Tabs & Notes vs Staventabs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tabs & Notes
This app displays and plays song tablature and notes, supporting gp3, gp4, gp5, and gpx files. It offers full General MIDI sound playback, making it ideal for guitar practice anywhere. Features include easy song downloads, track switching, flexible playback speed, and editable metadata.
- Plays gp3, gp4, gp5, gpx files
- Full General MIDI sound playback
- Flexible playback speed
- Free instrument to track mapping
- Editable song metadata
- Easy song download
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Tabs & Notes displays and plays your song tablature and notes. Compatible with gp3, gp4, gp5 and gpx files. Playback with full general midi sound. Great for guitar practice everywhere you want. Features: - Easy download of new songs - Fast switching between tracks of a song - Free instrument to track mapping - Flexible playback speed - Free positioning of song cursor - Editable song meta data
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Tabs & Notes at 5.0 against Staventabs's 3.8. Tabs & Notes also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.4). Staventabs's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. Tabs & Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Staventabs sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Tabs & Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Staventabs has 70 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 40% of Tabs & Notes's written reviews are positive against 65% of Staventabs's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Tabs & Notes ships an update every 5 months, Staventabs every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tabs & Notes | Staventabs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 3.8 (70 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 40.0% of reviews | 64.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 70 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 123 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Oliver Buecker | Ivan Korovin |
Customer experience
Tabs & Notes
Staventabs
Bugs and requests
Tabs & Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Tabs & Notes
- Tabs & Notes Full Version$0.99
Staventabs
- Advanced composing$9.99
- Unlimited projects$10.99
- Additional instruments$10.99








