 'Play Note' or 'Play Trill' button to repeatedly hear what's being displayed. • Use the mute button to access the fingerings without hearing the pitches. Selecting a Pitch: Using the Staff (transposed for the current instrument): Simply touch and slide up and down on the staff to select the note, slide to the right or left of the note for sharps and flats. Using the Piano (concert pitch): drag in the area below the keyboard to move the keyboard, touch to play notes, touch & slide to change the pitch. When you glissando up the keyboard, notes will be notated as a raised value (sharps), when you glissando down, notes will be notated as lowered values (flats). Use the up and down arrows to move chromatically up and down without touching the music staff or piano keyboard.

Screenshots

forScore4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Fingering XL at $4.99 against forScore's $24.99. Fingering XL also leads on review sentiment (88% vs 50%) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). forScore's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 16 months) and ratings volume (43K vs 22). On rating 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

forScore costs $24.99 and Fingering XL $4.99 up front. forScore sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year. Fingering XL asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for forScore against 4.7 for Fingering XL. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: forScore has 43K ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 50% of forScore's written reviews are positive against 88% of Fingering XL's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

forScore ships an update every 9 days, Fingering XL every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
forScore versus Fingering XL: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterforScoreFingering XL
Price$24.99$4.99 — better
Rating4.8 (43K ratings) — better4.7 (22 ratings)
Positive reviews49.8% of reviews88.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings43K — better22
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#10 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB172 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperforScore LLCPatrick Q. Kelly

Customer experience

forScore

All ratings43,219 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral1.6%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews905 reviews
Positive49.8%
Neutral11.7%
Negative38.5%

Fingering XL

All ratings22 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive88.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.8%

Bugs and requests

forScore

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Disappearing annotations
  • Unreliable page turning
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Unresponsive touch controls

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to cut and paste sections of scores
  • More flexible page turning controls
  • Customizable metronome
  • Improved backup and restore functionality
  • Easier sharing of annotated scores

Fingering XL

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

forScore

Subscriptions1
  • forScore Pro$14.991 Year
One-time9
  • Brahms: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Haydn: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Händel: The Mutopia CollectionFree
Show 6 more
  • Liszt: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Satie: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Schumann: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Tchaikovsky: The Mutopia CollectionFree
  • Beethoven: The Mutopia Collection$0.99
  • forScore Pro 30-Day Pass$2.99
None

Fingering XL

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is forScore free?
forScore costs $24.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Fingering XL free?
Fingering XL costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, forScore or Fingering XL?
forScore is rated higher. forScore averages 4.8 out of 5 from 43K ratings, while Fingering XL averages 4.7 from 22 ratings.
Do forScore or Fingering XL have ads?
Neither forScore nor Fingering XL shows ads.
Which is updated more often, forScore or Fingering XL?
forScore ships an update every 9 days, and Fingering XL every 16 months. Most recently, forScore was updated on October 26, 2026 and Fingering XL on October 3, 2026.

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