Show|Ready vs The Score Stack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Show|Ready
This app provides essential music rehearsal tools for musical theater productions. It offers playback features on iOS devices and director's editing on iPads. A license from a theatrical publisher is required to use the app.
- Music playback
- Director's editing (iPad)
- iOS compatibility
- License integration
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Show|Ready Mobile is the ultimate music rehearsal solution for musical theater. Show|Ready Mobile gives you all the playback features of the desktop Show|Ready on your iOS device. Additionally The director's editing features are available only on the iPad. A valid license of Show|Ready must be purchased first from Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Samuel French, Steele Spring or Plays for Young Audiences before you can use Show|Ready Mobile. Show|Ready Mobile only needs to be purchased once and then can be used with multiple Show|Ready licenses.
The Score Stack
This app centralizes sheet music, practice tracks, rehearsal schedules, and group chat for choirs and vocal ensembles. Singers can access music offline, customize practice tracks, and directors can manage rehearsals and communicate with their groups.
- Offline sheet music and practice tracks
- Customizable MIDI practice tracks
- Learning playlists
- Director's markings
- Rehearsal calendar and attendance
- Group and section messaging
- Setlists and live program pages
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Everything your chorus needs, in one app. Sheet music, practice tracks, the rehearsal calendar and the group chat, together on every singer's phone, with music that still opens when the rehearsal room has no signal. MUSIC AND PRACTICE TRACKS Scores and learning tracks in the same place, listed Soprano to Bass, so a singer can read and listen without switching apps. Turn on Offline Music and a group's songs download to your phone. MIDI TRACKS THAT FOLLOW THE SCORE Make your part louder, hear it alone, or leave it out and sing against everyone else, at any speed. The music turns its own pages and keeps the current bar on screen, and you can loop a tricky passage with a bar's run-up. Directors can upload MusicXML scores and the app lines the bars up with the PDF. LEARNING PLAYLISTS Put the songs you are learning, from all your groups, into one queue. Choose the tracks you sing with for each song and mark it ready when you know it. Directors can share a playlist with the whole group and see how ready each section is, song by song. DIRECTOR'S MARKINGS Mark up a score once and push it to the whole section. Everyone rehearses from the same breath marks and cuts. CALENDAR, RSVPS AND ATTENDANCE Rehearsals and performances with RSVPs and attendance check-in, plus a feed your singers can subscribe to in their own calendar app. MESSAGING THAT STAYS Group and section conversations with replies, threads and reactions that do not scroll away, and announcements that reach everyone. SETLISTS AND SHOWTIME Build the setlist for a concert and sing straight through it. Publish a live program page, put its QR code on the printed program, and the audience follows along. FOR BARBERSHOP CHAPTERS A built-in tag library with all four parts recorded, alongside your chapter's sheet music, section tracks and rehearsal schedule. GET YOUR SINGERS IN QUICKLY Share one QR code at rehearsal and the room joins at once, or read out the short join code for anyone who has to install the app first. WHO IT IS FOR Barbershop choruses and quartets, community choirs, church and worship teams, school and college choirs, and small ensembles of every kind. Free for groups of 8 or fewer. No card required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: The Score Stack at 100% against Show|Ready's 26%. The Score Stack also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.7) and monetization model (free vs paid). Show|Ready's advantage is ratings volume (84 vs 15). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
The Score Stack holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Show|Ready has 84 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 26% of Show|Ready's written reviews are positive against 100% of The Score Stack's.
Show|Ready ships an update every 4 months, The Score Stack every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Show|Ready | The Score Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (84 ratings) | 5.0 (15 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.4% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 84 — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 66 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Right On Cue Services, LLC | The Stack Technologies LLC |
Customer experience
Show|Ready
The Score Stack
Bugs and requests
Show|Ready
Reported bugs
31 issues- App crashes constantly
- App freezes frequently
- App glitches
- App randomly kicks user out
- Buttons not visible on iPhone screen
Show 26 moreShow fewer
- Passcode entry crashes app
- Settings do not save
- App disappears from phone
- App needs to be reloaded
- Crashes when trying to repeat songs
- Music stops playing, only click track
- Tempo changes disappear after freeze
- Glitches on vamps/repeats/cesuras
- Needs complete reboot
- UI issues on iPhone/iPad
- No vocal tracks
- App crashes on login
- Tracks not loading
- App closes immediately upon opening
- Audio freezes
- Tempo issues or song stops briefly
- Song comes in/out at specific measures
- Adjustments do not save
- Parts not playing sometimes
- Cannot play parts after repeat/fermata
- Constantly crashing when opening app
- Doesn't show music
- Randomly mutes everything
- New update hides song title
- Instruments sound bad
- Laggy performance
Requested features
10 requests- More musical sounds than synth
- Minute/seconds counter for song length
- Ability to move tab bar to bottom
- Mobile view score
- Ability to make notes on the score
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Option to mute metronome in mixer tab
- Score in the app
- Ability to loop sections
- Dark mode option
- Better quality instruments
The Score Stack
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Show|Ready
No in-app purchases
The Score Stack
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Show|Ready free?
Is The Score Stack free?
Which has better reviews, Show|Ready or The Score Stack?
Do Show|Ready or The Score Stack have ads?
Which is updated more often, Show|Ready or The Score Stack?
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