iWriteMusic SE vs Prelude
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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)
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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.
Prelude
Create and edit sheet music on your iPhone or iPad with a redesigned, modern interface. This intuitive score editor allows for quick composition anytime, anywhere.
- Score editor
- Sheet music viewer
- Create custom scores
- Intuitive interface
- Mobile composition
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** In version 3.0 of Prelude the app has been completely redesigned. Now better and more modern, Prelude will give you a completely new experience! ** Prelude is a score editor that allows you to create your own scores the way you want. Developed especially for iPhones and iPads, it has a simple and intuitive interface, allowing you to write your scores quickly. With Prelude you can compose anytime, anywhere.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: iWriteMusic SE at 4.4 against Prelude's 3.0. iWriteMusic SE also leads on review sentiment (57% vs 17%) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Prelude's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 5 weeks) and device support (3 vs 1). On price 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
Both are free to download. Prelude sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. iWriteMusic SE asks for nothing beyond the download.
iWriteMusic SE holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iWriteMusic SE has 148 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of iWriteMusic SE's written reviews are positive against 17% of Prelude's.
iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 5 weeks, Prelude every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic SE | Prelude |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (148 ratings) — better | 3.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 56.8% of reviews — better | 17.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 148 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | Felipe Braunger Valio Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda |
Customer experience
iWriteMusic SE
Prelude
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
Prelude
From 4 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Simple interface
- 💡 Good for basic notation
- 💡 Potential for improvement
- 💡 Useful for teaching
- 💡 Easy to write notes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bugs and crashes
- 🐛 Incorrect playback
- 🐛 Difficult editing
- 🐛 Limited features
- 🐛 Unintuitive controls
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
Prelude
Reported bugs
70 issues- App crashes frequently
- Playback is incorrect (wrong notes, wrong rhythms)
- Notes don't line up correctly
- Accidentals are placed incorrectly
- Key signatures are incorrect
Show 65 moreShow fewer
- Cannot delete notes
- Paid version has issues
- Instruments sound out of tune
- Notes switch octaves unexpectedly
- Timing is not respected
- App freezes or becomes unresponsive
- Save function is unreliable
- Touch controls are difficult and inaccurate
- App closes automatically on playback
- Notes don't play back at the correct pitch
- Notes don't play back with the correct duration
- Measures have incorrect beat capacity
- Notes are placed on top of bar lines
- App doesn't adjust for note types
- Sound takes forever to load or doesn't work
- Notes don't stick when trying to place them
- Cannot get notes below middle C in treble clef
- App deleted saved work
- Cannot drag notes to the stave
- Playback doesn't play treble and bass together
- App doesn't recognize accidentals
- Cannot change keys
- Notes don't sound properly
- App doesn't play the right notes
- Note values on playback are incorrect
- Soft and loud symbols appear in the wrong place
- Sharps are in the wrong areas
- Difficult to move notes
- Key signatures don't work properly
- Adding accidentals individually doesn't work
- App doesn't adjust for note types
- App doesn't play back compositions in the free version
- App doesn't beam quavers
- App places sharps incorrectly
- Measure isn't large enough for notes
- Cannot adjust measures
- Notes don't beam
- Quavers are written incorrectly
- Playback doesn't respect timings correctly
- Editing of notes is not precise
- App doesn't play notes as they are composed
- Cannot undo actions
- Cannot start playback from various places
- App is unresponsive
- App crashes on playback
- App doesn't respect metronome, pauses, etc.
- Acoustic feedback is misleading and wrong
- Hard to hit correct note to move
- Hard to find correct places for notes
- Buggy with time signatures other than 4:4
- Notes are not visible due to finger
- Cannot hear notes in the free version
- App doesn't play back compositions
- App doesn't have sound unless paid for
- App is useless without sound
- App is a ripoff
- App doesn't work
- App is disappointing
- App is bare bones
- No way to save anything
- App blocks at every step
- App is fake and useless
- App is faulty, pointless, and not intuitive
- Cannot delete a note
- App skips notes but doesn't allow deletion
Requested features
43 requests- Add repeat signs
- Add ledger lines
- Add words to music
- Add slurs and ties
- Add beams for notes
Show 38 moreShow fewer
- Add more instrument options
- Add glissando signs
- Add harp notes
- Add crescendo and decrescendo
- Add accents
- Add key signatures
- Add time signatures
- Add magnifying glass for note placement
- Add more note values (eighth, sixteenth)
- Add rests (whole, half, eighth, sixteenth)
- Add ability to write on music
- Add double bar lines, repeat signs, da capo
- Add chord bank
- Add ability to change note values
- Add sharps and flats to key signatures
- Add ability to adjust measure size
- Add undo/redo button
- Add ability to choose playback start point
- Add ability to save/export
- Add harp instrument
- Add more note range (higher and lower)
- Add C note
- Add more symbols
- Add metronome
- Add in-app keyboard
- Add more than two staves
- Add annotations
- Add tuplets
- Add staccato and other accents
- Add tie or slurs
- Add beamed notes
- Add ability to specify key
- Add ability to delete any note
- Add dark mode
- Add advanced analytics dashboard
- Add 8va
- Add wider note range
- Add lines connecting notes
In-app purchases
iWriteMusic SE
No in-app purchases
Prelude
- Extended Version$2.99









