Studiolab vs Songstead
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Studiolab
This app helps you write songs by providing tools for composition, arrangement, and lyric writing. You can experiment with musical patterns, chord progressions, and melodies, and even collaborate with others. Export your creations as PDF scores, MIDI, or audio files.
- Songwriting tools
- Musical pattern integration
- Chord progression experimentation
- Melody and arrangement editing
- Lyric writing support
- Collaboration features
- PDF, MIDI, and audio export
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Unlike great musical productions, great songs do not depend on amazing sounds and effects. You can write one on a beach, using a guitar, pen and paper. Studiolab is a tool for writing songs. Start with an empty composition or with a known song. Use musical patterns for filling the song with music, so you can make major changes with a few, small edits. Experiment with the structure, chord progressions, musical patterns, melodies, arrangements and lyrics until you are satisfied. You can even collaborate with friends. You can export PDF scores, MIDI and audio. Create and share your own sounds and composition templates. Almost all Studiolab features can be used offline. The iPhone and iPad versions have the same features, but the iPad is naturally easier to use. Studiolab is a huge, evolving project for composing music. Most features are described in the in-app documentation.
Songstead
Organize your song library with chord charts, setlists, and collaborative tools. Write songs in various formats, transpose keys, and export PDFs. Build setlists for events and share your music library with a band or studio.
- Chord chart creation
- Key transposition
- Setlist building
- Collaborative library sharing
- PDF export
- Plain text and ChordPro writing
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Songs - Chord charts with the tools you actually need: write in ChordPro or plain text, transpose to any key, auto-detect the key from what you enter, switch notation styles, and export a clean PDF for print or tablet. Sets - Build a setlist for a gig, a rehearsal, or a practice session. Add a date, a title, and a location, so everyone knows exactly what you're playing and when. Groups - A shared space where the whole band, team, or studio works from the same library. Invite people in, set their role, and everyone always has the current version.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Songstead at 100% against Studiolab's 0%. Songstead also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Studiolab's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and ratings volume (7 vs 1). 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
Both are free to download. Studiolab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Songstead asks for nothing beyond the download.
Songstead holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Studiolab has 7 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Studiolab's written reviews are positive against 100% of Songstead's.
Studiolab ships an update weekly, Songstead every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Studiolab | Songstead |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.4 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Demagic AB | beestat.io |
Customer experience
Studiolab
Songstead
In-app purchases
Studiolab
- 400 Studiolab Points$1.99
Songstead
No in-app purchases









