Comparison

iWriteMusic SE vs Score Creator

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

Score Creator

Easily compose and edit sheet music on your mobile device. This app simplifies music creation with a text-keyboard-like interface for notes and chords, supports multiple instruments and clefs, and allows for lyric and chord symbol writing. It's ideal for songwriters, teachers, and students.

Highlights
  • Compose music scores with various clefs and symbols
  • Write lyrics and chord symbols
  • Multi-track support for different instruments
  • Playback sound for each instrument
  • Transpose songs and import/export MIDI/MusicXML
  • Export to PDF and audio files
  • Editing assistant features
Features
Read full description

Score Creator is a music composition application that is specially designed for mobile platforms. It's a simple but powerful music creation tool that caters your need of writing music on the go. *** The app's user experience is completely optimized to make composing music on mobile devices easier and faster than ever. No more "tapping and zooming" the screen just to add a music note or a chord symbol. No more "dragging and dropping" from the palette just to add a sharp/flat sign. All you need to do to write a song is just tapping the keyboards (notes and chords) that are designed like a text keyboard. COMPOSING MUSIC IS NOW AS SIMPLE AS TEXTING TO YOUR FRIENDS! *** Apart from being a songwriting app for songwriters, Score Creator also functions as a music teaching and learning assistant tool for music teachers and students. Teachers can teach students how to read music notation by directly entering music notes into the app and playing back the song, while music students can practice by themselves by notating their favorite songs into the app and playing along with their own music instruments. *** The app is a perfect tool for writing different types of sheet music, including lead sheet, solo instruments, SATB choir, sheet for brass & woodwind bands, ... *** FEATURES: - Compose music score. The app supports treble, alto, bass and neutral clefs, with a wide range of notes and music symbols: note length, time signature, key signature, slurs, ties, dynamics, articulations & ornaments, ... - Write lyrics. - Write chord symbols. - Multiple tracks with different instruments: piano, guitar, violin, saxophone, drum, flute, horn, tuba, ukulele, mandolin, ... - Score for transposing instruments: saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), Bb clarinet, Bb trumpet, ... - Playback sound for each instrument. - Transpose songs into any key. - Import songs from MIDI & MusicXML files. - Change clef, time/key signature and tempo in the middle of a song. - Export songs to MIDI or MusicXML files so that they can be imported into other apps such as Finale, Encore, MuseScore, Sibelius, ... The files can be copied to your computer or sent via email. - Send exported MIDI files to other apps on your current device. - Import MIDI files from other apps. - Export songs to PDF files. - Export songs to audio files (.wav, .mp3). - Editing assistant features: multiple selecting notes, copy & paste, undo & redo, ... - SCAN SHEET MUSIC FROM PHOTOS. - SCAN SHEET MUSIC FROM PDF. *** End User License Agreement: https://www.termsfeed.com/eula/c6cf438c81097acbfd5a7d51600b6bba *** Privacy policy: The app does not collect or store any kind of personal information.

Screenshots

iWriteMusic SE4 screens
Score Creator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: iWriteMusic SE at 4.4 against Score Creator's 3.5. iWriteMusic SE also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 7). Score Creator's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Score Creator sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. 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 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 144 and 493 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of iWriteMusic SE's written reviews are positive against 61% of Score Creator's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 months, Score Creator weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
iWriteMusic SE versus Score Creator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusic SEScore Creator
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (144 ratings) — better3.5 (493 ratings)
Positive reviews56.8% of reviews60.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings144493 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB299 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectTRAN PHUONG

Customer experience

iWriteMusic SE

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

Score Creator

All ratings493 ratings
Positive59.8%
Neutral15.0%
Negative25.2%
Written reviews614 reviews
Positive60.6%
Neutral15.6%
Negative23.8%

User reviews

iWriteMusic SE

From 144 App Store ratings

What 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

Score Creator

From 493 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Great for composing music on the go
  • 💡 Useful for learning and practicing music
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 🚀 Helpful for arranging and transcribing music

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and bugs
  • 🔇 Poor sound quality of instruments
  • 🔇 Lack of dynamics and articulation support
  • 🔇 Limited range of instruments
  • 💰 Paywall for advanced features

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

Score Creator

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sudden loss of data and unsaved work
  • Playback issues, including notes not playing correctly
  • Instrument key signatures not working as expected
  • App crashing on launch or when opening certain scores
  • Inability to edit or modify existing compositions

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add more percussion instruments
  • Implement dynamics, articulations, and expression markings
  • Allow for more than 2 instruments in the free version
  • Improve the drum notation and playback
  • Add support for chords, trills, and other advanced notation
Show 2 more
  • Implement a swing/shuffle feature
  • Improve the transposition and key signature handling

In-app purchases

None

iWriteMusic SE

No in-app purchases

7 purchases

Score Creator

Subscriptions5
  • One-month full version$4.991 Month
  • Basic user - one year$6.993 Months
  • Three-month full version$10.993 Months
Show 2 more
  • Basic user - one year$17.491 Year
  • One-year full version$27.491 Year
One-time2
  • Basic user - full version$23.99
  • Lifetime full version$98.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic SE free?
iWriteMusic SE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Score Creator free?
Score Creator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic SE or Score Creator?
iWriteMusic SE is rated higher. iWriteMusic SE averages 4.4 out of 5 from 144 ratings, while Score Creator averages 3.5 from 493 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic SE or Score Creator have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic SE nor Score Creator shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic SE or Score Creator?
iWriteMusic SE ships an update every 2 months, and Score Creator weekly. Most recently, iWriteMusic SE was updated on September 20, 2026 and Score Creator on September 23, 2026.

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