The 10 best songwriting apps, ranked by a working songwriter
(updated )
I live outside Nashville and I write every day, mostly on my phone. This list is the apps that actually stayed on my home screen after years of trying everything.
The order is about how often I open them, not how fancy they are. A free app I use every day beats a $20-a-month app I forget about.
Number 1
Voloco
- Works on
- iPhone, iPad, Android
- Price
- Free, with a Premium subscription
- Best for
- Turning a phone vocal into a demo you’re proud to send
Voloco is where nearly every song of mine goes after the first voice memo. It runs vocal effects while you record, so you hear yourself with pitch correction, harmony, or a vocoder in your headphones instead of finding out later. When I load a backing track it detects the key on its own, which saves me from guessing before every take.
The free version is more than a teaser: five Starter Pack effects (Hard Tune, Natural Tune, Super Vocoder, Big Chorus, and Clean), presets for EQ, compression, echo, and reverb, and MP3 export. Auto Mix, which balances your vocal against the beat in one tap, is free too. Premium adds 62 more effects, up to eight vocal tracks, WAV export, and auto-mastering that runs on your phone.
Number 2
Voice Memos
- Works on
- iPhone, iPad, Mac
- Price
- Free (built in)
- Best for
- Catching a melody in the truck before it’s gone
Nothing beats the app that’s already on your phone. Half my choruses started as me humming into Voice Memos at a red light on Highway 96. It syncs to my Mac, so the idea is waiting when I sit down to write.
It’s not a writing tool, it’s a net. Name your memos the second you make them, or you’ll end up with 400 files called “New Recording.”
Number 3
RhymeZone
- Works on
- Web, iPhone, Android
- Price
- Free
- Best for
- Finding the rhyme that isn’t the obvious one
RhymeZone has been around forever because it works. Type a word and you get perfect rhymes, near rhymes, synonyms, and phrases, sorted by syllable count. The near rhymes are where the good stuff lives; country songwriting runs on them.
I keep it open in a browser tab whenever I’m writing on the laptop.
Number 4
Hookpad
- Works on
- Web
- Price
- Free version, with a paid upgrade
- Best for
- Working out chords under a melody when you’re stuck
Hookpad is a browser sketchpad from Hooktheory that suggests chords that fit, shows you why they work, and plays the whole thing back. When a verse feels stuck on the same three chords, I sketch it here and try a few borrowed chords before I pick up the guitar.
It leans on music theory, but it explains as it goes, so you don’t need to know any going in.
Number 5
GarageBand
- Works on
- iPhone, iPad, Mac
- Price
- Free
- Best for
- Building a simple band track behind your guitar or piano
GarageBand is still the easiest way to put drums and bass behind a song idea. Smart Drums gets a groove going in a few taps, and the Mac version is a real recording studio for the price of nothing.
It pairs well with Voloco: Voloco Premium works as a plugin inside GarageBand on iPhone and iPad, so I can put Voloco’s vocal effects on a GarageBand vocal track.
Number 6
BandLab
- Works on
- iPhone, Android, Web
- Price
- Free, with paid tiers
- Best for
- Collaborating with a co-writer who isn’t in the room
BandLab is a full multitrack studio that runs in a browser or on your phone, and it’s built around sharing projects. When a co-writer in Knoxville and I trade parts, we usually do it here.
It does a lot, which is also its downside: there’s a learning curve, and more of the good stuff has moved into paid tiers lately.
Number 7
Songcraft
- Works on
- Web
- Price
- Free, with a paid plan
- Best for
- Keeping lyrics, chords, and demos on one page
Songcraft puts lyrics, chord charts, and audio on the same page, which is how my brain wants a song laid out. Chords sit right above the words they go with, so I can hand a co-writer a link instead of a photo of my notebook.
Number 8
Ultimate Guitar
- Works on
- iPhone, Android, Web
- Price
- Free, with a Pro subscription
- Best for
- Learning how other writers built the songs you love
Not a writing app, but I learned more about song structure from pulling up chords to songs I love than from any book. When a song gets under my skin, I look it up here and play through it to see how the bridge earns its way back to the chorus.
Number 9
MasterWriter
- Works on
- Mac, Windows
- Price
- Subscription
- Best for
- Deep rhyme and phrase research for serious lyric work
MasterWriter is the heavy-duty version of RhymeZone, built specifically for songwriters: rhymes, phrases, idioms, and more, all in one desktop workspace. It’s more than most people need, but on a song I’m really trying to land, the phrase dictionary pays for itself.
Number 10
Soundbrenner Metronome
- Works on
- iPhone, Android
- Price
- Free
- Best for
- Tightening timing before a demo or a round
A good, free metronome with a clean interface. I run it before demos and before every writers’ round, because nerves always make me rush the second verse.