CogNote vs DuetStudio
CogNote
cognote.studioDuetStudio
duetstudio.ioSide by side
| Figure | CogNote | DuetStudio |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 6 |
| Spec score · Music Lesson Scheduling Software | 9.2 (#2) | 8.8 (#3) |
| Lesson notes | Teachers can save lesson notes and send them to families by email and through the portal. | Teachers can write lesson notes and pair them with practice assignments. |
| Scheduling | It supports recurring weekly lessons and one-tap attendance while preserving local lesson times across daylight-saving changes. | Teachers can schedule one-off and weekly recurring lessons in a calendar. |
| Support | The hosting page directs product questions to [email protected]. | Users can contact support through the contact page or email [email protected]. |
| What it does | CogNote is an open-source studio-management and music-practice suite for private music teachers. | DuetStudio combines a public teacher page with lesson scheduling, student records, practice work and billing for private music teachers. |
Plans
DuetStudio
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Pro$12 a month
- Pro$120 a year
- Pro annual$120 a year
- Organization$208 a year
In their own words
CogNote
CogNote is an open-source studio management suite for private music teachers, combining lesson scheduling, attendance, family communication, student progress tracking, quizzes, and flashcards. Teachers can schedule recurring weekly lessons and record attendance with one tap; cancellation windows, banked credits, and credit expiry are configurable studio settings. Families can use a private link to see schedules, practice links, and notes without logging in, and teachers can email lesson notes. Progress views include skill radar charts, trend lines, attendance, and per-note quiz analytics. Students can start practice from a link without an account, using note and symbol quizzes with instant feedback or SM-2 spaced-repetition flashcards. Notation appears on a staff with clefs, key signatures, and more than 40 musical symbols. CogNote is MIT-licensed, supports data export, and can be self-hosted. Hosted Free has soft caps of five active students, five practice lessons, and five sheet music items; Hosted Pro costs $5 a month and includes a 30-day trial for new accounts. Self-hosting is free but requires running the stack, including Docker or Supabase, email, and backups.
DuetStudio
DuetStudio is a web-based studio management service for private music teachers, covering scheduling, lesson notes, practice assignments, invoicing, and a student portal. Teachers can set one-off or recurring lessons, track attendance, manage cancellations, and send automatic morning-of email reminders. Notes can be shared with students and parents or kept private. Students use an emailed magic link without a password to see upcoming lessons, assignments, practice logs, and shared notes; they can log practice time and track completion. Online invoice payments run through Stripe, while teachers can list Venmo, Zelle, or Cash App details. DuetStudio says it takes no share of lesson payments. The free plan includes manual invoicing; Pro costs $120 a year, billed annually, and adds automatic invoicing, a music library, practice analytics, repertoire tracking, and a public booking page. Organization costs $208 a year, billed annually, requires at least two seats, and is marked coming soon. The responsive web app works on phones and tablets, but there is no native mobile app. Students must currently be added manually because import is unavailable.