Hookpad vs Song Cage

Hookpad is browser-based songwriting software for composing chord progressions, melodies and songs with integrated music theory tools. Its chord suggestions draw on music theory and data from 75,000 songs. The free plan includes Smart Guides, transposition, tempo and looping, piano playback and cloud saving; advanced chord palettes and search are limited to one-minute previews. Standard adds more than 500 instruments, 11 band templates, up to four melody voices, lyrics, mixing, recording and MIDI input, along with MIDI and MP3 export. Users can also export sheet music, guitar tablature and lead sheets. MIDI exports can be imported into digital audio workstations such as GarageBand, Logic and Pro Tools. Audio import supports WAV and MP3; MIDI input requires a browser with Web MIDI API support. Optional Aria can suggest chords, melodies or both. Hookpad works in a browser and offers tablet touch mode, but is not suitable for smartphone editing. Standard costs $7.99 a month, billed monthly; the optional Aria add-on costs $14.99 a month, billed monthly.

Song Cage brings chord, melody, lyric, and music-theory tools together on one songwriting canvas. Its chord palette includes diatonic and borrowed chords, secondary dominants, extensions, and modulation routes, then ranks suggestions against a melody and neighboring chords. The lyric workspace offers rhyme, synonym, semantic, and verb/noun suggestions. The free web plan supports one song and includes playback, audio recording, and song-file export. A Song Cage licence costs $99.00 one-time and adds unlimited songs, PDF chord sheets, MIDI export, Mac and Windows desktop apps, an AU/VST3 plugin, phone captures in an Ideas inbox, collaborators, and web/desktop sync. The desktop app works offline on macOS 12 or later with Apple Silicon or Intel, and Windows 10 or later on 64-bit x64. The free iPhone and Android app captures voice memos, lyrics, and chord ideas offline without an account, but lacks the full editor, timeline, export, and DAW. The plugin streams chord and melody MIDI in sync with DAW transport and saves songs in the DAW project. Song Cage says it does not use AI to write songs; chord suggestions use music-theory rules and word tools use dictionary lookups.