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Compared, with receipts

Synthesia alternatives for piano, compared with sources

This is Synthesia the falling-notes piano software from Synthesia LLC, not the AI video company. Eight alternatives, every fact dated and linked to the page we read it on. Written by the makers of MidiSlayer, which is in the table and loses rows.

We make MidiSlayer, which is one of the apps compared here. Every fact about another product is dated and linked to where we read it.

Last reviewed 4 September 2026 · 8 min read

Why this page exists

What people are actually looking for

Most people who type "Synthesia alternative" are not shopping. They are two years into falling notes, they can play four pieces from muscle memory, and a page of sheet music still looks like weather. Start with whichever line below is yours.

  • You want to keep learning songs from falling notes, cheaply. Stay where you are. Synthesia plays any MIDI or MusicXML file you can find, and it is one payment.
  • You want to read real notation and be marked on it. MasterPiano, Piano Marvel and MidiSlayer are the notation-first rows in the table.
  • You want a number that says whether your reading is improving. Piano Marvel's SASR scores sight-reading from 100 to 1900.
  • You have an acoustic piano and no cable. flowkey, Skoove and Simply Piano all listen through the device microphone.
  • You want free, offline and no account. Piano Booster is GPLv3 on Windows, macOS and Linux. Its release dates are in the table.
  • You want to make falling-note videos for YouTube. You are in the wrong place. This page is about learning to read music, and nothing below is a video tool.
  • You are here because the Read Ahead app vanished. That is a different page, and we wrote it too: Read Ahead alternatives.

Now the part a vendor comparison usually skips, because it does not flatter the vendor. Synthesia is a one-time purchase and it is cheaper than we are. Its unlock page says: "Buy once, play forever! Your Synthesia unlock is NOT a subscription. All future updates are included with your one-time purchase at no additional charge." The price on that page was $39, discounted to $29, when we read it on 3 September 2026. MidiSlayer is $49.99. If your reason for leaving is money, there is no argument for you on this page and we are not going to invent one.

The reason to look elsewhere is purpose.

A falling-notes display is a very good instruction. It tells you which key and when, and it gets you playing something you love this evening, which is not nothing. What it never asks you to do is decode. Your eyes track a lane down to a bar, then flick to your hands, and the loop never passes through a stave. Notation asks a different question, which is roughly "what does this shape mean", and the answer has to arrive as a hand position and a rhythm before your finger moves. That is the skill that transfers to every piece of sheet music you will ever be handed, and it is the skill a falling-notes display is not built to train.

Synthesia can show notation, and says so plainly: "Enable musical notation for any song. Or, leave it turned off and just enjoy the falling notes." The point is what that sentence describes. Notation is an option sitting on top of a falling-notes engine, and Synthesia advertises no sight-reading grade, assessment or curriculum. The words are not in its feature list, checked 3 September 2026. If reading is the thing you want to fix, that gap is the only honest reason on this page to move.

These products do overlapping but different jobs. The table sets out what each one does, on the same seven questions, rather than scoring them against each other.

The table

Side by side, as we read the sources

Comparison of Synthesia, MasterPiano, Piano Marvel, flowkey, Simply Piano, Playground Sessions, Skoove, Piano Booster, MidiSlayer
AppListens to a MIDI keyboardWhat you readHow you payFree to startRuns onMost recent release we foundSight-reading specifically
SynthesiaFalling-notes piano practice software from Synthesia LLC. Not the AI video company.Yes, since version 0.5.0 in January 20071Both. Notation is a switch you turn on2One payment, $39, on offer at $29 (3 Sep 2026)3Yes. 20+ songs, and every MIDI device feature3Windows, macOS, iPad, Android4Desktop 10.9, 21 Dec 2022; Android 11 Feb 2025 on Google Play1None advertised. The word is not in the feature list2
MasterPianoGraded practice app built around MIDI feedback and, in their words, an ABRSM-structured technique curriculum.Yes, any USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard. No other input documented5Sheet music: "View sheet music and listen before you commit"6Subscription, $99.99 a year as an intro against $149.99; $19.99 a month on its App Store listing (4 Sep 2026)6Yes. 10 minutes a day, Grade 1 technique, no card6Web browser and iOS; an Android app on Google Play6iOS 1.2, 10 Aug 2026 (first release 14 Apr 2026)5"Sight-Reading Practice", plus a timed "Performance Mode"7
Piano MarvelGraded sheet music with a numerically scored sight-reading test, used by studios and universities.Yes, wired USB or Bluetooth MIDI on its App Store listing. Microphone assessment instead, iOS only, 90% at three notes8Real staff notation, including licensed sheet music9Subscription, $17.99 a month or $129.99 a year (3 Sep 2026)10Yes, a permanent free plan with 150+ songs10iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chromebook10iOS 2.8.4, 1 Sep 20269SASR, scored 100 to 1900 across 90 levels11
flowkeySong-driven learning app, notation beside a top-down video of the piece being played.Yes, or the microphone. On the web MIDI needs Chrome or Edge; the microphone still works in Safari and Firefox12Notation beside a performance video; full sheet music view on a tablet in portrait13Subscription, $99.99 to $224.99 a year in their US example. No lifetime plan (4 Sep 2026)14Yes, a free account that never expires14Web browser, iOS, Android14iOS 2.115.0, 2 Sep 202613None named. Courses on reading sheet music13
Simply PianoGamified beginner-to-intermediate piano course, from first notes to both hands.Yes. A 5-pin or USB MIDI cable on iOS, or the microphone15Real staff notation16Subscription. No price on the vendor site; at least ten in-app purchases in the UK App Store, £13.99 to £125.99 (4 Sep 2026)17Yes, two free courses16iOS, Android17iOS 9.10.90, 2 Sep 202616None named. Nearest is "5-Min Workouts"16
Playground SessionsVideo course built around playing popular songs, with real-time feedback and scoring.Yes: "Choose mic-based feedback or connect with a cable"18Real staff notation with a keyboard strip below, as shown in the App Store screenshots18Subscription $19.99 a month, or $219.99 once, a sale against a $349.99 list (3 Sep 2026)19No. 7-day trial only19Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android20iOS 3.4.3, 12 Jul 202621not stated
SkooveCourse of short lessons on pop and classical songs, 500+ by the count on its store listing, with Skoove listening as you play.Yes. USB MIDI, Bluetooth MIDI, or the microphone22A moving score in staff notation23Subscription, $29.99 a month or $149.99 a year, plus a lifetime option with no published price (4 Sep 2026)24Yes, "Skoove Basic", selected lessons24iOS, Android25iOS 2.6.38, 4 Aug 202626None named. Folded into the course22
Piano BoosterFree open-source desktop app that scrolls a MIDI file across a stave and waits for you to play it.Yes, and required27Real staff notation, a scrolling stave27Free, GPLv328Yes, all of it27Windows, macOS, Linux27Version 1.0.0, 13 Dec 2020, and no later release published29None named. Reading comes with the accompaniment27
MidiSlayeroursDesktop sight-reading and theory trainer for a MIDI keyboard. Ours, and in Early Access.Yes, the primary input. USB MIDI, with an on-screen keyboard built in30Real staff notation31One payment, $49.99, yours to keep (3 Sep 2026)31Yes, a free version. No card, no clock30macOS, Windows, Linux. No web, no mobile30Early Access, first public build 31 Aug 202632Graded Reading, on the ABRSM parameters, single notes33
  1. 1.https://www.synthesiagame.com/news
  2. 2.https://synthesiagame.com/
  3. 3.https://synthesiagame.com/unlock
  4. 4.https://synthesiagame.com/download
  5. 5.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.masterpiano.app&country=us
  6. 6.https://www.masterpiano.com/pricing
  7. 7.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6758087301
  8. 8.https://pianomarvel.com/en/feature/microphone-assessment
  9. 9.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=1016751878&country=us
  10. 10.https://pianomarvel.com/en/pricing
  11. 11.https://pianomarvel.com/en/feature/sasr
  12. 12.https://help.flowkey.com/en/articles/651023-which-browsers-are-compatible-with-flowkey
  13. 13.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=1020357408&country=us
  14. 14.https://help.flowkey.com/en/articles/4466337-which-subscription-plans-are-available
  15. 15.https://piano-help.hellosimply.com/en/articles/2627738-step-1-using-a-midi-cable-with-simply-piano-for-ios
  16. 16.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=1019442026&country=us
  17. 17.https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/simply-piano-learn-piano-fast/id1019442026
  18. 18.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1139846930
  19. 19.https://www.playgroundsessions.com/choose-free-trial
  20. 20.https://www.playgroundsessions.com/support/system-requirements
  21. 21.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.playgroundsessions&country=us
  22. 22.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1160668178
  23. 23.https://www.skoove.com/en
  24. 24.https://help.skoove.com/en/articles/5417607-what-is-skoove-premium-and-how-much-does-it-cost
  25. 25.https://www.skoove.com/en/pricing
  26. 26.https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?bundleId=com.skoove.skoove&country=us
  27. 27.https://www.pianobooster.org/
  28. 28.https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pianobooster/PianoBooster/develop/license.txt
  29. 29.https://api.github.com/repos/pianobooster/PianoBooster/releases
  30. 30.https://midislayer.com/download
  31. 31.https://midislayer.com/
  32. 32.https://midislayer.com/blog/buy-once-actively-developed
  33. 33.https://midislayer.com/sight-reading/abrsm

Every cell as shown on the linked page when we read it; the newest read date is 4 September 2026. Promotional prices are marked with the date they were seen. "not stated" means the vendor does not publish that fact, not that the answer is no. We make MidiSlayer; its row is written by us from our own pages. Tell us if anything has changed and we will fix it.

Our read

Who each one is for

Synthesia

One payment, $39, on offer at $29 on 3 September 2026, and any MIDI or MusicXML file becomes a lesson. For playing songs tonight it is still very good. Desktop has been version 10.9 since 21 December 2022; the Android build last shipped 11 February 2025.

MasterPiano

Subscription, $99.99 a year as an intro price against $149.99, and $19.99 a month on its App Store listing. MIDI in, notation first, a large graded library, and a free tier that lets you browse it all and test your keyboard first. Young: the iOS app first shipped 14 April 2026, now version 1.2.

Piano Marvel

Subscription, $129.99 a year, and the only one in this table that publishes a named sight-reading scale: SASR, 100 to 1900 across 90 levels, which makes progress arguable rather than felt. Others may score reading without publishing a scale; where a vendor does not publish one, the table says so. The microphone path is iOS only. Piano Marvel's microphone-assessment page gives 90% accuracy for three notes played together, and publishes no figure for single notes, which is where most sight-reading practice sits.

flowkey

$99.99 to $224.99 a year in their US example, no lifetime plan, and the least setup here: an acoustic piano and a microphone will do. No named sight-reading test, and on the web MIDI needs Chrome or Edge, because Safari and Firefox carry no Web MIDI, which is true of every web app here.

Simply Piano

Subscription, staff notation in the course, two free courses, and a documented 5-pin or USB MIDI cable path on iOS as well as microphone recognition. It publishes no price on hellosimply.com. The UK App Store listing does show its in-app purchase prices, at least ten of them from £13.99 to £125.99 on 4 September 2026, so the numbers exist; they are just not on the vendor site.

Playground Sessions

$19.99 a month, or $219.99 once, both shown as sale prices on 3 September 2026, the lifetime one against a $349.99 list. Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android, a big licensed song library, and a 7-day trial rather than a free tier. The pricing, plans and features pages redirect to a login screen; the trial page, where we read the prices, does not.

Skoove

$29.99 a month or $149.99 a year, iOS and Android, and it listens to an unconnected acoustic piano. Sight-reading is folded into the course rather than named or scored. Their pricing page names a lifetime one-time option and does not publish its price: it says to contact support.

Piano Booster

Free, GPLv3, on Windows, macOS and Linux, playing any standard MIDI file across a scrolling stave with the hands read from separate tracks. Version 1.0.0 is dated 13 December 2020 and no later release is published. The licence means the source stays available whatever happens next.

MidiSlayer

One payment, $49.99, free version with no clock, desktop only. Graded Reading follows the ABRSM parameters grade by grade. We cost more than Synthesia's one-time unlock, and we are one of the two rows here that will not run on a phone.

The honest bit

Where MidiSlayer fits, and where it does not

MidiSlayer suits one person: your piano has a MIDI socket, you practise at a desk, and your problem is reading. Graded Reading deals single notes in a grade's keys and range with the key signature on the staff, and phrase-level work happens in Practice, with real pieces. It is not an exam simulator. It does not run on a phone, a tablet or a browser, and it is in Early Access, so four releases shipped in the first two days of Early Access and some edges are still sharp. It is $49.99, which is more than Synthesia. The free version is free for good, no card and no clock, so try it against your own keyboard first. Download it free.

Download MidiSlayer free

Free to start. One payment for everything, yours to keep.

Questions

Asked and answered

No, and they have nothing to do with each other. The piano software is Synthesia LLC at synthesiagame.com. The AI avatar video company is an unrelated and much better funded business with a similar name, which is why it fills the results for the bare word. Everything on this page is about the piano one.

No. Its unlock page answers that with "Buy once, play forever!", quoted in full above. The price shown there was $39, on offer at $29, on 3 September 2026. That was the position on that page on that date. Check the page itself before you buy, because prices and terms move.

Piano Booster is genuinely free and GPLv3 on all three desktop systems, with the release dates in the table worth a look first. If you mean free to start, Piano Marvel and flowkey both run permanent free plans, Skoove Basic opens selected lessons, MasterPiano gives you ten minutes a day, and the MidiSlayer free version has no card and no clock. Playground Sessions has a 7-day trial instead.

It can show you sheet music: "Enable musical notation for any song. Or, leave it turned off and just enjoy the falling notes." What it does not advertise is a sight-reading grade, assessment or curriculum, and the words are not in its feature list, checked 3 September 2026. Displaying notation and training reading are separate jobs.

No, and anyone selling you that line is overselling. Falling notes simply do not build reading, because nothing in the loop asks you to decode a stave. Plenty of people learn pieces that way and read perfectly well, because they also read. If a year of piano roll has left you unable to name a note on a leger line, that is not damage. It is an untrained skill, and it trains fast.

On Mac, Piano Marvel, Playground Sessions, Piano Booster and MidiSlayer all ship desktop builds, and MasterPiano and flowkey run in a browser. Native Linux builds: Piano Booster and MidiSlayer; the browser-based rows run in Chrome on Linux too. The Runs on column carries the rest, including the two that are mobile only.

Broadly yes. A USB MIDI keyboard is a standard device and every row that says yes will take one. The exceptions in this table are about software rather than hardware: on the web MIDI needs Chrome or Edge, because Safari and Firefox carry no Web MIDI, and Piano Booster needs a MIDI keyboard connected because it has no other input.

How we checked this

How we checked this

Every cell in the table came from the vendor's own page, their store listing, or Apple's and Google's own store APIs, read on 3 September 2026, and each carries a numbered link to where we read it. Prices are in US dollars where the vendor publishes one, because that is the only currency all of them show, and several were on promotion the day we looked, so sale and list price are both in the cell. "Not stated" means the vendor does not publish that fact, not that the answer is no. We carry no star ratings and no affiliate links: we make one of the products here, so a rating from us would be worth nothing. Where a rival beats us on a row, the row says so. If a price, a version or a platform has moved since, tell us and we will change it.

Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify the products compared. MidiSlayer is made by Monoglyph Ltd, the publisher of this page; the facts about other products come from their own pages and store listings, dated and linked; the facts about MidiSlayer come from ours. No affiliate links, no ratings. If we have a fact wrong, the contact page reaches a person and we will correct it.

MidiSlayer is independent of ABRSM and not endorsed by it. ABRSM is a trade mark of The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, used here to identify the exams these pages describe.