Comparison

iWriteMusic Pro SE vs Chordio

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

Head to head
About

iWriteMusic Pro SE

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.

Highlights
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Efficient input systems (One-Flick & Traditional)
  • Professional quality sheet music
  • Comprehensive 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! Experience the perfect harmony of ease and versatility in sheet music creation with iWriteMusic! Say goodbye to complicated notation apps and hello to intuitive design. Enjoy quick and beautiful sheet music creation with a 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 8 reasons to choose iWriteMusic SE (Special Edition) 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 / music score - 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. 8. Best of all, it's Free! Yes, it's Free and Over 1.4 Million people all over the world has created music with this app family. Let's get started now! Note: This is for iPhone (iPad version sold separately) ATTENTION:  Latency during playback and drawing may occur by device capacity or number of tracks and background applications. Limitations on SE (Special Edition): 1. Water mark appears on page views and printouts. 2. Can’t save more than 5 songs. 3. Can't play more than 30 seconds at a time. 4. Can't import iWriteMusic data file. (export only) 5. Can't export Standard MIDI file.

About

Chordio

This app is a music composition and theory tool that helps musicians explore chords and scales interactively. It offers features for creating, storing, and rearranging chord progressions, along with integrated music theory lessons and practice tools. It's designed to spark creativity and enhance music learning for producers, composers, and educators.

Highlights
  • Chord progression generator
  • Custom chord creation and editing
  • Real-time MIDI input visualization
  • Scales and modes practice
  • Music theory lessons and quizzes
  • Sheet music practice tools
  • Chord Suggestion AI
Features
Read full description

Looking for a spark for your upcoming song? Introducing Chordio, a powerful tool for composition and music theory that offers an enjoyable and interactive experience. This app allows you to explore chords and scales in a fun and engaging way. It also provides a convenient platform for storing all your distinctive musical chord progressions in a single location. As a result, Chordio becomes an indispensable resource for contemporary music producers, composers, and educators. Take your music theory knowledge to the next level and create innovative chord progressions for your latest composition. With a range of internal sounds included, you can explore the tool's features without needing any other external equipment. Connect your MIDI controller to Chordio and see chord names appear on the Grand Staff in real-time as you play. Solo over chord progressions using the built-in sounds, and quickly rearrange or transpose chord progressions on the fly for added flexibility. Uncover fresh chord sequences for any genre - from hip hop to house and everything in between. Simply drag and drop them into your DAW! Chordio empowers you to unleash your creativity and take your music to new heights. The main features are divided into four workspaces: Composition • Build-in sequencer to create chord progressions. • Build-in Chord progression generator. • Create custom chords, edit existing chords, get chord inversions, and extended chords. • Drag & Drop to change the song structure. • Transpose the entire chord progression with a single tap. • Create a playlist of custom chord progressions. • Chord Suggestion AI – Get intelligent chord recommendations that fit your existing progression, and seamlessly integrate them into your composition. • A Chord Types & Vocings panel helps you generate new chords. • Play-along with a backing rhythm track. • Save/load songs, export it as MIDl. • Download chord progressions from a growing collection of Chord Packs. Scales • Practice scales with a metronome in all keys. • Contains more than 40 scales you can work with. • Staff view for chords and scales. Modes • Interactive way to learn what scales are associated with each mode. • Practice modes in Chordio. • Change tonic, mode, and layout to discover the relationship between musical notes, chords, and scales. Music Theory * In-app theory lessons. • 3 New Music Theory Quizzes: Note Identification, Interval Recognition & Chord Identification. Sheet Music • Adjust the Tempo: Practice at your own speed. • Loop Key Sections: Focus on tricky parts with ease. • Practice Hands Separately: Work on left or right hand independently. • Play in Any Key: Transpose sheet music to suit your preference. • Customize Tracks: Adjust instrument volumes. • Jazz Solo: Jam over chord progressions. • Print Your Scores: Print a PDF version of the score for flexible, hands-on practice. Lessons • Learn to play songs at your own pace. • Download music from a growing collection of Lesson Packs. • Lessons can be slowed down or pitch changed. KEY FEATURES: • MIDI keyboard support. • Build progressions using the chord generators. • Export MIDI to your DAW or sequencer. • Custom chords, edit existing chords, get extended chords. • Play internal sounds. • Arpeggio, strum and performance modes. • Mac version include a detachable resizable Grand Staff, Chord Display, and Keyboard Views. • Customise the Keyboard highlight color. • Select chord, to display a range of related scales and chords. • Tap a note on the Grand Staff to highlight it with a color. • Choose from selection of backing rhythms that fit specific genres. • Chord Pattern playback Always backup your chord progressions!

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iWriteMusic Pro SE at none against Chordio's 19. iWriteMusic Pro SE also leads on ratings volume (207 vs 8). Chordio's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 4 weeks) and review sentiment (62% vs 53%). On price, rating, 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. Chordio sells 19 one-off in-app purchases. iWriteMusic Pro SE asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for iWriteMusic Pro SE against 4.4 for Chordio. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iWriteMusic Pro SE has 207 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 53% of iWriteMusic Pro SE's written reviews are positive against 62% of Chordio's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iWriteMusic Pro SE ships an update every 4 weeks, Chordio every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
iWriteMusic Pro SE versus Chordio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriWriteMusic Pro SEChordio
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (207 ratings) — better4.4 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews53.2% of reviews61.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings207 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB203 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperiWriteMusicProjectOne In A Billion Ltd

Customer experience

iWriteMusic Pro SE

All ratings207 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral5.3%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews111 reviews
Positive53.2%
Neutral10.8%
Negative36.0%

Chordio

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive61.5%
Neutral12.8%
Negative25.6%

Bugs and requests

iWriteMusic Pro SE

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Incorrect transposition of notes
  • Inability to save compositions
  • Overlapping/unreadable menu text
  • Freezing when trying to copy/paste
  • Inconsistent behavior when adding new measures

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more music notation options (e.g. glissando, ghost notes)
  • Improve playback to follow dynamics and expressions
  • Allow multiple key signatures in the same piece
  • Provide an undo/redo function
  • Implement a chord entry mode for guitarists

Chordio

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

iWriteMusic Pro SE

No in-app purchases

19 purchases

Chordio

One-time19
  • Free Chord PackFree
  • Gymnopedie No.1$1.99
  • Arabesque No.1$1.99
Show 16 more
  • Gnossienne No.1$1.99
  • Chord Progressions 251 No.1$2.99
  • Jazz Progressions 01$5.99
  • Neo-Soul Progressions 01$5.99
  • Neo-Soul Tunes 01$5.99
  • RnB Chords No.1$5.99
  • Classical Progressions 1$5.99
  • II-V-I Progression$5.99
  • RnB Progressions 01$5.99
  • Beginner Essentials$6.99
  • RnB Progressions, Vol. 1$7.99
  • II-V-I Jazz Progressions$9.99
  • Jazz Progression, Vol. 1$9.99
  • Jazz Lick Exercises, Vol. 1$9.99
  • Classical Collection, Vol. 1$14.99
  • Unlock App$14.99

Questions

Is iWriteMusic Pro SE free?
iWriteMusic Pro SE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Chordio free?
Chordio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iWriteMusic Pro SE or Chordio?
iWriteMusic Pro SE is rated higher. iWriteMusic Pro SE averages 4.5 out of 5 from 207 ratings, while Chordio averages 4.4 from 8 ratings.
Do iWriteMusic Pro SE or Chordio have ads?
Neither iWriteMusic Pro SE nor Chordio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iWriteMusic Pro SE or Chordio?
iWriteMusic Pro SE ships an update every 4 weeks, and Chordio every 8 days. Most recently, iWriteMusic Pro SE was updated on October 29, 2026 and Chordio on October 24, 2026.

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