iWriteMusic vs digitalScore
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
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.
- Editable annotations
- Hands-free page turns
- Visual library management
- Practice tools (metronome, tuner)
- Collaboration and sync
- Built-in public domain library
- Apple Intelligence integration
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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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
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.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic | digitalScore |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (181 ratings) | 4.6 (623 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.5% of reviews — better | 43.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 181 | 623 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 249 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | Symphonic Hub Sociedad Limitada |
Customer experience
iWriteMusic
digitalScore
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'
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- 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
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- 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
iWriteMusic
- Advanced File Management$0.99
- Audio Export$0.99
- MIDI Export$0.99
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- MusicXML Export$0.99
- Basic Features$9.99
digitalScore
- Sheet Music Premium, Monthly$2.991 Month
- 1-year Premium (Discount)$9.991 Year
- Music Stand Premium, Yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Upgrade to PRO with Discount$2.99
- Pro Upgrade - Lifetime$24.99
- Upgrade to Pro$34.99









