Comparison

Spur vs Lyrium

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

Head to head
About

Spur

This music notation and lyric studio helps songwriters, poets, and music enthusiasts capture and refine all their creative ideas. It offers a distraction-free interface for writing lyrics with chords, recording audio demos, and organizing all your song drafts in one place.

Highlights
  • Lyrics and chords annotation
  • Integrated audio recording
  • Distraction-free workspace
  • Consolidated song organization
  • Complete song book environment
Read full description

The Ultimate Lyric Studio. Spur is the essential music notation and songwriting app built to consolidate your entire creative process into one clean, distraction-free interface. Whether you're into songwriting, poetry, or music writing, Spur is your go-to app for capturing every lyric idea, melody idea, song draft, or demo. Try Spur free, then unlock everything with a subscription. Key Features for Songwriters Lyrics, Tabs & Chords in One: Easily annotate your writing with chords and tabs directly above the text. Perfect for creating professional-looking notation and lyric drafts — no more switching between apps. Integrated Voice Recording: Record song demos and voice memos directly within your lyric file. Attach vocal takes, melody ideas, or guitar riffs to your song drafts instantly. Idea Capture: Spur is designed to help you chase rhymes, capture ideas the moment they strike, and refine your songs and lyrics without distraction. Clean Interface: A distraction-free workspace that gets out of the way so you can focus on your craft. Organization: Consolidate all your recordings, song drafts, and lyrics into a single file. Never lose an idea again. AI-Powered Writing (Coming Soon): Intelligent songwriting assistance is on the way — built right into the Spur workflow. Spur is more than just an app for writing lyrics. It's a complete songbook environment designed to help you capture, refine, and organize your musical and poetic output. Start your free trial today! https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Lyrium

This app offers a comprehensive suite of tools for songwriters, including AI-powered lyric suggestions, rhyme dictionaries, and creative prompts. It helps users brainstorm ideas, analyze their work, and even compose chord progressions. Share your creations with others through sharable song pages and lyric sheets.

Highlights
  • AI-powered lyric suggestions
  • Rhyme dictionary and thesaurus
  • Word cloud and suggestion feed
  • Chord progression composer
  • Song analysis and feedback
  • Sharable song pages
  • Writing prompts and timer
Features
Read full description

You won't find a lyrics app with more features on the App Store. Music tools are our passion and Lyrium is the best for this job. Get the lyrics app developed by ex-Apple engineers. Feature List • Word Cloud - Tom Petty wrote an entire album looking at magnet words on a music stand. We put a galaxy of magnets right around your notepad. • Cloud Tags - type [word] in your lyrics and the cloud shows words that could go there • LyRhyme - smart songwriting dictionary and Roget-style thesaurus • Freestyle Drafting Engine - capture lyrics as you think out loud and get contextual suggestions • Rhyme Worksheets - seed inspiration by generating a tapestry of thematic words and rhymes to get lyrics flowing • Object Writing - utilize this powerful technique to capture your sense memories and transport your listeners into the world of your song • First Line Engine - offers suggestions that integrate your own meticulously curated ideas and words to get a first line on the page • Configurable Context - every suggestion generation feature has a configurable context that controls exactly what your inspiration should source • Song Palette - tweak the thematic and emotional energy you want to capture in your song • Meter Analysis - see the rhythm of your lines right in the editor • Rhyme Highlighting - automatically color code rhymes • Chord Annotations - add your chords and share them • Sharable Song Pages and Lyric Sheets - share your song and any of the context that went into it via sharable links hosted by Lyrium. Also export social captions and HTML embeds or bbcode for forum posts. Upload audio to share your entire complete work with a Lyrium page. • Collect Notes - capture inspiration in the form of journal entries, song concepts, or voice notes to tap for your songwriting • Song Analysis - automatically detect narrative stagnation or cliches and get suggestions for improvement • Metaphor Explorer - get metaphor ideas automatically as you work • Suggestion Feed - tap the same inspiration that drives the word cloud in a feed by your notepad • Process Notes - catalog the evolution of your song over time to revisit old threads or explore the origins of old ideas • Song Chat - when all else fails, you can interact with a generative model to get answers or inspiration from any prompt • Concept suggestions - source starting points for kicking off songs • Chords Playground - compose and preview chord progressions • Harmonic Vibe Dictionary - explore common chord movements and the theory behind them • Writing Prompts • Writing Timer • Tuner We put the best techniques used by pro songwriters into an deeply interconnected creative process that takes you from collecting inpiration to writing your first line and tracking your final lyrics. Use the new Freestyle drafter to get inspiration as you think out loud. Suggestions are automatically offered for the bit you seem to be working on. Our AI philosophy in a letter A note to your other lyrics app: AI can't write lyrics. So many new songwriting apps don’t get this. AI just writes the song, and the output is derivative by design. Great art is a product of emotion and experience by the unconscious mind, not a rehash of unlicensed pop songs spewed by autocomplete matrix math in a data center on leveled farmland. Expediting the process while undermining the authenticity is futile. Lyrium is fundamentally different. It’s built from the ground up to cultivate connections and inspiration in *you*. We tap the best tools available to amplify your sparks at every songwriting stage: a powerful rhyme dictionary and Roget-style thesaurus, your sense memories, your journal, and creative interfaces that tap language models for their mastery of language, not lyrics. All this input is tied together in a first-of-its-kind workspace that exposes the power and flexibility you’d expect from the pro tools you use to make the rest of your music. Terms of use: https://lyrium.app/terms

Screenshots

Spur4 screens
Lyrium4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Spur at free against Lyrium's free with in-app purchases. Spur also leads on ratings volume (21 vs 6) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.4). Lyrium's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads 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. Spur sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Lyrium sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Spur against 5.0 for Lyrium. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 6 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spur ships an update monthly, Lyrium every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 6, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Spur versus Lyrium: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpurLyrium
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (21 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings21 — better6
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.4
Further details — not scored
Size79 MB87 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperTerrace Software LLCJake Spracher

Customer experience

Spur

All ratings16 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Lyrium

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Spur

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Subscription7 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$49.991 Year
2 purchases

Lyrium

Subscriptions2
  • Plus14 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Plus Annual — Early Adopter14 Days trial$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Spur free?
Spur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lyrium free?
Lyrium is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spur or Lyrium?
Spur and Lyrium are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 21 and 6 ratings respectively.
Do Spur or Lyrium have ads?
Neither Spur nor Lyrium shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spur or Lyrium?
Spur ships an update monthly, and Lyrium every 6 days. Most recently, Spur was updated on October 6, 2026 and Lyrium on October 6, 2026.

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