iWriteMusic vs Sibelius
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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
Sibelius
Professional music notation software is now available on mobile devices. Create, edit, and hear your compositions anywhere with a full suite of tools optimized for touch and stylus input. Seamlessly sync across platforms and access different feature tiers to suit your needs.
- Professional music notation
- Cross-platform synchronization
- High-quality sample library
- Apple Pencil and touch optimization
- Innovative note entry
- Command Search functionality
- Scalable subscription tiers
Read full descriptionHide full description
Sibelius brings professional music notation to iPad and iPhone, putting the workflows used by countless composers, orchestrators, and arrangers at your fingertips. Seamlessly move between iPad, iPhone and desktop, and from studio to coffeeshop to scoring stage, and write anywhere inspiration strikes. # Work on scores anywhere Sibelius for mobile puts the #1 selling music notation program at your fingertips—literally. Work with the same tools and features used by countless composers and production houses every day on your iPad and iPhone. Whether writing down ideas, creating full-blown compositions, or reviewing scores, you have the freedom to create wherever you’re comfortable. #Take your portfolio to go Forget having to bring and break out your laptop when meeting with clients and collaborators. Instead, you can conveniently take the world’s most powerful notation toolset and your entire music portfolio with you wherever you go—ideal for those unexpected opportunities. And for tandemly working through last-minute revisions. # Hear your music in stunning detail Sibelius includes a high-quality sample library filled with a variety of musical instrumentation, so you can hear what your music will sound like when performed by real musicians. The Espressivo advanced notation interpretation even lets you adjust rhythm and swing to create a more humanistic feel. # Speed your workflow Sibelius for mobile is designed to take full advantage of Apple Pencil and iPad touch capabilities. Its elegant, streamlined interface provides the most intuitive and efficient workflows possible while supporting the same keyboard shortcuts you know and love from working on the desktop version, so you’ll feel right at home. # Get innovative note entry Experience the pen and paper workflow reimagined. Enter notes with the onscreen Keypad or a keyboard, and Sibelius takes care of all note layout. Touch a note and drag up or down to change its value, or drag left or right to add a flat or sharp. With an Apple Pencil, tap a note and tilt up or down to add a flat or sharp, or tilt left or right to choose the note value. # Have everything you need In addition to the Keypad, Sibelius for mobile features a Create menu that’s optimized for iOS, making it easy to add clefs, key signatures, time signatures, barlines, symbols, text styles, and more to your score from searchable galleries. You can also quickly search through all Sibelius commands using the Command Search, putting the entire app at your fingertips. # Move tiers to meet needs Sibelius is designed to grow with you to support your creative aspirations and project needs. From the introductory (and free) Sibelius First to the industry-standard Sibelius Ultimate, you can add more notation capabilities and instrument parts to take on more creative opportunities by simply upgrading your subscription tier. # Have everything on one creative platform Seamlessly move from desktop to tablet and back without ever having to import or export files. That’s because whether on mobile or desktop, you’re always in Sibelius. With files saved to iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or other iOS-supported cloud service, you have easy anywhere access to all your ideas and scores. # Enable a hybrid workflow While Sibelius for mobile is fully featured, providing many of the same tools as its desktop counterpart, there are some notation and layout features only available in the desktop version, making it an integral part of a complete workflow (compare versions). Plus, the mobile version comes free with the desktop version, enabling you to work where and how you want.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: iWriteMusic at 74% against Sibelius's 36%. iWriteMusic also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.2) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Sibelius's advantage is ratings volume (1.8K vs 181) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 Sibelius sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
iWriteMusic holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sibelius has 1.8K ratings behind it against 181, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of iWriteMusic's written reviews are positive against 36% of Sibelius's.
iWriteMusic ships an update every 2 weeks, Sibelius every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic | Sibelius |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (181 ratings) — better | 4.2 (1.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.5% of reviews — better | 35.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 181 | 1.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 1.4 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | Avid® |
Customer experience
iWriteMusic
Sibelius
Bugs and requests
iWriteMusic
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Sibelius
Reported bugs
4 issues- Scores disappearing or not saving properly
- Subscription issues and inability to log in
- Crashes when performing basic actions
- Compatibility problems with newer iPad OS versions
Requested features
7 requests- Ability to enlarge chord symbols
- More time signature options
- Support for MIDI input
- Better Apple Pencil integration
- Autosave and improved file management
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Export options like MusicXML and PDF
- Customizable shortcuts and toolbars
In-app purchases
iWriteMusic
- Advanced File Management$0.99
- Audio Export$0.99
- MIDI Export$0.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- MusicXML Export$0.99
- Basic Features$9.99
Sibelius
- Sibelius Artist for iOS1 Month trial$5.991 Month
- Sibelius Ultimate for iOS1 Month trial$12.991 Month









