Comparison

iWriteMusic vs digitalScore

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

Head to head
About

iWriteMusic

Create professional music notation efficiently with intuitive tools. Quickly enter notes, arrange pages, and export your compositions in various formats. Ideal for composers, teachers, and musicians of all levels.

Highlights
  • Easy to master notation interface
  • Fast note entry with OneFlick or traditional methods
  • Flexible page layout tools
  • Support for multi-track, multi-voice scores
  • Integrated playback and mixer
  • Export to PDF, MIDI, MusicXML, and audio
Features
Read full description

Less learning. More music. Professional notation without the lengthly learning process. Whether you are capturing a musical idea, preparing lesson material or a lead sheet, or completing a large score, iWriteMusic helps you turn inspiration into finished notation efficiently. 7 reasons to choose iWriteMusic. 1. Easy to master. Essential controls are organized clearly, so even if notation apps are new to you, you can get started without relying on a thick manual or a long series of tutorial videos. 2. Enter notes faster, your way. With OneFlick, you can combine choices such as pitch and note value into a single gesture. Traditional Entry lets you choose the notation item and its position separately. Use either method to match the task and the way you prefer to work. 3. Create polished, professional scores. Flexible page-layout tools help you prepare music for practice, lessons, rehearsals, performance, and distribution. Create individual parts from a score and print directly with AirPrint. 4. Use the notation your music requires. Create multi-track, multi-voice scores with lyrics, chord symbols, percussion, drum notation, and multi-bar rests. Add key, time, clef, and tempo changes within a piece, along with grace notes, articulations, dynamics, and full or partial transposition. 5. Keep scores and parts organized. Manage scores and their individual parts together, and use folders to organize a growing collection of compositions and teaching materials. 6. Listen, check, and practice. Play your score while you work. Use the mixer, solo, mute, instrument selection, loop playback, and swing playback to check your music or support daily practice. 7. Export and share for any purpose. Export PDF, image, Standard MIDI, MusicXML, and audio files (WAV). Share editable iWriteMusic files and continue working on another device. For composers, arrangers, songwriters, music teachers, students, singers, and instrumentalists. Use iWriteMusic for musical sketches, lead sheets, chord charts, lesson materials, choral and ensemble scores, chamber music, band music, orchestral scores, and individual parts. iWriteMusic is free to download. Some features require one-time in-app purchases.

About

digitalScore

This app provides a digital music stand for musicians to read, annotate, and practice sheet music. It offers hands-free page turns, editable annotations, and practice tools like a metronome and tuner. Features include library management, collaboration tools, and a built-in public domain music library.

Highlights
  • Editable annotations
  • Hands-free page turns
  • Visual library management
  • Practice tools (metronome, tuner)
  • Collaboration and sync
  • Built-in public domain library
  • Apple Intelligence integration
Features
Read full description

Read, annotate and practice your sheet music on iPad, iPhone and Mac, with annotations that stay editable, hands-free page turns and Apple Intelligence built in. digitalScore is the music stand built by musicians who understand your workflow. It's a complete digital studio for conservatory students, professional performers and serious musicians who expect more from their tools. VISUAL LIBRARY MANAGEMENT · Folders and subfolders with custom colors and icons · Personalized score covers that make browsing instant · Smart folders that organize automatically by composer, instrument or tags · Multi-movement works with a proper structure · Auto-fill metadata that saves hours of manual entry · Trash and archive to keep your library under control PERFORMANCE-READY READING · Half-page preview removes awkward page turns · Fast page rendering, even with heavy annotations · Turn pages with face gestures, Bluetooth and MIDI pedals, touch gestures or a game controller · Dual-device mode: use two iPads as an open book ANNOTATIONS THAT STAY EDITABLE · Move and resize every symbol, text or marking after you place it · Smart Eraser: remove notes while keeping staff lines intact · Collage Tool: copy a passage and paste it anywhere to simplify difficult sections · Action Buttons: tap to start audio, open the metronome or jump to another score · Stickers, stamps and your own images · Full Apple Pencil support with PencilKit PRACTICE TOOLS THAT ACTUALLY HELP · Mark sections as practice tasks and jump between them · Track practice time and unlock achievements · Set daily and weekly goals and follow your progress · Pro Metronome with saved custom patterns and gradual tempo increase · Audio player with independent tempo and pitch control · Recorder with reverb · Built-in tuner, drone and piano keyboard APPLE INTELLIGENCE, SIRI AND WIDGETS · Name suggestions for new folders and playlists, based on the scores inside · Practice insights that summarize how your work is going · Siri and Shortcuts: open scores and playlists, start the metronome or tuner and check today's practice hands-free · Home Screen widgets for your practice and your scores · Apple Intelligence runs on device, so your library stays private COLLABORATION AND SYNC · iCloud sync across iPad, iPhone and Mac · SharePlay: video call while you view and annotate the same score in real time · Orchestra Mode: connect several devices so everyone follows the leader's page turns · Automatic and manual backups with version history A PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY BUILT IN Search and download scores from a huge catalog of public domain classical music without leaving the app. WHY DIGITALSCORE? Because your tools should be designed around how you actually work. Every feature exists because a real musician needed it: the pianist who wanted dual-screen reading, the violinist who needed hands-free page turns in fast passages, the student managing a conservatory library across years. Download digitalScore and see what sheet music software should have been all along. Privacy Policy: https://digitalscore.app/privacy-policy Terms of Service: https://digitalscore.app/terms Attributions: flaticon.com

Screenshots

iWriteMusic4 screens
digitalScore4 screens

Verdict

The call

iWriteMusic and digitalScore both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 74% of iWriteMusic's written reviews are positive against 44% of digitalScore's. digitalScore's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and ratings volume (623 vs 181). On price, rating, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. iWriteMusic sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and digitalScore sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for iWriteMusic against 4.6 for digitalScore. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 181 and 623 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of iWriteMusic's written reviews are positive against 44% of digitalScore's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic ships an update every 2 weeks, digitalScore every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
iWriteMusic versus digitalScore: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusicdigitalScore
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (181 ratings)4.6 (623 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.5% of reviews — better43.9% of reviews
Number of ratings181623 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB249 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectSymphonic Hub Sociedad Limitada

Customer experience

iWriteMusic

All ratings181 ratings
Positive90.1%
Neutral4.4%
Negative5.5%
Written reviews151 reviews
Positive73.5%
Neutral7.9%
Negative18.5%

digitalScore

All ratings622 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative6.1%
Written reviews123 reviews
Positive43.9%
Neutral17.1%
Negative39.0%

Bugs and requests

iWriteMusic

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

digitalScore

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • App crashes when editing and arranging pages
  • Annotations disappear when moving between layers
  • Scores randomly disappear without recovery option
  • PDF import fails or requires multiple attempts
  • Renamed files revert to 'droppedScore'
Show 9 more
  • Slow document opening times
  • Page turning cycles through entire set instead of single page
  • Controls accidentally trigger page turns
  • Facial gesture recognition conflicts with facial tics
  • Drag and drop metronome broken on iPad OS 17
  • Pro version purchase not unlocking features
  • Server error messages preventing score access
  • Forced app closures losing unsaved work
  • Review rating system finalizes prematurely

Requested features

11 requests
  • Dark mode or adjustable brightness settings
  • Android version availability
  • Bluetooth page turning device support
  • Replace/overwrite feature for duplicate imports
  • Reorderable playlists
Show 6 more
  • Swipe gestures for page navigation
  • Adjustable gesture sensitivity controls
  • Better help documentation and tutorials
  • Note typing for second octave with ledger lines
  • Drag and drop metronome functionality
  • Support for external storage services (Synology, OneDrive)

In-app purchases

5 purchases

iWriteMusic

One-time5
  • Advanced File Management$0.99
  • Audio Export$0.99
  • MIDI Export$0.99
Show 2 more
  • MusicXML Export$0.99
  • Basic Features$9.99
6 purchases

digitalScore

Subscriptions3
  • Sheet Music Premium, Monthly$2.991 Month
  • 1-year Premium (Discount)$9.991 Year
  • Music Stand Premium, Yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year
One-time3
  • Upgrade to PRO with Discount$2.99
  • Pro Upgrade - Lifetime$24.99
  • Upgrade to Pro$34.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic free?
iWriteMusic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is digitalScore free?
digitalScore is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic or digitalScore?
digitalScore is rated higher. iWriteMusic averages 4.5 out of 5 from 181 ratings, while digitalScore averages 4.6 from 623 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic or digitalScore have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic nor digitalScore shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic or digitalScore?
iWriteMusic ships an update every 2 weeks, and digitalScore every 9 days. Most recently, iWriteMusic was updated on November 10, 2026 and digitalScore on November 11, 2026.

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