Log inSign upSibelius is Avid’s professional notation application, and it is desktop software: you install it, license it, and edit where the install is. StaffWeaver is a music notation editor built for the other way of working — fully in the browser, touch-first on tablets, scores saved to your account rather than to one machine, AI scanning for the paper library with a side-by-side repair workflow, an AI chat that can write a whole score from a prompt, and printing that paginates properly. If you have ever wanted to pick up a score from a school Chromebook, a rehearsal iPad or a borrowed laptop, this page is for you.
We are not trying to out-engrave Sibelius, and this page isn’t affiliated with Avid — we’d rather make the honest case for where each tool fits.
StaffWeaver runs entirely in a modern browser. There is no download, no installer, and no licence to deactivate on one machine before it will run on another — you sign in and your scores are there. That matters most on the machines you do not control: a school Chromebook, a rehearsal-room desktop, a borrowed laptop.
Note entry is touch-first: drag and drop from the palette, or tap notes onto a slide-up piano keyboard with octave shift and a chord-building mode. The editor supports tablet-sized screens and larger — iPad, Android tablets, Chromebooks, laptops, and desktops. Phone-sized screens are not supported for editing.
Sibelius exports MusicXML, and MusicXML import is free here on every plan (.xml, .musicxml and compressed .mxl, up to 5 MB a file). Export is free too, so nothing you write here is trapped: send a score back out as MusicXML whenever you want it. We cannot open a .sib file directly — the route in is Sibelius’s own MusicXML export.
Upload a PDF, PNG or JPEG (15 MB and 10 pages a job) and AI scanning produces an editable first draft, not a transcription. On real published lead sheets it scores a mean F1 of 0.34; on our synthetic corpus, 0.825 pooled. That is an assistive starting point you finish in Review Mode, which puts the scan beside the original page for a side-by-side repair loop with one-click fixes and per-measure AI assist.
AI Score Chat can create a whole score from a prompt — instrumentation, key, time signature and notes — and then keep editing it conversationally. AI features run on credits; composing, playback, printing, MusicXML import and export, and the structural Proofread checks cost no credits on any plan.
Start a score from an ensemble — Concert Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Marching Band, or an SATB, SSA or SAB choir — and it loads in that ensemble’s own score order, bracketed by section. Every part renders and prints in the pitch the player actually reads, with correctly transposed key signatures and a one-click toggle to concert pitch for the conductor. Single parts view and print on their own pages, with no blank first page and no system split across a page break.
Premium is priced per seat, so a band, choir or orchestra can share one score library with everyone editing the same scores. Every price is published on the pricing page — there is no sales call and no quote to request.
An honest comparison cuts both ways — here is what we don’t do.
Sibelius is a mature professional engraving application with decades of typographic control behind it — house styles, detailed spacing and beaming rules, and per-object positioning of a kind we do not offer. If your work is publication engraving and the last five percent of the page is the job, that is Sibelius’s ground, not ours.
Sibelius has a long-established plugin ecosystem and a feature set built up over many versions. StaffWeaver has no plugin API, and there are corners of a large notation application we simply have not built.
An installed desktop application keeps working with no network at all. StaffWeaver keeps offline drafts that sync when you reconnect, but it is a web application: signing in, saving to your account, and every AI feature need a connection.
Export here is MusicXML (.musicxml, .mxl), client-side and free. There is no MIDI export, no audio export and no PDF export — printing goes through your browser’s print dialog.
Export MusicXML from Sibelius, upload it here, and keep editing from any tablet, Chromebook or laptop — then export MusicXML straight back out whenever you want it. Free to start, no credit card required.
Sibelius and Avid are trademarks of their respective owners. StaffWeaver is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Avid Technology, Inc.