Apps like Andante

Andante is a practice journal written by a violinist, Miles Vinson, and it is one of the best-rated apps in its category: 4.9 stars from 3,071 App Store ratings on 20 October 2026, with an update the day before. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision, and nothing else. A Google Play search for it that day found no app by its developer, and the iPhone version needs iOS 17. That leaves out Android phones and older iPhones, which matters in a family with mixed phones. Four of the six apps below are on Google Play.

What each one costs, read off the listings

Read on 20 October 2026. Apple's column is the In-App Purchases row in each listing's Information section, which shows prices and gives a billing period only when the item name includes one. The Google Play column is the badges and download count on the listing. None of the Play listings here carried a Contains ads badge.

What Andante does, so you know what you are replacing

Its listing names a live practice timer with a metronome, a drone tuner and an audio recorder, or sessions added by hand afterwards. You can log time against specific pieces, rate your mood and focus, keep a streak and a daily goal, and read charts and a calendar of past sessions. Sharing sessions with friends is optional, and the listing says the app can stay fully offline. It syncs between iPhone and iPad through iCloud with no account, and adds Siri Shortcuts, widgets and Calendar syncing. Its App Privacy panel lists an email address linked to you, for app functionality, plus usage and crash data not linked to you, and nothing used to track you.

The alternatives

Modacity, for structured practice

A practice planner built around what its listing calls a Deliberate Practice System: plan a session, record it, rate it, and note what to fix next time, with a metronome and tuner built in. It is the most expensive app here, $12.99 a month or $129 a year after a 14-day trial, and its listing names Premium as the part with statistics, folders, cloud-synced recordings and the full history log. It is on both stores, though the Google Play version is small, with 1K+ downloads. Play's Data safety section says it may share personal info with third parties.

Instrumentive, by Stonekick, the cheap one on Android

The closest to Andante in shape: practice sessions, notes, recordings, goals and a metronome, synced to an account you sign in to. It is the largest of these on Google Play, 100K+ downloads and 4.5 stars from 620 reviews, and its subscription is the cheapest here at $1.99 a month or $17.49 a year after a 30-day trial. The App Store version says plainly that it requires the subscription. Play's Data safety section says it may share personal info, financial info and device IDs with third parties, and Apple's panel lists your audio recordings as data linked to you.

Tutti, the new one with leaderboards

First released on 21 August 2026 and updated the day before we read it. It logs sessions by timer or by hand, tracks repertoire, and adds a tuner, drone and metronome, then ranks you against friends with streak battles and leaderboards. The listing says it has no ads and that tuner audio is analysed on the device. Tutti Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with offer prices of $3.99 and $24.99 on the same list. It is iPhone only on the App Store and rated 13+. We did not check Google Play for it.

Tonic Music, practice with an audience

Free, with no in-app purchases on Apple's listing, 4.8 stars from 2,487 App Store ratings and 100K+ downloads on Google Play. It keeps a record of your sessions, but the point of it is social: you open a live studio and stream your audio while you practice, earn XP and tokens, and take on challenges with other musicians. Google Play rates it Teen with Users Interact, and Apple's panel lists usage data used to track you. Good for a teenager who wants company while practicing, and a different thing from a quiet journal.

Practice Proof, ours

Free with one banner on the home screen and nothing to buy, on the App Store for iPhone and iPad since 20 October 2026, iOS 15 or later. It is made for parents of music students. You start a session, put the phone near the instrument, and it counts only the minutes it hears an instrument or singing, next to the time spent at the instrument. Each player gets a daily goal, the teacher's assignments carry a weekly target, and a practice sheet for the teacher comes out as a PDF or a spreadsheet with a signature line. Sound is checked on the phone and thrown away unless you turn recording on for a player, and there is no account. It cannot tell who is playing, so a speaker counts too. It has no metronome or tuner, and it is not on Google Play yet.

Practice Space, for students with a teacher

Free for students, on both stores, with a separate Practice Space Teacher App. Students see weekly goals with videos and notes for each piece, mark tasks done, and earn points and gems to spend on avatars and power-ups, with a leaderboard across the studio. Its Google Play listing says it is committed to the Play Families Policy and shares no data with third parties. Some teachers who used Tonara moved here after it closed in 2023. Reviews are mixed, 3.9 stars from 179 App Store ratings. We did not check what teachers pay.

What these do better than ours

Andante is the more complete journal: pieces, mood and focus, charts, a built-in metronome, tuner and recorder, iCloud sync and a Mac version, rated 4.9 from over three thousand people, and ours has none of those tools and no ratings yet. Instrumentive, Modacity, Tonic and Practice Space are on Google Play today, and ours is not. Instrumentive, Modacity and Tutti each have a metronome, and Modacity's planning and review loop is far deeper than our assignments list. Tonic and Practice Space give a student other people to practice for, which ours does not try to do. Tutti says it shows no ads, Tonic and Practice Space carry no Contains ads badge on Google Play, and ours shows a banner. If you play an instrument yourself and want a journal on an iPhone, keep Andante; on Android, start with Instrumentive.