Hookpad vs Songkeeper Studio

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.

Songkeeper Studio is a songwriting app for guitarists who want to keep recordings, lyrics, chords, and practice tools together. A song can hold multiple recordings for playback and multiple drafts that can be copied, moved between songs, renamed, or deleted. Guitar tools include chord diagrams, a chromatic tuner, tuning options, and chord transposition. The writing editor offers word suggestions, rhymes, a music keyboard, tablature stamp mode, and trackpad cursor control. For practice, users can set a tempo, use a metronome or drum loops, and enable tempo-based autoscroll. Reference videos can be linked and played in the built-in YouTube player. The free Basic plan costs nothing and allows five songs, two drafts and two recordings per song. Pro costs $0.99 a month and adds unlimited songs, drafts, and recordings, Cloud Vault, sharing, collaboration, import, and export; it includes a 7-day free trial. The app runs on Android and iOS. Songs are also stored locally, and the site warns they can be lost if the app is uninstalled or the phone is lost.