Comparison

forScore vs The Score Stack

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

The Score Stack

This app centralizes sheet music, practice tracks, rehearsal schedules, and group chat for choirs and vocal ensembles. Singers can access music offline, customize practice tracks, and directors can manage rehearsals and communicate with their groups.

Highlights
  • Offline sheet music and practice tracks
  • Customizable MIDI practice tracks
  • Learning playlists
  • Director's markings
  • Rehearsal calendar and attendance
  • Group and section messaging
  • Setlists and live program pages
Features
Read full description

Everything your chorus needs, in one app. Sheet music, practice tracks, the rehearsal calendar and the group chat, together on every singer's phone, with music that still opens when the rehearsal room has no signal. MUSIC AND PRACTICE TRACKS Scores and learning tracks in the same place, listed Soprano to Bass, so a singer can read and listen without switching apps. Turn on Offline Music and a group's songs download to your phone. MIDI TRACKS THAT FOLLOW THE SCORE Make your part louder, hear it alone, or leave it out and sing against everyone else, at any speed. The music turns its own pages and keeps the current bar on screen, and you can loop a tricky passage with a bar's run-up. Directors can upload MusicXML scores and the app lines the bars up with the PDF. LEARNING PLAYLISTS Put the songs you are learning, from all your groups, into one queue. Choose the tracks you sing with for each song and mark it ready when you know it. Directors can share a playlist with the whole group and see how ready each section is, song by song. DIRECTOR'S MARKINGS Mark up a score once and push it to the whole section. Everyone rehearses from the same breath marks and cuts. CALENDAR, RSVPS AND ATTENDANCE Rehearsals and performances with RSVPs and attendance check-in, plus a feed your singers can subscribe to in their own calendar app. MESSAGING THAT STAYS Group and section conversations with replies, threads and reactions that do not scroll away, and announcements that reach everyone. SETLISTS AND SHOWTIME Build the setlist for a concert and sing straight through it. Publish a live program page, put its QR code on the printed program, and the audience follows along. FOR BARBERSHOP CHAPTERS A built-in tag library with all four parts recorded, alongside your chapter's sheet music, section tracks and rehearsal schedule. GET YOUR SINGERS IN QUICKLY Share one QR code at rehearsal and the room joins at once, or read out the short join code for anyone who has to install the app first. WHO IT IS FOR Barbershop choruses and quartets, community choirs, church and worship teams, school and college choirs, and small ensembles of every kind. Free for groups of 8 or fewer. No card required.

Screenshots

forScore4 screens
The Score Stack4 screens

Verdict

The call

forScore and The Score Stack both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of The Score Stack's written reviews are positive against 50% of forScore's. The Score Stack also leads on price (Free vs $24.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). forScore's advantage is ratings volume (44K vs 15) and chart position (#13 vs unranked). On rating, 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

The Score Stack is free to download; forScore costs $24.99 up front. forScore sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year. The Score Stack asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Score Stack holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: forScore has 44K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of forScore's written reviews are positive against 100% of The Score Stack's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

forScore ships an update every 9 days, The Score Stack every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
forScore versus The Score Stack: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterforScoreThe Score Stack
Price$24.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (44K ratings)5.0 (15 ratings) — better
Positive reviews49.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings44K — better15
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#13 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB66 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperforScore LLCThe Stack Technologies LLC

Customer experience

forScore

All ratings43,469 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral1.6%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews913 reviews
Positive49.9%
Neutral11.6%
Negative38.4%

The Score Stack

All ratings15 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

The Score Stack

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

The Score Stack

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is forScore free?
forScore costs $24.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is The Score Stack free?
The Score Stack is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, forScore or The Score Stack?
The Score Stack is rated higher. forScore averages 4.8 out of 5 from 44K ratings, while The Score Stack averages 5.0 from 15 ratings.
Do forScore or The Score Stack have ads?
Neither forScore nor The Score Stack shows ads.
Which is updated more often, forScore or The Score Stack?
forScore ships an update every 9 days, and The Score Stack every 2 weeks. Most recently, forScore was updated on November 1, 2026 and The Score Stack on October 30, 2026.

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