Comparison of scorewriters

This is a comparison of music notation programs.

General information

Name	Guitar tablature	WYSIWYG editor	MIDI entry[a]	Playback	File formats		Developer(s)	Stable release; review date	License	Cost	Operating systems
					Import	Export
Canorus	No	Yes		MIDI	CanorusML,[b] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] simple LilyPond[e]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] LilyPond,[e] PDF	Reinhard Katzmann, Matevž Jekovec, Georg Rudolph	0.7.3; 18 June 2018 (7 years ago) (2018-06-18)	Since 0.7.3: GPL-3.0-only 0.1.0 to 0.7.2: GPL-2.0-only	No cost	Linux
Capella	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST, SoundFonts	Capella,[f] CapXML,[g] MusicXML,[c] MIDI[d]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, Truevision TGA, PCX, HTML	capella-software AG	10.0-05; 7 July 2025 (21 days ago) (2025-07-07)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Denemo	Yes	Yes	Step-time	MIDI	Denemo,[h] limited LilyPond,[e] MusicXML[c]	LilyPond,[e] MusicXML, WAV, Ogg, PDF, PNG, MIDI	Jeremiah Benham, Richard Shann	2.6.0; 11 March 2022 (3 years ago) (2022-03-11)	GPL-3.0-or-later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux
Dorico	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST	Dorico,[i] MusicXML,[c] MIDI[d]	MIDI,[d] MusicXML,[c] WAV, MP3, PDF, PNG, TIFF, SVG	Steinberg	6.0.20; 2 July 2025 (26 days ago) (2025-07-02)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Early Notation Typesetter	No	Yes	No	No	ENT[j]	ENT,[j] PDF	Samuel Gossner, Daniel West, Dieter Theuns	0.9.6; 20 October 2020 (4 years ago) (2020-10-20)	Proprietary	No charge for single font	Windows, macOS, Linux
Encore	Yes	Yes		MIDI	Encore,[k] MusicTime,[l] Rhapsody,[m] Compressed MusicXML[n]	MIDI,[d] Cakewalk MIDI,[o] Master Tracks Pro,[p] PDF	Passport Music Software	5.0.4 (Windows); 5.0.7 (macOS); 2015 (10 years ago) (2015)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Finale	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST, AU,[q] Garritan library	Finale,[r] MusicXML,[c] MIDI[d]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] WAV, MP3, AIFF, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, EPS, BMP, GIF, PICT[q]	MakeMusic, Inc.	27.4.1; 12 December 2023 (19 months ago) (2023-12-12) final release	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Flat	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST, AU	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] MuseScore, TuxGuitar, Guitar Pro (versions 3–8), Power Tab	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] WAV, MP3, PDF, PNG, SVG	Tutteo	37.9.0; 17 October 2024 (9 months ago) (2024-10-17)	Proprietary	Freemium	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
Forte	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST	Forte,[s] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] CapXML[g]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] BMP, JPEG	Lugert Verlag GmbH	12.1; 12 February 2021 (4 years ago) (2021-02-12)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows
Frescobaldi	No	WYSIWYM	No	MIDI	LilyPond,[e] MusicXML,[c] ABC	MusicXML,[c] PDF	Wilbert Berendsen	4.0.3; 9 June 2025 (49 days ago) (2025-06-09)	GPL-2.0-or-later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux
Guitar Pro	Yes	Yes		MIDI, RSE	Guitar Pro (versions 1–8),[t] MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] MIDI,[d] ASCII tab,[u] Power Tab,[v] TablEdit[w]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] ASCII tab,[u] PNG, PDF, WAV	Arobas Music	8.1.4; 1 April 2025 (3 months ago) (2025-04-01)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS, Linux
Impro-Visor	No	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI	Impro-Visor[x]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] PDF	Bob Keller	10.2; 1 August 2019 (5 years ago) (2019-08-01)	GPL-2.0-or-later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux
LilyPond	Yes	No	No	MIDI	LilyPond;[e] using converters: ABC,[y] ETF,[z] MIDI,[d] MusicXML[c]	PDF, PNG, PS, SVG	Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen	2.24.4; 21 July 2024 (12 months ago) (2024-07-21)	GPL-3.0-or-later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD
MagicScore	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, SoundFonts	SFD,[aa] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Karaoke,[ab] WAV, MP3	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Karaoke,[ab] WAV, MP3, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, EMF, WMF	Maestro Music Software	8.280; 2017 (8 years ago) (2017)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows
Mozart	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI	Mozart,[ac] MusicXML,[c] NIFF,[ad] MIDI,[d] Karaoke,[ab] ABC[y]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] ABC,[y] BMP, EMF, GIF, JPEG, PBM, PNG, TIFF	Mozart Music Software	17.0.1; June 2025 (1 month ago) (2025-06)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows
Mus2	No	Yes		MIDI	Mus2[ae]	MIDI,[d] AIFF, WAV, PDF, SVG, BMP, JPEG, PNG	Utku Uzmen (Data-Soft Ltd.)	3.2.3; November 2022 (2 years ago) (2022-11)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
MuseScore Studio	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, SoundFonts, SFZ, VST3	MuseScore,[af] MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] MIDI,[d] Karaoke,[ab] MuseData,[ag] Bagpipe Music Writer,[ah] Band-in-a-Box,[ai] Overture,[aj] Capella,[f] CapXML,[g] Guitar Pro (versions 1–6),[t] Power Tab (experimental),[v] PDF (experimental), ABC[y] (with plugin)	MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] PDF, PNG, SVG, MIDI,[d] WAV, FLAC, Ogg, MP3	The MuseScore developer community	4.5.2; 25 April 2025 (3 months ago) (2025-04-25)	GPL-3.0-only for desktop tools; online and mobile tools are proprietary and freemium	No cost for most tools	Windows, macOS, Linux
MusiCAD	No	Yes		MIDI	MusiCAD,[ak] MIDI,[d] ABC[y]	MIDI,[d] ABC,[y] PDF, JPEG, PNG, BMP	Musys Software	4.0; 1 May 2015 (10 years ago) (2015-05-01)	Proprietary	Prompt to purchase license appears when saving[2]	Windows
MusicEase	Yes	Yes		MIDI	MusicEase,[al] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] ABC,[y] SongWright[am]	MIDI,[d] PDF	MusicEase Software	10.1m; November 2024 (8 months ago) (2024-11)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Musink	No	WYSIWYM		MIDI	Musink[an]	MIDI,[d] PDF, PNG, XPS	Lee Reid	1.3.0.3	Proprietary	No cost	Windows, macOS
MusiXTeX	Yes	No	No	No	TeX (incl. PMX and M-Tx),[ao] MusicXML[c] (with converters)	DVI,[ap] PS, PDF, MIDI[d] (for PMX input)	Daniel Taupin, Ross Mitchell, Andreas Egler	1.38; 29 March 2024 (15 months ago) (2024-03-29)	GPL-2.0-or-later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux
Notation Composer	No	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, SoundFonts	Notation,[aq] MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] MIDI,[d] Karaoke[ab]	MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] PDF, MIDI,[d] Karaoke,[ab] PNG, BMP, JPEG, GIF, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, MP3	Notation Software	5.1.2; 8 May 2025 (2 months ago) (2025-05-08)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS, Linux
NoteWorthy Composer	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI	NWC,[ar] MIDI,[d] Karaoke[ab]	MIDI[d]	NoteWorthy Software	2.75a.2; 2017 (8 years ago) (2017)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows
Notion	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST	MusicXML,[c] Compressed MusicXML,[n] MIDI,[d] Guitar Pro[t] (versions 4–5)	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] WAV	PreSonus	6.8.2; 24 August 2021 (3 years ago) (2021-08-24)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Overture	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST, AU[q]	Overture,[aj] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Score Writer[as]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] WAV, MP3	Sonic Scores	5.6.1.1; 2 December 2019 (5 years ago) (2019-12-02)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
Philip's Music Writer	Yes	No	No	MIDI	PMW[at]	MIDI,[d] PS	Philip Hazel	5.32; 25 June 2025 (33 days ago) (2025-06-25)	GPL-2.0-or-later	No cost	Linux (older versions for RISC OS)
Power Tab Editor	Yes	Yes		MIDI	Power Tab,[v] MIDI[d]	MIDI,[d] ASCII tab,[u] BMP, HTML	Brad Larsen	2.0.22; 29 June 2025 (29 days ago) (2025-06-29)	GPL-3.0-or-later for version 2.0 and later	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux
Rosegarden	No	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI	Rosegarden,[au] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Hydrogen[av]	LilyPond,[e] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Csound,[aw] Mup,[ax] PDF	Chris Cannam, Richard Bown, Guillaume Laurent	25.06; 4 June 2025 (54 days ago) (2025-06-04)	GPL-2.0-or-later	No cost	Linux
SCORE	Yes	No	Step-time	MIDI	SCORE (.mus)	EPS	Leland Smith, San Andreas Press	5.01; 1 November 2013 (11 years ago) (2013-11-01)	Proprietary	Non-free	MS-DOS, Windows
ScoreCloud Studio	No	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST	MIDI,[d] live audio	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] WAV, PDF	Doremir Music Research AB	4.8.4; June 2025 (1 month ago) (2025-06)	Proprietary	Free without file saving	Windows, macOS, iOS
Sibelius	Yes	Yes	Step-time and real-time	MIDI, VST, AU,[q] Avid library	Sibelius,[ay] MusicXML,[c] MIDI[d]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] MP3, PDF, SVG, EPS, PNG	Avid Technology, Inc.	2025.4; 14 April 2025 (3 months ago) (2025-04-14)	Proprietary	No cost up to 4 staves[3]	Windows, macOS, RISC OS, Android, iOS
SmartScore 64 NE	Yes	Yes		MIDI	SmartScore,[az] scanned images, MusicXML,[c] NIFF[ad]	MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Finale,[r] NIFF,[ad] PDF	Musitek Corporation	11.6.113; 21 April 2025 (3 months ago) (2025-04-21)	Proprietary	Non-free	Windows, macOS
TuxGuitar	Yes	Yes		MIDI	TuxGuitar,[ba] MusicXML,[c] MIDI,[d] Guitar Pro (versions 1–6),[t] Power Tab,[v] TablEdit[w]	MIDI,[d] Guitar Pro (versions 3–5),[t] LilyPond,[e] ASCII tab,[u] PDF	Julian Gabriel Casadesus	1.6.6; 27 December 2024 (7 months ago) (2024-12-27)	LGPL-2.1-only	No cost	Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Android
Name	Guitar tablature	WYSIWYG editor	MIDI entry[a]	Playback	Import	Export	Developer(s)	Stable release; review date	License	Cost	Operating systems
					File formats

File formats and extensions

1. When entering notes, "step-time" means one first selects the note duration then enters notes and chords one a time, while "real-time" means one plays the notes to enter with correct rhythm and the software recognizes the note durations.
2. Canorus native format, .can
3. MusicXML, open standard XML-based music notation exchange format, .xml or (version 3.1 or later) .musicxml
4. Standard MIDI file format, .mid or .midi
5. LilyPond plain text native format, .ly
6. Capella native format, binary file, .cap
7. Capella native format, compressed ZIP containing XML, .capx
8. Denemo native format, .denemo
9. Dorico native format, .dorico
10. Early notation typesetter native format, .ent
11. Encore native format, .enc
12. MusicTime (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .mto, .mus (different to Finale .mus)
13. Rhapsody (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .rhp
14. MusicXML version 2.0 or later, compressed as a ZIP, .mxl
15. Cakewalk MIDI file format, .mff^{[clarification needed]}
16. Master Tracks Pro (by the same developer as Encore) native format, .mts
17. Mac version only
18. Finale native format, .mus (2012 and earlier) or .musx (2014 and later)
19. Forte native format, .fnf
20. Guitar Pro native format version 1–2, .gtp; version 3, .gp3; version 4, .gp4; version 5, .gp5; version 6, .gpx; version 7, .gp
21. ASCII tablature plain text format, .txt, .tab, or .btab
22. Power Tab Editor native format, .ptb
23. TablEdit native format, .tef
24. Impro-Visor native format, .ls
25. ABC plain text format, .abc
26. Finale Enigma Transport Format, .etf^[1]
27. Maestro software family native format, .sfd
28. Standard MIDI file format including standard MIDI lyrics, used for karaoke, .kar
29. Mozart native format, .mz
30. Notation Interchange File Format, .nif
31. Mus2 notation and tuning file format, .mus2, .mu2
32. MuseScore native format, .mscz; uncompressed XML-based format, .mscx; style sheet, .mss; score album, .album
33. MuseData project format, .md
34. Bagpipe Music Writer native format, .bww
35. Band-in-a-Box native format, .mgu or .sgu
36. Overture native format, .ove
37. MusiCAD plain text native format, .mc
38. MusicEase native format, .mez
39. SongWright native format, .sw
40. Musink native format, .musink
41. PMX, preprocessor language for MusixTeX, .pmx; M-Tx, processor for PMX, .mtx
42. TeX device independent file format, .dvi
43. NoteSoft file, Notation Software native format, .not
44. NoteWorthy Composer native format, .nwc or .nwctxt
45. Score Writer (by the same developer as Overture) native format, .scw
46. Philip's Music Writer native format, human-readable text, .pmw
47. Rosegarden native format, .rg
48. Hydrogen drum machine song XML file format, .h2song
49. Csound audio domain-specific language format, without orchestra data, .csd
50. Music Publisher Score file format, .mup
51. Sibelius (scorewriter) native format, .sib
52. SmartScore native format, .enf
53. TuxGuitar native format, .tg

See also

• Comparison of MIDI editors and sequencers
• List of guitar tablature software
• List of music software
• List of scorewriters