Comparison

iWriteMusic Pro vs Staventabs

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

Head to head
About

iWriteMusic Pro

Create beautiful, professional-quality sheet music with an intuitive interface. This app offers efficient input systems, comprehensive notation tools, and useful playback options for musicians of all levels. Easily share your compositions as PDFs, JPGs, or MIDI files.

Highlights
  • Intuitive and simple user interface
  • Efficient One-Flick and Traditional Entry Systems
  • Professional quality sheet music creation
  • Comprehensive notation element support
  • Useful playback options with mixer
  • Export to PDF, JPG, and MIDI
  • Easy score and parts management
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

Staventabs

Compose and edit musical scores and tablature with a user-friendly interface. Create new pieces from scratch or templates, input notes intuitively, and enhance your compositions with advanced editing tools. Practice your songs with playback and metronome features, and manage your projects seamlessly.

Highlights
  • Score and tablature editing
  • Intuitive note input
  • Virtual piano and fingerboard
  • Instrument previews
  • Playback and metronome
  • AI-powered scale suggestions
  • MIDI and MusicXML import/export
Features
Read full description

A simple notation and tab editor, Staventabs could become your indispensable helper in music creation. Use smart and convenient tools of Staventabs for composing and improving scores on your iPad or iPhone. Get inspired by viewing majestic classics scores or practicing good old jazz. Easily edit sheet music and tablature with user friendly interface like never before. Share musical inspiration with your band using Staventabs files. Create music • Start your new score from the scratch or with one of the two dozen templates² • Enter notes with intuitive instrument-independent interface or virtual Piano Keyboard • Explore and edit your score with sophisticated Piano Roll and Drums Editor • Choose from 22 groups of the instruments (keyboards, guitars, strings, drums, percussions, etc.)² listening their preview fragments • Use context-sensitive selection for bars, chords and tracks • Modify notes with dots, tuplets and ties • Make your music alive with lyrics • Customize clefs, key signatures and time signatures for bars • Change dynamics • Switch between enharmonic equivalents of the notes • Use customizable voices • Setup tunings with the large value of presets • Navigate around the score with Tracks board • Easily copy, paste and remove selected areas • Switch fast between tablature and stave inputs • Edit tabs with easy-to-use numeric keypad or virtual Fingerboard • Input notes by Staff Positions • Set the visibility for instrument parts in the score • Edit title and information about creators • Select and customize horizontal, vertical or page layout for your score • Use Scientific or Helmholtz pitch notation when entering notes • Add repeat signs and volta brackets • Don’t worry about losing data thanks to auto-saving • Connect your MIDI devices to Staventabs Practice your songs • Play the whole composition or selected fragment • Customize metronome clicking and countdown • Change track’s audio properties on-the-fly • Loop the playback of the desired part Improve compositions • Mark non-playable objects with "Highlight issues" • Use the "Starred scales" AI to determine the chromatic scales most similar to the selected area • Adjust the semitones of the selected area notes to the chromatic scale • Customize the chromatic scale for adjustment³ • Diminish, augment and subdivide note values • Transpose pitches by semitones Manage projects • Browse your projects with convenient file manager • Store your compositions in iCloud Drive and keep them up-to-date across all your iOS devices • Create new projects and duplicate existing (up to three editable projects in free version)¹ • Listen to preview fragments of the scores directly from the files menu • Open SNT, MIDI, MusicXML, Compressed MusicXML (MXL), Guitar Pro (GPX, GP5, GP4, GP3) and Karaoke (KAR) files • Edit MIDI, MusicXML, MXL, Guitar Pro and Karaoke files¹ • Organize your files from a desktop computer using iTunes or iCloud Drive • Open files from Mail and other applications (Dropbox, Box, etc.) • Convert files between supported formats¹ Share your brand-new hits with friends • Email your scores and tabs right from Staventabs • Print your score¹ • Export to PDF and MPEG-4 AAC¹ Features marked with superscript numbers are available via the corresponding in-app purchases: ¹ Unlimited Projects ² Additional Instruments ³ Advanced Composing

Screenshots

Staventabs4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: iWriteMusic Pro at 4.7 against Staventabs's 3.8. iWriteMusic Pro also leads on ratings volume (534 vs 71) and review sentiment (75% vs 65%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 Pro sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Staventabs sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

iWriteMusic Pro holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iWriteMusic Pro has 534 ratings behind it against 71, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of iWriteMusic Pro's written reviews are positive against 65% of Staventabs's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, Staventabs every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
iWriteMusic Pro versus Staventabs: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusic ProStaventabs
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (534 ratings) — better3.8 (71 ratings)
Positive reviews74.9% of reviews — better64.9% of reviews
Number of ratings534 — better71
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB128 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectIvan Korovin

Customer experience

iWriteMusic Pro

All ratings534 ratings
Positive93.4%
Neutral3.6%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews235 reviews
Positive74.9%
Neutral10.6%
Negative14.5%

Staventabs

All ratings71 ratings
Positive66.2%
Neutral11.3%
Negative22.5%
Written reviews228 reviews
Positive64.9%
Neutral12.3%
Negative22.8%

User reviews

iWriteMusic Pro

From 534 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Intuitive interface
  • 💡 Useful features for composing and arranging
  • 👍 Good value for the price
  • 🚀 Responsive customer support

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Stability issues after updates
  • 🐛 Unreliable playback and MIDI export
  • 🔒 Lack of file management options
  • 💡 Limited notation options (e.g. dynamics, articulations)

Staventabs

From 71 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient music notation
  • 👍 Intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Customizable chord diagrams
  • 💾 Supports multiple file formats
  • 🎶 Realistic instrument sounds

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 💰 Paywall for basic features
  • 🔀 Inconsistent note/chord handling
  • 🔍 Unclear documentation
  • 🔊 Lagging playback

Bugs and requests

iWriteMusic Pro

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Inability to save or export files after iOS 7 update
  • Crashing when editing certain notation elements
  • Playback issues with repeat signs and tempo changes

Requested features

5 requests
  • MusicXML import/export support
  • Ability to change note sizes and fonts
  • More time signature options
  • Improved copy/paste functionality
  • Folder organization for saved files

Staventabs

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Imported MIDI files lose instrument assignments
  • Disappearing projects after updates
  • Inability to adjust note lengths in piano roll
  • Metronome not audible over instrument playback

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for grace notes and ornaments
  • Implement repeat/coda symbols
  • Allow custom font and layout options
  • Integrate MIDI input and output
  • Improve chord recognition accuracy

In-app purchases

5 purchases

iWriteMusic Pro

One-time5
  • Advanced File Management$0.99
  • Audio Export$0.99
  • MIDI Export$0.99
Show 2 more
  • MusicXML Export$0.99
  • Basic Features$12.99
3 purchases

Staventabs

One-time3
  • Advanced composing$9.99
  • Unlimited projects$10.99
  • Additional instruments$10.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic Pro free?
iWriteMusic Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Staventabs free?
Staventabs is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic Pro or Staventabs?
iWriteMusic Pro is rated higher. iWriteMusic Pro averages 4.7 out of 5 from 534 ratings, while Staventabs averages 3.8 from 71 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic Pro or Staventabs have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic Pro nor Staventabs shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic Pro or Staventabs?
iWriteMusic Pro ships an update every 2 weeks, and Staventabs every 3 weeks. Most recently, iWriteMusic Pro was updated on November 10, 2026 and Staventabs on November 1, 2026.

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