CogNote vs My Music Staff
CogNote
cognote.studio
My Music Staff
mymusicstaff.comSide by side
| Figure | CogNote | My Music Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | $14.95/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Music School Software | 9.2 (#2) | 8.0 (#10) |
| Spec score · Music Lesson Scheduling Software | 9.2 (#2) | 8.0 (#14) |
| Billing | CogNote can generate invoices from attendance and billing policies, email PDF invoices, record payment and export payment CSV files. | It provides calendar-based billing, professional invoices, automated invoicing and online payments, overdue reminders, and automatic late fees. |
| Support | The hosting page directs product questions to [email protected]. | The maker lists [email protected] plus toll-free US/Canada, UK, and international phone numbers. |
Plans
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.
My Music Staff
My Music Staff is studio-management software for private music teachers and studio owners. It handles private and group lesson scheduling, attendance and notes, student records, billing and family communication. Teachers can set lesson categories and locations, send automatic email and SMS reminders, and sync calendars with Google Calendar or iCalendar in both directions. Student records can hold family contact details, waitlists and leads; the service also supports bulk messages and importing student lists. Billing includes calendar-based charges, invoices, online payments, overdue reminders and automatic late fees. Families can use the Student Portal to register for open slots, view notes, repertoire, resources and studio news, and pay online. Website widgets add sign-up and portal login to site builders such as Wix, Squarespace and WordPress. Stripe and PayPal integrations support payments, and lesson reminders can include online meeting links. The web app can be added to Android and iOS home screens. Pricing is from $16.95/mo, with a 30-day trial and no free plan.