Compare · prices read October 31, 2026
OnSong or PraisePad?
For a musician with an iPad, and for the team around them.
OnSong is the best-known chord chart app for one musician on an iPad: a personal library, set lists, transposition and capo, pedals, backing tracks and MIDI. PraisePad has a free library for one musician too, and a church library the whole team shares, with the stage, the schedule and the service plan in one place, on any device with a browser. Here’s what each does better, what each costs, and whether to stay or switch.
From $14 a month for a team of 10. Free for invited churches during the beta.
What OnSong does better
- A stage page polished over a decade: timeline autoscroll, annotations, a stage monitor
- Backing tracks and a click, MIDI and stage lighting for a band that runs tracks
- The widest file support: OnSong, ChordPro, PDF, Word and images
- An iPad app, with iPhone and Mac, that works fully offline
- Essentials is $3.99 a month, or $29.99 a year, for one musician
Not in PraisePad yet: multitracks or a click track, an app in the stores.
What PraisePad does better
- A church library, not a personal one: roles, the history of every chart kept, the schedule and the plan beside it In the help: See a chart's history and go back to an older version
- Any device with a browser, Android and Windows included, and the stage works without Wi-Fi In the help: Use stage view without Wi-Fi
- Play together: the leader’s song and page reach everyone’s screen In the help: Play together: everyone follows the leader
- Imports that read PDFs and photos into typed charts, and your OnSong backup with its set lists In the help: Bring in your OnSong library
- A free Solo library for one musician, and Solo Plus for $3 a month with AI In the help: Your own songs beside your church
What it costs
Just you
PraisePad Solo
Solo: 150 songs, the stage, printing, offline. Solo Plus, $3 a month or $30 a year: 1,000 songs, 1 GB of files, and the AI that reads PDFs and photos into charts.
OnSong
$3.99 a month or $29.99 a year for Essentials; Premium $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year
Essentials, on two devices. Premium, on four, adds backing tracks, a click, MIDI and lighting.
Your team
PraisePad Team 10
$14 a month for a team of 10
One library, the history of every chart kept, the schedule and the plan beside it. Present is in beta: free, by request.
OnSong, a team of 10
about $40 to $60 a month for 10 musicians
Priced per musician, not per team: Essentials is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year and Premium $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, so ten musicians on Essentials are $39.90 a month and ten on Premium $59.90. Essentials is two devices and 2 GB; Premium is four devices and 5 GB. The group plan, which shares storage with a team, shows no price on the page.
From onsongapp.com, read October 31, 2026. See a mistake? Tell us.
On stage, for one musician
Swipe sideways to see OnSong’s column.
| What matters | PraisePad Solo | PraisePad, church plan | OnSong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charts in any key, with a capo | Yes key and capo, yours to set | Yes the leader’s key for the whole band | Yes transposition and capo |
| Chord diagrams | Yes guitar, bass, mandolin, piano, ukulele | Yes guitar, bass, mandolin, piano, ukulele, in your tuning | Yes chord diagrams |
| Nashville numbers | Yes any chart in numbers, with one tap | Yes any chart in numbers, with one tap | Yes popular number systems |
| Set lists | Yes Sets, for a gig or a practice | Yes a service the whole team opens | Yes set lists |
| Works without Wi-Fi | Yes the set stays on the device | Yes services you’re on download by themselves | Yes works fully offline |
| Foot pedals | Yes a Bluetooth page turner | Yes a Bluetooth page turner, on any stage | Yes foot pedals |
| Notes on a chart | Yes pen, highlighter, pinned notes, yours alone | Yes pen, highlighter and pinned notes, shared or yours | Yes annotations, on Premium |
| Autoscroll | Not yet | Not yet | Yes autoscroll; timeline on Premium |
| Backing tracks and a click | Partly a metronome click; recordings for practice | Partly a metronome click; recordings for practice | Yes on Premium |
| MIDI and stage lighting | No | No | Yes on Premium |
| Reads a PDF or a photo into a typed chart | Partly on Solo Plus, $3 a month | Yes a photo, a scan, a Word file | Not listed |
| Files it takes | Yes OnSong backups, ChordPro, Word, PDF | Yes and ProPresenter, Planning Center, photos | Yes OnSong, ChordPro, PDF, Word, images |
| Share a set with the room | No it’s just you | Yes Play together: the leader’s page on every screen | Yes OnSong Connect, on Premium |
| Runs on | Yes any browser: iPad, Android, Windows, Mac | Yes any browser: iPad, Android, Windows, Mac | Partly iPad, iPhone, Mac and the web; Android coming |
| An app in the stores | Not yet installs from the browser | Not yet installs from the browser | Yes |
| Price | Free or Solo Plus $3 a month | $14 a month for a team of 10 | $3.99 a month each musician, or $5.99 for Premium; the group plan shows no price on their site |
Every PraisePad Yes opens the help article that shows it. OnSong’s column is from onsongapp.com, read October 31, 2026. See a mistake? Tell us.
And for the team around you
OnSong is for the musician. These are for the church: most come with the church plan, and three are in beta, free by request.
- The schedule, for every team
- The service plan, with the band’s key
- People and households
- Texts to the team, on every paid plan
- Your church’s site, with its own chat
- Present: slides from the set list (in beta, free by request)
- Kids check-in (in beta, free by request)
- Giving, on your own Stripe account
- Events, tickets and rooms (in beta, free by request)
Bringing your songs over
- Make a backup in OnSong (Utilities, then Backup) and drop it on Upload: every song comes in, and you check each one before it’s saved
- Its set lists become draft services on their dates, songs in order, ready to publish
- PDFs inside a backup are left out; add them on the song’s page
In the help: Bring in your OnSong library
Stay or switch?
Stay with OnSong if you play on your own, run tracks, MIDI or lighting from your iPad, and its stage page is what your hands know.
Move to PraisePad if you want a free library that reads your OnSong backup, or your team needs one library with the schedule and the plan beside it, on Android and Windows too.
Questions
Is there an OnSong alternative for a whole worship team?
PraisePad is a church library the whole team shares: the history of every chart kept, the leader’s key for each service, the set list the band sees on stage in any key or capo, and the schedule beside it. Your OnSong backup comes in with its set lists.
From the help: Bring in your OnSong library
How do I share OnSong sets with my team without passing an iPad around?
In PraisePad the set list is a service everyone on the team opens on their own device, and Play together moves every screen to the song and part the leader is on. A guest musician gets a link that opens the set with no account.
From the help: Play together: everyone follows the leader
Is there an OnSong alternative on Android?
PraisePad runs in the browser on Android, Windows, iPad, iPhone and Mac, installs from the browser so it opens like an app, and the stage works without Wi-Fi once the set is on the device. OnSong’s page lists Android as coming soon.
From the help: Get PraisePad on your phone, tablet or computer
Does PraisePad have backing tracks and a click like OnSong?
Not on the stage. The stage has a metronome click, and reference recordings with the player bar are for practice during the week; multitracks and a click track for the stage are on the list, not in the app. OnSong Premium has them today.
From the help: Reference recordings for practice
Something else? Search the help centre, or ask Pad, PraisePad’s assistant, with the button at the corner of the page.
More comparisons
- Planning Center or PraisePad? Services, People, Check-Ins, Giving and Registrations, each priced apart, against one plan for the church.
- ChurchTrac or PraisePad? The office in one price, with accounting. Nothing for the booth, and a song library for the stage.
- ProPresenter or PraisePad Present? $29 a month a seat, against Present for the whole church: free in the beta, $9 a month at launch for founding churches.
- Proclaim or PraisePad Present? Cloud slides with Logos, against slides built from the service and the sermon’s notes.
- Tithely or PraisePad? Free giving plus $72 to $119 a month for the rest, against one plan.
- Every comparison PraisePad against Planning Center, ChurchTrac, OnSong and more, with the ones coming.
Try it with your own church.
Every new church starts with 14 days of Team 10’s features for up to 5 people, no card needed.