Sibelius
Music Notation and Scoring App
How much does Sibelius cost?
Prices are current as of 4 Oct 2026.
2 subscriptions from $5.99
In the United States, Sibelius has 2 subscriptions priced $5.99 – 12.99. It comes with a 1 month free trial.
| Subscription | Period | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Sibelius Artist for iOS | MonthlyTrial: 1 month | $5.99 |
| Sibelius Ultimate for iOS | MonthlyTrial: 1 month | $12.99 |
10+ alternatives to Sibelius
| Sibelius |   forScore |   Flat: Sheet Music Maker & Tabs |   来音制谱-sheet music editing |   Notation Pad-Sheet Music Score |   Piascore – Sheet Music Reader |   Newzik: Sheet Music Reader |  Dorico - Compose Music |   Composer Pro-Sheet Music Maker |   IMSLP |   Score Creator: compose music | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 4.3 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 3.6 |
| Reviews | 10K | 92K | 21K | 17K | 16K | 16K | 7.6K | 7.3K | 3.8K | 2.9K | 2K |
| Released | 2021 | 2010 | 2017 | 2023 | 2016 | 2010 | 2015 | 2021 | 2021 | 2018 | 2013 |
| Monthly price | $5.99 | — | $9.99 | $4.99 | $14.99 | — | $9.99 | $4.99 | $9.99 | $3.99 | $4.99 |
| Annual price | — | $14.99 | $39.99 | $39.99 | — | — | $44.99 | $49.99 | $49.99 | — | $17.49 |
| One-time price | — | $0.99 | $119.00 | $3.99 | $0.99 | $4.99 | $24.99 | $119.99 | — | — | $69.99 |
The going rate for each plan in United States, in its own currency, shaded from the cheapest price on the row to the dearest. Plans fewer than four in ten of the priced apps sell are left out.
Sibelius reviews
4.3 out of 5, based on 10,230 reviews.
What people like
- Syncs seamlessly across all your Apple devices
- Works great with external MIDI keyboards
- Very powerful for serious music composition
- Free version offers decent basic functionality
What they complain about
- Crashes often and deletes your unsaved work
- No automatic save forces constant manual saving
- Support is unhelpful and hard to reach
- Many features locked behind expensive subscriptions
Great app definitely recommend it
Amazing didn't know how to use at first but now make great songs
Crashes a lot
Crashes a lot with significant loss of work.
It’s good
Now. I’m really interested in ragtime(I’ve working on my own ragtime piece) but when I’m doing Scott Joplin pieces sometimes it has cross beaming and I can only run on the free version and sometimes it crashes and the bit I had done at that time goes away and sometimes if I did a lot I get really upset and also please make cross beaming and tuplets free and also! A quick idea! You could add anacrusis’s for time signatures(so in the app ♭ you can have an anacrusis for the time signatures that I don’t fully understand)
App frequently crashes, losing your work
It would be nice if I didn’t have to keep redoing things because it loses all my progress. Infuriatingly, there isn’t an option to report this bug in the app and would apparently need to pay $30 for a “single issue support code” to bring it to their attention. Life is precious, don’t waste your time on this app. If you do use it, save your work all the time like you’re paranoid.
Chorister
Sibelius First
Angelina ballerina
FRANZ Liszt
Complicated and difficult to install and manage
This program is complicated and difficult to install and manage. It lacks the features of the desktop version and is overall a very frustrating experience.
Sibelius
Working well so far. I’m doing amazing!
Shocking How Bad This Is
worked with this for a couple hours. here's why Im cancelling my subscription: 1. Autoosave is 90s technology. not only does this trash app not do it, but the manual save command is not in an obvious place and nothing tells you that it isnt autosaving so you have to learn the hard way. 2. triplets should not require as much work as this does. nor should it take as much work to figure out how to do them as this takes. 3. i still cant find anything in it that will notate a shuffle and actually swing the eighth notes on playback. that was three strikes for me, maybe i will try again in a few,pre versions but for now the quest for a decent tablet notation program that ports to a desktop app goes on...
Bravo
This app is helping me a lot for making music… Thank you…
Great App
Last year I was using another app for notating music because I was so impressed that the cloud updated across all my ipads and iphone and computer the moment I notated something on one platform. I decided to give Sibeluis one more chance before I moved on to one of the many apps available. Happy I stayed because as long as I have a bluetooth (typewriter) keyboard for my ipad, notating is a breeze. All of the shortcuts on the keyboard are the same on ipad as they are on my Macbook Pro. From the ipad, I just email the file and pick it up on my macbook pro and tweak the score. And the app is improving daily. Nice work!!
Terrible
I tried to give it a chance but it sucks
Needed more pro user input
Creating a fully functional app on a tablet was, and still is difficult. The functionality is there, but packed into so few visual images, that a constant “hunting and pecking” is necessary to find them. There was plenty of room to add a small selection bar, but the designers thought that a few millimeters would make a difference, and ignored a little plain human help. Four stars—maybe ADD a user defined bar where we can place our favorite functions.
No exporting? What?
It’s 2025 and no exporting. Should be one star for that alone. Give me a break .
Not good, not bad
I was writing a score for organ, and when I clicked play to hear it the App crashed, and did not save. I’ve also had some other problems. I am also on an iPad because I am not sure how to get it on desktop, so I’ve had some trouble placing the actual notes. If the main developers read this, please do not be off put, but as the title suggests, it’s not good, but not bad.
Good
Good
Auto-save failure
Definitely attractive and I was thinking about getting the full license. But then when I returned to my first piece from 10 hours ago and took the app out of Split Screen, it crashed, and my piece was nowhere to be found. It forgot to auto-save. Obviously that needs to be air-tight before someone starts a real composition.
Schoolgirl
I just got this app and it is , I have to admit , a little tricky at first , but after you get the hang of it it’s really easy and fun. It is great , but the only thing is sometimes there’s a little bug that means that it sometimes automatically makes you leave the app and unless you’ve saved it it can delete all your work. Apart from that it’s amazing and I highly recommend it.❤️🌟😍👍
A wee little rant
By god this is the most annoying app i have ever used in my god forsaken life. I try to write one simple note, to which it responds by placing another in a location i did not remotely put it in; i try to select a note to go back and edit it and it places another on top; and to top it all off, once i finally think i got the app to work, it randomly closes and loses my file. I finally got somewhere after about 2 hours of working through fits of screaming matches, and i go to click play and it refuses to play the one part i actually want to listen to. For the moments where it actually works (in between my mental breakdowns,) i like to remember that it does offer more than other apps for free, but then i remember how every time i think i have it figured out, something random like the page glitching out of my view or removing necessary pages/measures happens, and i then recall how much mental gymnastics this game has put me through. the only good thing about this app is the price of the free version. I can only sum up this app in one way and that would be as an emotionally abusive ex boyfriend whom gaslights you on the daily as if he were in one of sabrina carpenter's songs. if you have the patience of a saint and an extremely stable mental health, i recommend this to you. As for me, i will likely continue to use it despite my very public breakdown-esque review due to the fact that this causes slightly less breakdowns than other apps and i am too broke to pay for another.
Subscription Needed
Can barely do anything without a subscription
Professional del Clarinete
Fantastico
Crashes way too much
Running on iPad Pro m4, and it’s crashed 3 times in the ten minutes I’ve tried working in it. Work keeps getting lost. I can’t trust this tool.
Small suggestion:
As I have said before, this app is of good quality although they ask for a—perhaps more than adequate—amount of your money, it has many features for composers, editors and arrangers. But I have a little suggestion, and I think it would not be hard to add: Recently we got the option to add the system objects below the bottom staff. Well, could you add first and second time bars for the bottom staff, except they are flipped, to be shaped like this: |______ and ______| Sometimes these are seen in older editions (for example the orchestral scores from Breitkopf and Härtel’s Beethoven’s Werke) I think this would be cool and more aesthetically pleasing. Thanks! Another point, the ability to export to audio on mobile would be greatly appreciated, since the only way we have to get our composition’s audio is to send it to the computer and put it into a MIDI reader and that is a very laborious process. Additionally, in recent updates, they have improved the value of the Artist subscription by adding more staves. However, it would be nice to see more types of ornaments added to Artist.
Please add these features
I use this in my choir, but it's really hard to use. There isn't an easy way to play just one line while seeing all of them or to play all of them while seeing just one. It's also annoying to select where you want to play from. Please fix those! Also, whenever I import a file from google drive, it will go to the homescreen and I can't open anything until I close and reopen the app. Seperately, I wish that this app could play in the background so that I can look at a pdf of the sheet music on my phone at the same time, because the lyrics often aren't included in the sibelius file.
Very RAGE INDUCING.
I tried to work out with slurs, but it wouldn’t let me move the whole slur after doing stuff for 5 minutes it just makes me so angry that it made thus eating from 3 to 1 star, heck 0..
Sibelius
The app would not connect to my Yamaha digital piano with my MIDI cable also it would not let me insert any notes or key signatures.
DO NOT INSTALL, DELETED EVERYTHING
I used this app for a bit and I had a crazy good song idea, I spent 2 HOURS working on it. I hit save and close only to close the app and come back to NOTHING, 1 star.
Just one thing is wrong
Pretty good and efficient and easy to learn, but if I’m trying to switch tabs to look at a reference or something and I go back the app just closes and I lose all the progress I had before saving my work.
…..
Every time I went back on my song had disappeared im sure it would make the app a lot better if you didn’t have to save the song for it to stay there it is also quite a hard app to use xxx
Used to be SO good
I really enjoyed composing on sibelius and have written a lot music particularly with strings in it. The strings in the new update sound awful wich is really unfortunate because it truly is a wounderful app. I recommend if you dont plan on composing for strings- they are quite literally ear piercing.
Bluetooth
I love the fact that i can pair my keyboard to the app and play as i find it boring to just TAP at a screen all the time. I just want to say how much I love this app and how much it means for me to have something like this.
Unable to properly import
Unable to receive from PlayScore without losing half the lyrics and all the dynamics.
Good but has some issues
Sibelius is a good app to compose music but when I tried it on the drum kit none of the cymbals worked except the hi-hat but everything else looks and sounds ok
I can’t Write music anymore
Basically I created 2 pieces for orchestra and now I can’t use anything for band or orchestra. I tried to use the blank sheet option but I can only add five instruments so I can’t create any orchestra pieces. Please update this
Needs work
Well, it’s nice that you can actually open your Sibelius files and work with them. I use an Apple Pencil and there are many flaws. Some of the tutorials that give you pointers on working with the Apple Pencil don’t work. For note entry, you cannot long press the pencil in a bar to activate note entry when it’s closed. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter how much pressure you had, it doesn’t work. You also cannot use the Apple Pencil to lasso. You have to use your finger. Things like this are very frustrating when you have to go back-and-forth between your Apple Pencil and your finger. Slow work flow. The app also freezes a lot. And then I have to restart it. The two finger gestures work sometimes, but not always. Honestly, I find the app to be more frustrating than it is useful. In addition, sidebar, Avid’s support for their products is possibly the worst I’ve seen…right below Facebook (the absolute worst)
Music
It’s a good music composing app and it’s free
App keeps crashing 👎
Every time I try to play back a song, the app crashes and closes. Ridiculous. 👎
Pencil and Subscription.
I got Sibelius a while ago and it is a great app though the Apple Pencil for iPad Pro 2022 is not compatible so please do your best to update this. I have also been subscribed to Sibelius Ultimate for a while but only but for some unfound reason my subscription no longer works although the Subscription Management on the App Store says that I am still paying. I no longer have any access to any of the Sibelius Ultimate features. Please try your best to fix this issue! Thanks.
It was fine before
Why did you add a subscription it was fine before
New Update?
I used to be able to create string quintets and sextets, but now if I want to, I need to ‘upgrade’. I understand that they need to make money somehow, but I’m frustrated since I used to be able to create these for the longest time, but now I have to pay? This is the best app I’ve used to create music, but now I can’t create what I want due to a pay wall.
TRULY AMAZING!
To all of the 1-2 stars out there, IT IS INCREDIBLY FALSE! The note placing is super easy, And my songs haven't been deleted in the span of 2 days, I got the hang of it in the span of 2 minutes, and even made a happy birthday song! But I'm still having a bit of trouble on finding the speed of the music, I might need a tutorial, But overall this app is really great and fun to use!
Cant even put notes
I clock and it doesn’t show the note button what the heck fix this app
It’s good, not bad
Ok, Quite hard to get around it on an iPad (incredible on pc) but I’ve got the hand of it and set a good start!!!
Can’t get the notes on
Read title
Very good, just a couple recommendations to make it better…
I moved my rating for Sibelius from 4 stars to 3 stars. Why? Because I no longer have the option to set the tempo using metronome markings. Despite the fact that I’m subscribed to the Sibelius Ultimate plan at $12.99 a month. Also, there should be a feature to enlarge the chord symbols. As is, they’re on the small side to the chagrin of some of the musicians I write for. Also, expand the options for time signatures. Why is there no option for 7/4? Those are my only two gripes about this app. Fix these issues and you’ll have a near perfect music notation app.
Ahhhaaaaaa
I normally love Sibelius and I have just started to use it to write compositions but my whole composition deleted itself and I don’t know why. Other then that, Sibelius is 🔛🔝!
A Miserable App
Never in my life have I used an app that was designed by a more elitist group of people. The quality and ease of navigation is poor, and unless you spend the $900 upfront to “buy their software” to own the work you put into the app instead of paying the “monthly rental fee” of $30 a month, they condescend by not taking phone calls and require their PAYING CUSTOMERS to “open a case” on their website rather than talk to you directly from their ivory towers. In other words, they essentially offer ZERO SUPPORT online, and their so-called online manuals are nothing better than a wild goose chase for information. Frankly, I have NEVER felt more swindled in my life, and if you’re smart, you’ll stay away from this miserable app.
Almost…..
I used to have Sibelius on pc at work. Now I have Sibelius on iPad. I can’t seem to print out separate parts, only scores. Could this be looked into? Or please explain how to do it in the help link. Please.
Importing musicxml
Importing musicxml files dosnt seem to work. All of the existing musicxml files on my system are greyed out by sibelius and cannot be selected.
Poor quality app but useful
Buggy, crashes regularly, and you can’t make custom time signatures, or add multiple bars at a time, but it is useful for note entry on the go.
Sibelius price by country
A monthly subscription costs $0.81 in Turkey and $7.92 in the United Kingdom — 10× more for the same thing. Below is the going rate for each plan in every country that sells it — the middle price of what the app charges there, in the country's own currency with the dollar equivalent beneath it.
| Country | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | $5.99 |
| Albania | $7.19 |
| Algeria | $5.99 |
| Angola | $5.99 |
| Anguilla | $5.99 |
| Antigua And Barbuda | $5.99 |
| Argentina | $5.99 |
| Armenia | $5.99 |
| Australia | A$9.99$6.94 |
| Austria | €6.49$7.55 |
| Azerbaijan | $5.99 |
| Bahamas | $5.99 |
| Bahrain | $5.99 |
| Barbados | $5.99 |
| Belgium | €6.49$7.30 |
| Belize | $5.99 |
| Benin | $5.99 |
| Bermuda | $5.99 |
| Bhutan | $5.99 |
| Bolivia | $5.99 |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | €6.49$7.30 |
| Botswana | $5.99 |
| Brazil | R$24.90$4.77 |
| British Virgin Islands | $5.99 |
| Brunei Darussalam | $5.99 |
| Bulgaria | €6.49$7.30 |
| Burkina Faso | $5.99 |
| Cambodia | $5.99 |
| Cameroon | $5.99 |
| Canada | CA$7.99$5.63 |
| Cape Verde | $5.99 |
| Cayman Islands | $5.99 |
| Chad | $5.99 |
| Chile | CLP 4,500$4.58 |
| China | CN¥43.00$6.41 |
| Colombia | COP 24,900$7.52 |
| Congo | $5.99 |
| Congo, Democratic Republic | $5.99 |
| Costa Rica | $5.99 |
| Cote Divoire | $5.99 |
| Croatia | €6.63$7.46 |
| Cyprus | €6.49$7.30 |
| Czech Republic | CZK 169.00$7.78 |
| Denmark | DKK 49.00$7.37 |
| Dominica | $5.99 |
| Dominican Republic | $5.99 |
| Ecuador | $5.99 |
| Egypt | EGP 97.99$1.87 |
| El Salvador | $5.99 |
| Estonia | €6.49$7.30 |
| Fiji | $5.99 |
| Finland | €6.49$7.30 |
| France | €6.49$7.30 |
| Gabon | $5.99 |
| Gambia | $5.99 |
| Georgia | $5.99 |
| Germany | €6.49$7.30 |
| Ghana | $5.99 |
| Greece | €6.49$7.30 |
| Grenada | $5.99 |
| Guatemala | $5.99 |
| Guinea-bissau | $5.99 |
| Guyana | $5.99 |
| Honduras | $5.99 |
| Hong Kong | HK$48.00$6.12 |
| Hungary | HUF 2,290$6.99 |
| Iceland | $7.43 |
| India | ₹499.00$5.18 |
| Indonesia | IDR 85,000$4.75 |
| Iraq | $5.99 |
| Ireland | €6.49$7.30 |
| Israel | ₪21.90$7.18 |
| Italy | €6.49$7.30 |
| Jamaica | $5.99 |
| Japan | ¥650$4.12 |
| Jordan | $5.99 |
| Kazakhstan | KZT 2,290.00$5.16 |
| Kenya | $5.99 |
| Kosovo | €6.49$7.30 |
| Kuwait | $5.99 |
| Kyrgyzstan | $5.99 |
| Lao Peoples Democratic Republic | $5.99 |
| Latvia | €6.49$7.30 |
| Lebanon | $5.99 |
| Liberia | $5.99 |
| Libya | $5.99 |
| Lithuania | €6.49$7.30 |
| Luxembourg | €6.49$7.30 |
| Macao | $5.99 |
| Macedonia | $5.99 |
| Madagascar | $5.99 |
| Malawi | $5.99 |
| Malaysia | MYR 26.90$6.59 |
| Maldives | $5.99 |
| Mali | $5.99 |
| Malta | €6.49$7.30 |
| Mauritania | $5.99 |
| Mauritius | $5.99 |
| Mexico | MX$119.00$6.53 |
| Micronesia | $5.99 |
| Moldova | $5.99 |
| Mongolia | $5.99 |
| Montenegro | €6.49$7.30 |
| Montserrat | $5.99 |
| Morocco | $5.99 |
| Mozambique | $5.99 |
| Myanmar | $5.99 |
| Namibia | $5.99 |
| Nauru | $5.99 |
| Nepal | $5.99 |
| Netherlands | €6.49$7.30 |
| New Zealand | NZ$10.99$6.17 |
| Nicaragua | $5.99 |
| Niger | $5.99 |
| Nigeria | NGN 2,200.00$1.65 |
| Norway | NOK 69.00$7.17 |
| Oman | $5.99 |
| Pakistan | PKR 950$3.43 |
| Palau | $5.99 |
| Panama | $5.99 |
| Papua New Guinea | $5.99 |
| Paraguay | $5.99 |
| Peru | PEN 19.90$5.78 |
| Philippines | ₱309.00$4.94 |
| Poland | PLN 28.99$7.45 |
| Portugal | €6.49$7.30 |
| Qatar | QAR 20.99$5.77 |
| Romania | RON 29.99$6.33 |
| Rwanda | $5.99 |
| Sao Tome & Principe | $5.99 |
| Saudi Arabia | SAR 22.99$6.13 |
| Senegal | $5.99 |
| Serbia | €6.49$7.30 |
| Seychelles | $5.99 |
| Sierra Leone | $5.99 |
| Singapore | SGD 8.98$7.02 |
| Slovakia | €6.49$7.30 |
| Slovenia | €6.49$7.30 |
| Solomon Islands | $5.99 |
| South Africa | ZAR 104.99$6.30 |
| South Korea | ₩8,000$5.94 |
| Spain | €6.49$7.30 |
| Sri Lanka | $5.99 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | $5.99 |
| St. Lucia | $5.99 |
| St. Vincent & The Grenadines | $5.99 |
| Suriname | $5.99 |
| Swaziland | $5.99 |
| Sweden | SEK 75.00$7.47 |
| Switzerland | CHF 6.50$7.84 |
| Taiwan | NT$200.00$6.28 |
| Tajikistan | $5.99 |
| Tanzania | TZS 13,900.00$5.25 |
| Thailand | THB 179.00$5.33 |
| Tonga | $5.99 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | $5.99 |
| Tunisia | $5.99 |
| Turkey | TRY 39.99$0.81 |
| Turkmenistan | $5.99 |
| Turks and Caicos | $5.99 |
| Uganda | $5.99 |
| Ukraine | $5.99 |
| United Arab Emirates | AED 22.99$6.26 |
| United Kingdom | £5.99$7.92 |
| United States | $5.99 |
| Uruguay | $5.99 |
| Uzbekistan | $5.99 |
| Vanuatu | $5.99 |
| Venezuela | $5.99 |
| Vietnam | ₫139,000$5.36 |
| Yemen | $5.99 |
| Zambia | $5.99 |
| Zimbabwe | $5.99 |
Sibelius FAQ
- Is Sibelius free?
- Yes. The app and its basic features are free, in all 173 countries it sells in. Premium features are paid: they start from $5.99 (US), across 2 subscriptions.
- How much does Sibelius cost per month?
- Sibelius Artist for iOS is $5.99 – 12.99 (US).
- Does Sibelius have a free trial?
- Yes — a 1 month free trial (US).
- Where is Sibelius cheapest?
- A monthly subscription costs TRY 39.99 (≈$0.81) in Turkey and £5.99 (≈$7.92) in the United Kingdom, its cheapest and dearest countries.
- What are the best alternatives to Sibelius?
- forScore (4.8 from 92,314 reviews, premium from $0.99), Flat: Sheet Music Maker & Tabs (4.5 from 21,055 reviews, premium from $9.99) and 来音制谱-sheet music editing (4.8 from 17,181 reviews, premium from $1.99).
Sibelius download
Last updated 8 days ago.
Sibelius sells in 173 countries. It was released 5 years and 2 months ago, on 29 Jul 2021. It holds a 4.3 rating from 10,230 reviews.
Supports 9 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Spanish.
How much does Sibelius make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.
Revenue by plan
- Monthly 100%
Revenue by country
- United States 29%
- China 10%
- United Kingdom 9%
- Germany 6%