iWriteMusic SE vs Composer Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
iWriteMusic SE
Create professional music notation quickly and easily. Features fast note entry, extensive notation options, and playback for checking your work. Turn your musical ideas into finished scores without a steep learning curve.
- Fast note entry
- Extensive notation options
- Scores and individual parts
- Flexible page layouts
- Playback for checking and practice
- Intuitive controls
Read full descriptionHide full description
Less learning. More music. Professional notation without the lengthy learning process. Fast note entry with OneFlick, extensive notation options, scores and individual parts, flexible page layouts, and playback for checking and practice. With clear, intuitive controls, iWriteMusic helps you turn inspiration into finished notation. If you’re getting started with iWriteMusic, we recommend the integrated version. The integrated version is free to download, with features available through one-time in-app purchases. Future new features will also be offered in the integrated version. This SE version remains available to support existing users. For the time being, it will continue to receive bug fixes and OS compatibility updates, but it will not receive new features or support in-app purchases. Limits on the number of saved songs and playback duration, along with watermarks, apply.
Composer Pro
Compose music scores with ease using a familiar keyboard layout. This app supports multiple parts, a wide range of instruments, and various musical symbols, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced musicians.
- Keyboard-style note input
- Support for up to 8 parts
- Over 100 instruments
- Variety of music symbols
- Configurable parts and settings
- Instrument transposition
- Export without watermark
Read full descriptionHide full description
A handy sheet music writer app, make writing sheet music feels like typing notes. Tap on the keys with notation in a familiar keyboard layout. Provide a very easy way to compose music score. Support up to 8 parts, over 100 instruments, variety of music symbols and notations. It is very friendly for rookies while professional enough for experts. --------------------------------- UNLIMITED ACCESS SUBSCRIPTION - Support up to 8 parts - Config parts(add, delete, reorder) - Change key for each part - Change beat type and tempo - Config clef for each staff - Config sound for each part - No watermark image export - No Ads - Support 2nd voice part - Transpose instruments - Change keyboard size - Import data file - Unlock all 100+ instruments - The subscriptions are $9.99 monthly and $49.99 yearly with free trial - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period - Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that service, where applicable - Terms of use: https://service.notationpad.com/terms_service.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iWriteMusic SE at none against Composer Pro's 4. iWriteMusic SE also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Composer Pro's advantage is review sentiment (72% vs 57%) and ratings volume (697 vs 148). On price, rating, ads and iOS requirement 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. Composer Pro sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. iWriteMusic SE asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for iWriteMusic SE against 4.5 for Composer Pro. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 148 and 697 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of iWriteMusic SE's written reviews are positive against 72% of Composer Pro's.
iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 weeks, Composer Pro every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic SE | Composer Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (148 ratings) | 4.5 (697 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 56.8% of reviews | 71.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 148 | 697 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 161 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | 嵩 张 |
Customer experience
iWriteMusic SE
Composer Pro
User reviews
iWriteMusic SE
From 148 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎼 Comprehensive notation tools and features
- 👍 Intuitive interface for music composition
- 🎵 Wide range of instruments available
- 💾 Easy saving and exporting to PDF
- 🎹 Playback functionality for reviewing compositions
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 😤 Difficult and unintuitive note input
- 🔧 Poor user interface design
- 📖 Confusing and poorly organized help documentation
- ⚠️ Inaccurate instrument sound playback
Composer Pro
From 697 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 🎼 Helpful for composing music
- 🎹 Good for beginners
- 💡 Allows creating sheet music
Room to improve
- 💰 Subscription model too expensive
- 🔒 Limited features in free version
- 📢 Too many ads
- 🐛 Bugs and glitches
- 🔒 Forced to pay for basic functionality
Bugs and requests
iWriteMusic SE
Reported bugs
20 issues- App crashes when adding rests at beginning of measure
- App crashes when adding/removing notation
- App freezes when entering notes on certain pitches
- App randomly quits during composition
- Note placement inaccuracy on iPhone with retina display
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Notes appear in wrong location despite correct placement
- Playback cuts off after 30 seconds
- Playback audio not working despite phone not being muted
- Incorrect note playback (different octave than entered)
- Lyric input not functioning
- Crashes after large file operations
- Data loss when closing without saving
- Crashes when using multiple staves
- Crashes during save operation
- Crashes when reinstalling after purchase
- Watermark reappears after reinstall
- App becomes laggy over time
- Staccatos, crescendos, and accents not played back
- Ritards and accelerandos ignored in playback
- Trill notation not functioning properly
Requested features
20 requests- Auto-save functionality
- MusicXML file transfer support
- Guitar tablature (TAB) notation
- Ability to change time signature mid-composition
- Better grace note controls
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Slur and tie playback support
- Crescendo and diminuendo playback
- More instrument templates (duets, trios)
- Audio sharing/export capability
- Arpeggio playback support
- Individual grace note value assignment
- Pianissimo (ppp) dynamic marking
- Bracket notation for grouped instruments
- More percussion instruments (Baritone, Euphonium, Mellophone)
- Text formatting (bold, italic)
- Customizable bottom navigation bar
- iPad-native version
- MIDI export to Logic Pro and Sibelius
- Searchable help guide with index
- Ability to extend bar lines across measures
Composer Pro
Reported bugs
3 issues- Notes sometimes placed incorrectly
- Measures and compositions randomly deleted
- Inability to restore deleted content
Requested features
5 requests- Add more instruments beyond piano
- Allow changing time signatures and key signatures without subscription
- Improve note editing and placement
- Add export options to save/share compositions
- Provide more music notation tools and dynamics
In-app purchases
iWriteMusic SE
No in-app purchases
Composer Pro
- Unlimited Access$6.997 Days
- Pro Access$9.991 Month
- Pro Access$49.991 Year
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Pro Access7 Days trial$49.991 Year
