Comparison

Piascore vs GarageScoreFree

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

Head to head
About

Piascore

This app allows musicians to digitally browse, annotate, and manage their sheet music. It offers features like free classical score downloads, automatic page turning, and integrated practice tools. Easily organize and access your entire music library from your device.

Highlights
  • Digital sheet music browsing
  • Score annotation with pens and stamps
  • Free classical sheet music search (IMSLP)
  • Automatic vertical scrolling and half page-turning
  • Page layout rearrangement and jump buttons
  • Integrated metronome and practice tools
  • Air Page Turning and Bluetooth pedal support
Features
Read full description

** More than 7,000,000 musicians around the world use Piascore! ** ** Fully optimized for iPad Pro and iPhone 18! ** Piascore is a digital sheet music reader for iPad and iPhone, made for pianists, guitarists and every other musician who plays from a score. The idea behind it is simple: all the world's sheet music, right there in your hands. It takes on the everyday problems every performer knows too well. No more hauling a bag of heavy binders to rehearsal, and no more digging through piles of paper for the one piece you need. ** Features ** : Annotate freely Six pens, each with its own color, thickness and nib, let you mark up a score exactly as you would on paper. Stamps for dynamics and other symbols, plus text boxes, make annotating quick. : Smart browsing Our own rendering engine gives you page turns among the fastest anywhere. Jump straight to the first or last page, preview a page before you turn to it, and crop pages to enlarge the staves for easier reading. Password-protected PDFs are supported. : Automatic vertical scrolling and half-page turns Let the score scroll by itself and forget about turning pages altogether. The scrolling speed is yours to set. : Over 130,000 classical scores to download for free Piascore connects to IMSLP (the International Music Score Library Project) / Petrucci Music Library, so you can download 131,000 public domain works by 16,200 composers, free of charge. : Plenty of ways to bring in your own scores Piascore reads PDF files. Transfer your own scores over iTunes File Sharing, import them from Dropbox, photograph printed music with the camera, or download a score you found in Safari. : Easy library management Tags and setlists keep even a large library in order, with powerful sorting and keyword search. : Metronome A metronome with a natural, realistic sound to keep your daily practice on track. : Piascore music tools Everything a musician needs beside the score: a keyboard, a chromatic tuner, a music player (iTunes) and a voice recorder. : Custom covers Use a photo or any image you like to give each score its own cover. : Editable table of contents Build your own table of contents, or import one from the PDF. : Reorder pages, jump between them Put the pages in whatever order suits you. For repeats, D.S. and the like, place a jump button on the page and go straight where the music takes you. : Export your scores Print an annotated score over AirPrint, or send it by email. : The Piascore Store Classical works, folk songs and easy arrangements, all in one store. Search by genre or by artist and find that piece you have been looking for. : Air Page Turning (iPhone required) Pair an iPhone running the companion app "Piascore Air" and turn pages more easily than ever, without touching the screen at all. : AirTurn Bluetooth pedal support Connect an AirTurn pedal and turn pages with your foot. ** Praise ** "This is a sheet music viewer that is genuinely worth having" - GRAMOPHONE "Very easy to use, a beautiful sound library" - appPicker "The most wonderful and convenient music sheet viewer you can't miss!" - Best10Apps.com "Impressed with the outstanding visibility!" - AppBank ** Award ** : 2011 International Business Awards - Consumer Entertainment / Information (Distinguished Honoree) : 2012 4th SF NewTech Japan Night Winner ** FAQ ** : https://help.piascore.com/ ** Contact ** : https://piascore.com/ : support@piascore.com

About

GarageScoreFree

Create and share band music scores on your iPad. This app displays chord names on a notation window, offering different font sets for display and printing. Easily compose original songs and collaborate with band members.

Highlights
  • Chord name notation
  • Display and print font sets
  • Original song creation
  • Band score sharing
  • One Page for One Song (OPOS)
  • High Quality Print Out (HQPO)
Features
Read full description

I guess your first experience (in your school life) of a music score of your band was look like this. The band score was (and still “is”) a very cool tool for us to learning for our favorite songs. Even you have created your original songs with using the band score. “Intro, A, B, C, repeat, solo, and ending…”. It was very easy to create and share music among the band members. “We still need it on iOS, don’t we?” “Why don’t we make the band score for our iPad?” Yes, we made it! GarageScore show you not musical note but chord name on the notation window. GarageScore has two font sets. Draft for display and high-reso for print out. Let’s share your band score via iPad. You can also print out the score and write down your ideal notes on that. We make the notation score for your rhythm section and so on. Important Concepts for GarageScore. OPOS~One Page for One Song~ HQPO~High Quality Print Out~ CCW~Complexed Chord Welcome~

Screenshots

Piascore4 screens
GarageScoreFree4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Piascore at 82% against GarageScoreFree's 25%. Piascore also leads on rating (4.6 vs 1.0) and ratings volume (1.9K vs 1). GarageScoreFree's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 12) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Piascore sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. GarageScoreFree asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Piascore holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Piascore has 1.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Piascore's written reviews are positive against 25% of GarageScoreFree's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Piascore ships an update weekly, GarageScoreFree every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Piascore versus GarageScoreFree: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiascoreGarageScoreFree
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.9K ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews81.7% of reviews — better25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1.9K — better1
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.06.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPiascore, Inc.Atsushi Uchida

Customer experience

Piascore

All ratings1,886 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews1,374 reviews
Positive81.7%
Neutral6.6%
Negative11.7%

GarageScoreFree

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative25.0%

Bugs and requests

Piascore

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unreliable facial gesture page turning
  • Issues with downloading and importing files
  • Inconsistent behavior when making edits

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to add/insert pages to existing scores
  • More customization options for annotations and page turning
  • Improved syncing across devices
  • Better support for guitar tablature and chord charts

GarageScoreFree

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Piascore

One-time11
  • Music Sheet$0.99
  • Music Sheet$1.99
  • piaScore music tools$1.99
Show 8 more
  • Music Sheet$2.99
  • Music Sheet$3.99
  • Music Sheet$4.99
  • Piascore Full Upgrading$5.99
  • Music Sheet$5.99
  • Music Sheet$6.99
  • Music Sheet2 variants$9.99
  • Music Sheet$22.99
None

GarageScoreFree

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Piascore free?
Piascore is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is GarageScoreFree free?
GarageScoreFree is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Piascore or GarageScoreFree?
Piascore is rated higher. Piascore averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.9K ratings, while GarageScoreFree averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Piascore or GarageScoreFree have ads?
Neither Piascore nor GarageScoreFree shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Piascore or GarageScoreFree?
Piascore ships an update weekly, and GarageScoreFree every 2 weeks. Most recently, Piascore was updated on October 28, 2026 and GarageScoreFree on October 6, 2026.

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