The Best Guitar Pros for the Money

Let's be upfront about the title of this piece: there isn't a range of different "Guitar Pros" to rank against each other, since Arobas Music makes one core product. What genuinely varies is how much you need to spend across the whole tab-software landscape to get what you actually want — and that's a much more useful question to answer properly than pretending there's a shootout to be had.

Free tier: worth trying before you spend anything

Before paying for anything, it's worth knowing what's free. MuseScore is a genuinely capable, general-purpose notation package at no cost, strong for standard notation and reasonable for tab work too. TuxGuitar is an open-source tab editor built specifically to be compatible with Guitar Pro-style files, which makes it a sensible free starting point if you mainly want to open and edit basic tabs without committing to anything. Neither matches the polish of a dedicated commercial package, but for occasional or exploratory use, they cover a surprising amount of ground for nothing.

Paying for Guitar Pro: what the licence buys

Once you move past casual use, a Guitar Pro licence gets you a purpose-built guitar-first editor: fret-and-string entry, full technique support for bends, slides, hammer-ons and tapping, a built-in sound engine for playback, and practice tools like looping and a speed trainer baked in from the start. For anyone regularly writing, transcribing or teaching from tabs, this is where the money genuinely earns its keep — the free alternatives can open files, but they weren't built around the same guitar-specific workflow from day one.

Is mySongBook worth the extra spend?

This is the genuine value question, not brand versus brand. mySongBook is Arobas Music's subscription service offering professionally prepared scores, distinct from user-submitted tabs found elsewhere online, which vary hugely in accuracy. If you mostly want to write your own material or already have a reliable source of tabs, skip it. If you'd rather spend your practice time playing rather than checking whether a free tab is actually correct, the subscription genuinely earns its keep.

When you've outgrown it

For most guitarists writing tab-based charts, Guitar Pro on its own is plenty. But if your work moves into full orchestral scoring, publishing-grade engraving, or heavy classical notation beyond guitar, dedicated packages like Sibelius or Dorico are built for that job specifically and cost considerably more to reflect it. Similarly, if you need proper multitrack recording and mixing rather than sketch-quality playback, that's a DAW's job — Logic, Cubase, Ableton Live or Reaper — not a notation program's, however capable its sound engine has become.

Matching spend to how you'll actually use it

What matters more than the price tag

Workflow fit tends to matter more than which option costs less. If you spend most of your time working out riffs by fret and string rather than thinking in staff notation first, a guitar-first editor will simply feel faster day to day than a general notation package, whatever it costs. If you're transcribing fast, technical material — palm-muted rhythm parts, tapping sequences, alternate tunings — the depth of technique support on offer matters more than saving a modest amount up front, since correcting a poorly captured articulation by hand afterwards costs more time than the software ever would.

It's also worth thinking about how long you'll actually use whatever you choose. A free tool is genuinely fine for occasional, short-term use. A tool you'll open every week for years rewards a bit more investment, simply because the smoother day-to-day workflow pays for itself many times over.

My honest take

Most gigging and teaching guitarists get full value from Guitar Pro on its own, without needing mySongBook or a DAW alongside it straight away. Add the subscription later if you find yourself constantly hunting for accurate versions of songs rather than writing your own. If you want the fuller case for buying at all, our buyer's guide walks through the practical checks properly, and our overview covers what the software actually does day to day.

The bottom line

There's no ranked list of competing Guitar Pros to choose between — just a decision about how much of the wider tab-software landscape you actually need. Start free if you're unsure, pay for the standard licence once tab writing becomes a regular habit, and only add mySongBook or a bigger notation package once you've genuinely outgrown what came before it. For pitfalls to sidestep along the way, our common mistakes guide is worth a read too.

Frequently Asked Questions