Comparison

iWriteMusic SE vs ScoreCloud Express

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

Head to head
About

iWriteMusic SE

Create professional-quality sheet music efficiently, even on small screens. This app offers intuitive interfaces and powerful tools for musicians of all levels, from beginners to professionals. Easily compose, edit, and share your musical ideas.

Highlights
  • Intuitive and simple user interface
  • Highly efficient input systems (One-Flick & Traditional)
  • Professional quality sheet music creation
  • Supports major notation elements
  • Useful playback options for practice
  • Data and sheet music sharing (PDF, JPG, MIDI)
Features
Read full description

Music Writing is easy and fun when you use iWriteMusic! Ever wished you could quickly create sheet music in your small free time? Ever thought smartphones were too small to create sheet music? iWriteMusic enables efficient sheet music creation even on small smartphone screens. Unlike other cramped and cumbersome apps, it is designed meticulously for small screens,comprehensive suite of essential tools for concerts, lessons, and music classes! Best fit for professional musicians, music teachers and students. For songwriters, composers and arrangers. For both singers and instrumentalists (piano, violin, cello, guitar, flute, saxophone, trumpet, drums, etc.). Great for writing down ideas, creating lesson materials, creating lead sheets, or creating scores and parts for chorus groups, choirs, chamber orchestras, jazz bands, Latin bands, orchestras, and more. For daily practice, rehearsals, concerts, iWriteMusic will help you enrich your musical life! Check out 8 reasons to choose iWriteMusic SE (Special Edition) 1. You can understand this app almost instantly! Because of Truly Intuitive and Extremely Simple user interface, you barely need to read pages of manuals nor watching numbers of instruction videos. Unlike Finale, Sibelius and other similar apps, you just have a few things to learn to be able to use this app pretty well. 2.Double your productivity with our Highly Efficient Input System. If you’re already familiar with notation apps and looking for faster & more efficient entry system, try our innovative One-Flick Entry System along with Traditional Entry System to get your job done in no time! What is Traditional Entry System? - The choices will appear with ToolBox. - Select a value and the location separately. - Recommended to those who are not yet familiar with any music notation apps. What is OneFlick Entry System? - The choices will appear when you touch the screen. - Select a location and the value at once. - The selection will change as you slide your finger to left/right. - Recommended to those who are familiar with music notation apps and looking for faster and more efficient entry system. 3. Creates beautiful sheet music - absolutely professional quality! - rich options for page layout adjustment - easy parts creation - easy score/parts management - direct print-out via AirPrint 4. Supports most of major notation elements - multi-track writing - multi-voice writing - percussion/drums notation - chord symbols and lyrics - multi-bar rest - time change - key change - clef change - tempo change - grace note - articulations and dynamics marks - easy song transpose - partial transpose and many more! 5. Useful playback options for practice - mixer with solo, mute and voice select - loop and swing options 6. Data & sheet music sharing - exports/Imports iWriteMusic data file - exports PDF or JPG - exports Standard MIDI file which can be imported by other apps such as GarageBand 7. Extremely Compact Size (15 MB) You can save your device storage space for photos and other apps. 8. Best of all, it's Free! Yes, it's Free and Over 1.4 Million people all over the world has created music with this app family. Let's get started now! Note: This is for iPhone (iPad version sold separately) ATTENTION:  Latency during playback and drawing may occur by device capacity or number of tracks and background applications. Limitations on SE (Special Edition): 1. Water mark appears on page views and printouts. 2. Can’t save more than 5 songs. 3. Can't play more than 30 seconds at a time. 4. Can't import iWriteMusic data file. (export only) 5. Can't export Standard MIDI file.

About

ScoreCloud Express

Transform melodies played, sung, or whistled into standard music notation instantly. Edit your scores, change playback sounds, and share your creations. Synchronize with desktop software for further arrangement and editing.

Highlights
  • Monophonic melody to notation conversion
  • Score editing and playback sound change
  • Cloud storage and synchronization
  • Supports various instruments and styles
  • Share via email, Twitter, Facebook
  • Intelligent audio analysis
Features
Read full description

Straight from musical idea to music notation - wherever you are! • EuroBest 2013 Gold winner for best user experience (UX) • Cannes Lions Gold winner 2013 "Media, Entertainment & Leisure" • Cannes Lions Silver medalist 2013 "Other Technology for Mobile" With this app you can: • Play, sing or whistle any monophonic melody and instantly turn it into music notation. • Edit score and change playback sound. • Share results with your friends and synchronize it with ScoreCloud Studio on your computer in order to arrange or edit it further. Features: • Displays your monophonic input in standard notation. • Intelligent interpretation of pitch, time signature, rhythm & meter, and tempo directly from monophonic audio input. • In-App and cloud-based storage of your songs. • Works with a wide range of musical instruments. • Playback with a number of different sounds or the original recording. • Designed for recording also in noisy environments. • No limitations with regards to musical style – ScoreCloud Express can track composite meters, syncopation, free rhythm etc. • Share your song with your friends by email, Twitter or Facebook (iOS 6 or higher) for anyone to view and listen to in a web browser. • Synchronize your songs with ScoreCloud Studio on your computer in order to edit and arrange them. ScoreCloud Express requires a free account and an Internet connection, since the analysis of your recordings is performed in the cloud.

Screenshots

iWriteMusic SE4 screens
ScoreCloud Express4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: iWriteMusic SE at Free against ScoreCloud Express's $2.99. iWriteMusic SE also leads on rating (4.4 vs 2.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). ScoreCloud Express's advantage is iOS requirement (6.0 vs 16.0). On ratings volume, 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

iWriteMusic SE is free to download; ScoreCloud Express costs $2.99 up front. ScoreCloud Express sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. iWriteMusic SE asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iWriteMusic SE holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 144 and 256 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of iWriteMusic SE's written reviews are positive against 25% of ScoreCloud Express's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 months, ScoreCloud Express every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
iWriteMusic SE versus ScoreCloud Express: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusic SEScoreCloud Express
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.4 (144 ratings) — better2.0 (256 ratings)
Positive reviews56.8% of reviews — better25.3% of reviews
Number of ratings144256 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.06.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectDoReMIR Music Research AB

Customer experience

iWriteMusic SE

All ratings144 ratings
Positive84.7%
Neutral4.9%
Negative10.4%
Written reviews139 reviews
Positive56.8%
Neutral18.0%
Negative25.2%

ScoreCloud Express

All ratings256 ratings
Positive22.7%
Neutral3.5%
Negative73.8%
Written reviews517 reviews
Positive25.3%
Neutral6.4%
Negative68.3%

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 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

ScoreCloud Express

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

iWriteMusic SE

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

ScoreCloud Express

One-time1
  • month of PLUS$4.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic SE free?
iWriteMusic SE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ScoreCloud Express free?
ScoreCloud Express costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic SE or ScoreCloud Express?
iWriteMusic SE is rated higher. iWriteMusic SE averages 4.4 out of 5 from 144 ratings, while ScoreCloud Express averages 2.0 from 256 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic SE or ScoreCloud Express have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic SE nor ScoreCloud Express shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic SE or ScoreCloud Express?
iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 months, and ScoreCloud Express every 4 months. Most recently, iWriteMusic SE was updated on September 20, 2026 and ScoreCloud Express on September 29, 2026.

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