Comparison

iWriteMusic vs Symphony Pro

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-quality sheet music efficiently on your smartphone. This app offers an intuitive interface and a powerful input system designed for small screens, making music notation accessible for musicians of all levels. Share your compositions as PDFs, JPGs, or MIDI files.

Highlights
  • Intuitive and simple user interface
  • Efficient One-Flick Entry System
  • Professional quality sheet music creation
  • Supports major notation elements
  • Useful playback options
  • Export to PDF, JPG, and 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 7 reasons to choose iWriteMusic. 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. ATTENTION: Latency during playback and drawing may occur by device capacity or number of tracks and background applications.

About

Symphony Pro

Compose music notation on your iPad with intuitive handwriting recognition or traditional input methods. Create scores for various ensembles, import and export in multiple formats, and utilize a wide range of notational elements. Enjoy built-in instruments for playback and auditioning.

Highlights
  • Handwriting recognition for Apple Pencil and touch
  • Compose for various ensembles
  • Import/export MusicXML, MIDI, and more
  • On-screen instrument input
  • Real-time recording and transcription
  • Wide range of notational elements
  • Print via AirPrint
Features
Read full description

Symphony Pro 6 is a complete and intuitive app for writing music notation on iPad. It allows you to compose music for just about any size ensemble, from piano, symphonies, band, lead sheets, chord charts, guitar tabs, and more. Starting Version 5, Symphony Pro now offers handwriting recognition as the only in-app purchase: Perfect with Apple Pencil, and works great with touch or capacitive stylus GETTING STARTED SP provides all of the key options to begin your work. Import a score via MusicXML, MXL, MIDI, or SP file from your computer, or from apps like Dropbox, Mail, iCloud Drive, or Safari. You can base your project on a template, or start a blank score and add additional parts later. EDITING To add notes, choose Pencil mode, and tap anywhere on a bar to begin editing right away. You can quickly specify note properties before or after placing notes. By switching to Select mode with one touch, you can also transpose, erase, cut, and paste multiple notes/tracks. With an on-screen instrument, a QWERTY keyboard, or Core MIDI compatible keyboard, you can quickly enter notes & chords in step entry mode. Record a part in real-time with on-screen instruments to transcribe into notation. Versions 4 & 5 take greater advantage of the iPad touchscreen. With shortcuts and contextual menus to edit note & bar properties, many of the commonly used editing commands are right at your fingertips. SP supports a wide range of notational elements for your composition. Including dynamics & articulations, time & key signature changes, clef changes, pedals, and repeat conventions. Edit chord symbols, lyrics, and annotations using the iPad’s standard keyboard. EXPORT & SHARE When you’re finished, print out your score with AirPrint, or export it as a PDF, MusicXML, AAC, MIDI, or Symphony file. Share files via email or directly to another computer or iPad via Dropbox/iCloud Drive. KEY FEATURES • Introducing Handwriting Recognition for Apple Pencil & touch • Starting Version 5, Handwriting is the only In-App Purchase to enable the complete app • Now download SP on your iPhone • 24+ professionally recorded and sound-designed acoustic instruments, free out of the box Earlier features offered free, to existing & new owners • 114 built-in instruments for playback, and auditioning the notes you entered • Create in standard music notation or tablature • Edit with an on-screen piano, QWERTY keyboard, or a MIDI input device • Dozens of shortcuts & gestures to edit & navigate • Reduce your score size, range, or combination of parts for viewing & editing* • Print directly to AirPrint • Up to 48 instruments, 100 staves, 4 voices/layers per score • Record a part in real-time with clicks at the beat with optional emphasis • Backup & sync your scores with iCloud* • Import MusicXML, MIDI, MXL, or Symphony files • Export as a PDF, MusicXML, MIDI, AAC, or Symphony file • Large selection of articulations & dynamics • Multi-measure rests, including automatic rests • Grace notes • Customizable noteheads & note colors • Chord symbol, lyric, and annotation tools • Edit the properties of multiple notes and rests simultaneously by multi-note select • Copy/Paste function supports partial & multi-bar/staff select • Unlimited undo/redo • Customizable stem directions & note beaming • Transposing & concert pitch score option • Change tempo or clef anywhere in score or bar • Stream audio or share your screen wirelessly with AirPlay • Advanced document management • Create your own custom project template or use a built-in one • Customizable part groupings for SATB and instrument families • Customizable chord symbol, lyric, and annotation font • Loop playback feature • Auto-save support * Previously paid, but now free upgrade in Version 5 For More information, please visit: • http://www.symphonypro.net • http://forums.symphonypro.net • Facebook page at www.facebook.com/symphonyapp • Learn about the iPhone-only app: bit.ly/symphonyiphone

Screenshots

iWriteMusic4 screens
Symphony Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: iWriteMusic at 4.5 against Symphony Pro's 3.8. iWriteMusic also leads on price ($9.99 vs $14.99) and review sentiment (73% vs 56%). Symphony Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 2 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

iWriteMusic costs $9.99 and Symphony Pro $14.99 up front. iWriteMusic sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Symphony Pro sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iWriteMusic holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 179 and 469 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of iWriteMusic's written reviews are positive against 56% of Symphony Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic ships an update every 2 months, Symphony Pro every 4 weeks. Both last shipped on September 22, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
iWriteMusic versus Symphony Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusicSymphony Pro
Price$9.99 — better$14.99
Rating4.5 (179 ratings) — better3.8 (469 ratings)
Positive reviews73.2% of reviews — better55.7% of reviews
Number of ratings179469 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.013.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB365 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectXenon Labs, LLC

Customer experience

iWriteMusic

All ratings179 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral4.5%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews149 reviews
Positive73.2%
Neutral8.1%
Negative18.8%

Symphony Pro

All ratings469 ratings
Positive70.1%
Neutral9.8%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews406 reviews
Positive55.7%
Neutral16.5%
Negative27.8%

Bugs and requests

iWriteMusic

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Symphony Pro

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Project menu disappears unexpectedly
  • Ties and tuplets not working correctly
  • Inconsistent behavior when zooming and panning
  • Instruments not transposing properly
  • Frequent crashes when editing complex scores

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add guitar metronome
  • Improve text and lyrics handling
  • Allow more customization of page layout
  • Implement better transposition and chord features
  • Provide more orchestral percussion instruments

In-app purchases

1 purchases

iWriteMusic

One-time1
  • Advanced File Management$0.99
2 purchases

Symphony Pro

One-time2
  • Version 4: Complete Features BundleFree
  • Handwriting Recognition Tool$9.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic free?
iWriteMusic costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Symphony Pro free?
Symphony Pro costs $14.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic or Symphony Pro?
iWriteMusic is rated higher. iWriteMusic averages 4.5 out of 5 from 179 ratings, while Symphony Pro averages 3.8 from 469 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic or Symphony Pro have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic nor Symphony Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic or Symphony Pro?
iWriteMusic ships an update every 2 months, and Symphony Pro every 4 weeks. Most recently, iWriteMusic was updated on September 22, 2026 and Symphony Pro on September 22, 2026.

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