# Sibelius vs. Finale



## R3PL4Y

I am a music student looking to get either Finale or Sibelius to use for composition. I have heard good things about both. What are the pros and cons to each and what are your recommendations?


----------



## Alexanbar

See https://musescore.org/


----------



## Vasks

Ten years ago I had a chance to try out both (for the first time) at a week long music software workshop. It became clear to me by the end that Sibelius was easier to learn. So I've been using it ever since.

I can't speak about "Musescore" but I know that professional publishers expect either Sibelius made or Finale made. I have yet to see any include Musescore.


----------



## Mahlerian

In the pipeline is this one, developed by the original minds behind Sibelius. Hopefully it will be as good as it's been hyped up to be.

https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/dorico.html

Musescore is good as a free alternative but it's less flexible and provides a substandard output in terms of engraving (without serious hands-on alteration, at least).


----------



## Vasks

Yes, there's a buzz around Dorico, but since it will be a brand new product by a brand new company (yes, the team came from Sibelius but it will be different than Sibelius) I can't image how many bugs there will be in the first version.

And it will be a while, if ever, before professional publishers will consider Dorico as an acceptable notation program.


----------



## Pugg

Alexanbar said:


> See https://musescore.org/


Wise words / post from Vladimir


----------



## ricardo_jvc6

I can say musescore isn't worth if your making music just for the sound to be honest. Either you get some decent notation software/DAW as sibelius or cubase plus some decent VST's to along with it, but it isn't really worth trying musescore if you're heading for sound quality... Sibelius is much easier to learn, but finale is also great, but if you're composing using theory and such, it's not really a bad choice to try it out.


----------



## pianowillbebach

Does anyone have thoughts on Forte? Cost isn't an issue right now since they're running a promo where you can get it for free...https://www.fortenotation.com/en/


----------



## Couchie

Who on earth had good things to say about Finale or Sibelius? I liked Sibelius up to version 6. Now I would call it hot garbage. The original Sibelius team went off to create their own product (Dorico) from scratch, that is how bad Finale and Sibelius are.


----------

