Prelude vs Staventabs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Prelude
Create and edit sheet music on your iPhone or iPad with a redesigned, modern interface. This intuitive score editor allows for quick composition anytime, anywhere.
- Score editor
- Sheet music viewer
- Create custom scores
- Intuitive interface
- Mobile composition
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** In version 3.0 of Prelude the app has been completely redesigned. Now better and more modern, Prelude will give you a completely new experience! ** Prelude is a score editor that allows you to create your own scores the way you want. Developed especially for iPhones and iPads, it has a simple and intuitive interface, allowing you to write your scores quickly. With Prelude you can compose anytime, anywhere.
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 review sentiment: Staventabs at 65% against Prelude's 17%. Staventabs also leads on rating (3.8 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (71 vs 4). Prelude's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Prelude 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.
Staventabs holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Staventabs has 71 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 17% of Prelude's written reviews are positive against 65% of Staventabs's.
Prelude ships an update every 9 days, Staventabs every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Prelude | Staventabs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (4 ratings) | 3.8 (71 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 17.4% of reviews | 64.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 71 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| 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 | 14.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 48 MB | 128 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Felipe Braunger Valio Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda | Ivan Korovin |
Customer experience
Prelude
Staventabs
User reviews
Prelude
From 4 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Simple interface
- 💡 Good for basic notation
- 💡 Potential for improvement
- 💡 Useful for teaching
- 💡 Easy to write notes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Bugs and crashes
- 🐛 Incorrect playback
- 🐛 Difficult editing
- 🐛 Limited features
- 🐛 Unintuitive controls
Staventabs
From 71 App Store ratingsWhat 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
Prelude
Reported bugs
70 issues- App crashes frequently
- Playback is incorrect (wrong notes, wrong rhythms)
- Notes don't line up correctly
- Accidentals are placed incorrectly
- Key signatures are incorrect
Show 65 moreShow fewer
- Cannot delete notes
- Paid version has issues
- Instruments sound out of tune
- Notes switch octaves unexpectedly
- Timing is not respected
- App freezes or becomes unresponsive
- Save function is unreliable
- Touch controls are difficult and inaccurate
- App closes automatically on playback
- Notes don't play back at the correct pitch
- Notes don't play back with the correct duration
- Measures have incorrect beat capacity
- Notes are placed on top of bar lines
- App doesn't adjust for note types
- Sound takes forever to load or doesn't work
- Notes don't stick when trying to place them
- Cannot get notes below middle C in treble clef
- App deleted saved work
- Cannot drag notes to the stave
- Playback doesn't play treble and bass together
- App doesn't recognize accidentals
- Cannot change keys
- Notes don't sound properly
- App doesn't play the right notes
- Note values on playback are incorrect
- Soft and loud symbols appear in the wrong place
- Sharps are in the wrong areas
- Difficult to move notes
- Key signatures don't work properly
- Adding accidentals individually doesn't work
- App doesn't adjust for note types
- App doesn't play back compositions in the free version
- App doesn't beam quavers
- App places sharps incorrectly
- Measure isn't large enough for notes
- Cannot adjust measures
- Notes don't beam
- Quavers are written incorrectly
- Playback doesn't respect timings correctly
- Editing of notes is not precise
- App doesn't play notes as they are composed
- Cannot undo actions
- Cannot start playback from various places
- App is unresponsive
- App crashes on playback
- App doesn't respect metronome, pauses, etc.
- Acoustic feedback is misleading and wrong
- Hard to hit correct note to move
- Hard to find correct places for notes
- Buggy with time signatures other than 4:4
- Notes are not visible due to finger
- Cannot hear notes in the free version
- App doesn't play back compositions
- App doesn't have sound unless paid for
- App is useless without sound
- App is a ripoff
- App doesn't work
- App is disappointing
- App is bare bones
- No way to save anything
- App blocks at every step
- App is fake and useless
- App is faulty, pointless, and not intuitive
- Cannot delete a note
- App skips notes but doesn't allow deletion
Requested features
43 requests- Add repeat signs
- Add ledger lines
- Add words to music
- Add slurs and ties
- Add beams for notes
Show 38 moreShow fewer
- Add more instrument options
- Add glissando signs
- Add harp notes
- Add crescendo and decrescendo
- Add accents
- Add key signatures
- Add time signatures
- Add magnifying glass for note placement
- Add more note values (eighth, sixteenth)
- Add rests (whole, half, eighth, sixteenth)
- Add ability to write on music
- Add double bar lines, repeat signs, da capo
- Add chord bank
- Add ability to change note values
- Add sharps and flats to key signatures
- Add ability to adjust measure size
- Add undo/redo button
- Add ability to choose playback start point
- Add ability to save/export
- Add harp instrument
- Add more note range (higher and lower)
- Add C note
- Add more symbols
- Add metronome
- Add in-app keyboard
- Add more than two staves
- Add annotations
- Add tuplets
- Add staccato and other accents
- Add tie or slurs
- Add beamed notes
- Add ability to specify key
- Add ability to delete any note
- Add dark mode
- Add advanced analytics dashboard
- Add 8va
- Add wider note range
- Add lines connecting notes
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
Prelude
- Extended Version$2.99
Staventabs
- Advanced composing$9.99
- Unlimited projects$10.99
- Additional instruments$10.99









