LilyPond vs MusicEase
LilyPond
lilypond.orgMusicEase
musicease.comSide by side
| Figure | LilyPond | MusicEase |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $249.95/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Music notation software | 8.4 (#9) | 8.1 (#20) |
| Deployment | desktop | desktop |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| License | LilyPond is published under the GNU General Public License, and the official Freedom page also identifies the GNU Free Documentation License. | The maker says MusicEase is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. |
| MIDI support | Yes | Yes |
| MusicXML support | Yes | Yes |
| Parts extraction | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The lilypond-user mailing list is the main place for users to discuss the program and help one another; some support is also available on IRC. | The maker recommends email as the best contact method and lists [email protected]. |
| Tablature support | Yes | Yes |
Plans
MusicEase
- MusicEase Professional$249.95 a month
- MusicEaseFree
- MusicEase Professional$249.95, paid once
In their own words
LilyPond
LilyPond is a desktop music-engraving program for producing sheet music, from classical and early music to modern scores, tablature, vocal music, lead sheets, educational materials, and orchestral projects. You enter score information as human-readable text; LilyPond then handles spacing, page and line breaks, clashes among lyrics, notes, and chords, and the shaping of slurs and beams. Layout settings can be changed, with text-based style sheets and functions written in the built-in Scheme language. Programs or scripts can edit or generate input files, and the command-line tool can be called from other applications. The site describes integrations for LaTeX and HTML, plus an extension for OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. User-developed editors include Frescobaldi, Denemo, and Spontini-Editor; they are separate from LilyPond’s core. The text workflow can be used with speech recognition and screen readers. LilyPond is free software under the GNU General Public License, with GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows desktop support. Windows binaries do not support Windows 7 or 8; macOS binaries require version 10.15 or later.