iWriteMusic Pro SE vs Notation
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
Notation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Notation is professional sheet music notation for composers, arrangers, and music students. Capture a motif at the piano, tweak harmony on your commute, or share a link before rehearsal—all on iPhone or iPad with lyrics and chords. If you read a staff, you can go from a piano sketch to multi-staff scores for class and rehearsal. TOUCH NOTATION A notation keyboard replaces deep menus: tap notes and markings, or select on the staff to edit. Undo/redo for commutes, rehearsal gaps, or at the piano. On the free tier, inserting or editing measures shifts later bars automatically so the rest of the score stays aligned. WRITE AND HEAR IT Multi-staff playback; on long scores, playback follows your edit position. Composer Pro: per-staff Mute and Solo for full scores. WEB SCORE SHARING Generate a web score link—text or email to teachers, singers, or collaborators. Any browser shows standard notation and multi-part playback without installing the app. Print-friendly pages for handouts. PDF for archives and fixed layout; web links when your choir or band needs to hear the piece before rehearsal. Many mobile apps stop at PDF or screenshots; Notation shares playable web scores with the same playback and layout as on your device. EXPORT AND INTERCHANGE MusicXML, MIDI, PDF (screen preview + A4 print PDF). Import MusicXML without length limits—continue in MuseScore, Sibelius, etc. Free tier: starter export allowance. Composer Pro: unlimited export, clean PDF (see app for web-link limits). IPAD PRO WORKSPACE On iPad, library and score sit side by side for desktop-like sessions. iPhone: full notation and sharing when you are catching ideas on the go. YOU CAN ALSO: - Piano keyboard chord stacks; multi-verse lyrics with melismas and paste lyrics line by line; measure insert/copy/paste/delete - Ties, slurs, manual beams—free - Cloud sync (web links need sign-in + sync); Composer Pro: 8 staves, 2 voices per staff, transpose, meter changes NOTATION COVERAGE: * Notes/rests, dots, ties, slurs, beams (manual break/join) * Triplets; quintuplets–septuplets (Composer Pro) * Ornaments, articulations, dynamics, hairpins * Lyrics (verses), chords; title/composer/lyricist header * Clefs, time, tempo; major/minor keys; accidentals * Repeats, voltas, D.S./D.C.; pickups; measure-level edits * Templates: piano grand, treble/bass single staff, custom; long-score paging SUBSCRIPTION & LEGAL (COMPOSER PRO — OPTIONAL) Notation offers an optional paid membership called Composer Pro. You can subscribe in the app under Me → Upgrade. No subscription is required to create, edit, save, or play scores on the free tier. AUTO-RENEWABLE SUBSCRIPTION • Name: Composer Pro — Weekly Plan • Length: 1 week (renews every week) • Price: Shown on the in-app purchase screen before you confirm (localized price; may vary by country or region). If a free trial is available in your region, it is displayed on the subscription screen before purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period at the price of the selected plan. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial, if offered, is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. WHAT COMPOSER PRO INCLUDES • Advanced composing: full transposition and any key; up to 8 staves and 2 voices per staff; meter changes and special/additive meters; undo/redo; advanced repeat playback • Delivery & export: unlimited exports (MusicXML, and web score links); • Playback: full instrument library; per-staff mute and solo • Other: ad-free experience; community publishing; priority support Privacy Policy: https://solfegehub.com/UserManagerPrivacy_en.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://solfegehub.com/UserManagerTerms_en.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iWriteMusic Pro SE at none against Notation's 2. iWriteMusic Pro SE also leads on ads (none vs shown). Notation's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On price and iOS requirement 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. Notation sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. iWriteMusic Pro SE asks for nothing beyond the download.
iWriteMusic Pro SE ships an update every 2 months, Notation weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | iWriteMusic Pro SE | Notation |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (206 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 53.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 206 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | iWriteMusicProject | 凯 张 |
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
Notation
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
iWriteMusic Pro SE
No in-app purchases
Notation
- Weekly Subscription · NotationAI$2.997 Days
- Lifetime Access · NotationAI$19.99









