Comparison

Riffshed vs VI

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

Head to head
About

Riffshed

This app helps musicians improve their practice by focusing on deliberate repetition and structured work blocks. It includes a metronome, sheet music viewer, and links to music streaming services, all designed to enhance focused instrumental practice.

Highlights
  • Rep-based practice tracking
  • Focus-block timer
  • Built-in metronome
  • Sheet music integration
  • Links to streaming services
  • Curated starter libraries
Features
Read full description

Riffshed is a practice journal for jazz musicians, built on the card system. See whether you're actually getting better — or just spending more time with the instrument. THREE PHASES. ONE CARD. Every exercise is a card that moves through three phases — Explore, Integrate, Master — each with its own color and rep counter. You decide when a card is ready to move forward; Riffshed remembers when it did and how long it stayed in each phase. REPS, NOT MINUTES A timer rewards sitting with the instrument. A rep counter rewards doing the work: running a phrase through twelve keys, taking a head clean. Minutes are still tracked — but reps are the unit you optimize. FOCUS BLOCKS A 20/5 focus cycle tuned for instrumental practice: twenty minutes on one card, five minutes of mandatory break. Both intervals are configurable; the open-ended mode drops the clock entirely for jams and lessons. START FROM ANYWHERE (new in 1.1) A Home Screen widget starts a session in one tap and shows today's minutes, your streak and the weekly goal. The live timer follows you to the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island — pause and finish without unlocking; the session saves itself. Map practice to the Action Button, ask Siri, or add a Control Center switch. A METRONOME YOU'LL ACTUALLY USE Full-screen metronome with pendulum, subdivisions and swing. Configure click and accent per beat and per subdivision: silence the "and" of 2, accent any sixteenth, build polyrhythm grids. EVERYTHING LIVES IN THE CARD Notes, target tempo, separate rep counters per phase, PDF sheet music that opens full-screen (pages flip with a swipe while the metronome keeps playing), and one-tap links out to iReal Pro, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and more. SEE A YEAR OF WORK A calendar heatmap of your practice. Tap any day to see what you played, for how long, and which cards moved forward. CURATED LIBRARIES TO START Jazz Piano Fundamentals (67 cards ordered by difficulty) and iReal Pro — Essential Standards (30 standards with deep links) are pre-installed. Build your own libraries, or import a curriculum a teacher shared as a single file. YOUR DATA IS YOURS Fully offline. Full JSON backup including scores. Library export and import in one tap. No account, no ads. Free. Built for daily practice — for iPhone and iPad.

About

VI

Features
Read full description

VI-Stage Performer is a score and prompter app for musicians, bands, and live performers. Create your song library, organize setlists, and keep scores, lyrics, chords, notes, and prompts ready on stage. In Standalone Mode, you can create songs and setlists directly on your device, making VI-Stage Performer useful for rehearsals, practice, and live shows even without the desktop app. When used with the VI-Stage desktop app, simply choose your performer role and your content is synced automatically, so each musician gets the right scores and prompts for the show. Built for concerts, worship, theatre, bands, and any performance where everyone needs to stay prepared and in sync.

Screenshots

Riffshed4 screens
VI4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: VI at 15.0 against Riffshed's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Riffshed ships an update every 2 days, VI every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Riffshed versus VI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRiffshedVI
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAnton RozhkovskiyAlvaro Herrero

In-app purchases

None

Riffshed

No in-app purchases

None

VI

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Riffshed free?
Riffshed is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is VI free?
VI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Riffshed or VI have ads?
Neither Riffshed nor VI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Riffshed or VI?
Riffshed ships an update every 2 days, and VI every 3 days. Most recently, Riffshed was updated on October 9, 2026 and VI on October 8, 2026.

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