Comparison · verified 4 Sep 2026

LessonLoop VS MakeMusic Studio

MakeMusic Studio is $19.95 a month plus $4.95 per staff member, and then takes 2.9% + 30¢ on every card charge, 1.8% on every bank transfer and 0.4% of subscription volume. LessonLoop is £39 a month flat and adds nothing on top of standard Stripe rates. Here is what each actually costs.

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Every claim on this page is sourced & re-verified quarterly

The 60-second verdict

Cheap sticker, metered reality.

Real cost

No payment cut vs fees on every payment

Their $19.95/mo looks low — then add $4.95 per staff member and 2.9% + 30¢ on every card payment, +0.4% on subscription billing, $20 per dispute. On £4,000/mo of fees collected, the processing alone outweighs our whole £39 subscription.

LoopAssist vs none

No AI anywhere in MakeMusic Studio — not in the product, the release notes, or the roadmap they publish. LoopAssist is in every LessonLoop plan, plus the MCP connector for ChatGPT & Claude.

UK fit

VAT-aware GBP vs US tooling

GBP prices exist, but the tax tooling they shipped in 2026 is US 1099 forms; no VAT support is documented, fees are denominated in dollars, and there’s no native mobile app.

What MakeMusic Studio does that LessonLoop does not

MakeMusic Studio sits inside the MakeMusic and Alfred ecosystem and added an interactive music catalog with method books and repertoire in 2026. LessonLoop has no publisher catalogue: its repertoire and resource library hold what you put in them. Their pricing page also lists ACH bank-transfer collection at 1.8%, a US rail LessonLoop does not have — UK collection is card and Bacs Direct Debit through your own Stripe account.

Do the maths

MakeMusic Studio pricing in 2026

The per-staff meter, before the payment cut. MakeMusic Studio charges $4.95/month per additional staff member — and that’s before transaction fees on every payment you take. Drag to your team size.

Staff on your team 6 staff

MakeMusic Studio

—

per month

LessonLoop

—

per month · unlimited teachers

MakeMusic Studio list pricing, read from studio.makemusic.com/pricing on 4 September 2026 — $19.95/mo first teacher + $4.95/mo per additional teacher or admin staff member; a summer sale price of $9.95/mo was showing on the day. Charged on top and NOT included in this slider: 2.9% + 30¢ per card charge, a further 1% on international cards, 1.8% per ACH bank transfer, and 0.4% of subscription volume. Free trial 14 days. GBP conversion approximate at ~$1 = £0.78, for comparison only. LessonLoop: £15/mo Solo · £39/mo School, unlimited teacher accounts, nothing added on top of standard Stripe rates.

Feature by feature

LessonLoop vs MakeMusic Studio, feature by feature

Feature	MakeMusic Studio	LessonLoop
Subscription	$19.95/mo + $4.95/mo per staff member	Flat £15 / £39 — unlimited teachers
Payment fees	2.9% + 30¢ per card charge, +1% international, 1.8% ACH, +0.4% of subscription volume	Nothing on top of standard Stripe rates — into your own Stripe account
AI assistant	None	LoopAssist — drafts & proposes, you confirm
Connect to ChatGPT & Claude	—	Yes — the MCP connector
Mobile app	Web only	Native iOS app
VAT invoicing	US 1099 tax tooling; no VAT support documented	VAT-aware invoicing, UK GDPR
UK payments	Stripe cards only; ACH is US-only	Stripe cards — clear & simple
Music content catalog	Interactive catalog (MakeMusic/Alfred ecosystem)	— we do admin, not repertoire sales
Practice in the parent portal	—	Practice log — with a streak, a weekly goal and practice over time
Accounting sync	QuickBooks Online	Automatic Xero sync
Batch actions	Long-standing review complaint — “clunky and time consuming”	Bulk everything — invoices, messages, imports
Brand stability	Fons → MakeMusic Studio, June 2026 (Peaksware)	Independent, UK, music-only
Free trial	14 days	30 days, no card + live demo, no signup

Sourced from MakeMusic Studio’s public pricing & product pages · last verified 4 Sep 2026 · spot something stale? Tell us — we fix it fast.

✓ Pricing & transaction fees: studio.makemusic.com/pricing, checked 4 Sep 2026✓ Rebrand: MakeMusic Studio rebrand FAQ✓ No native app: third-party 2026 assessments

Switching is the easy part

Move from MakeMusic Studio in a day.

We do the heavy lifting — free, on every plan.

Export

Export your clients, families and appointment history from MakeMusic Studio (Fons).

We import

Send it over. We map and import it for you, free, and check it together.

You’re live

Invite your parents and you’re running — usually within a day.

Also compared

MakeMusic Studio alternatives

The rest of the category, priced from each vendor’s own page and dated. LessonLoop is the flat-price one.

MyMusicStaff $16.95/mo + $4.95 per additional teacher or staff member Meters teachers and staff, prices in US dollars, and its own support documentation says the mobile app was retired. Teachworks From $16.49/mo + $0.320 per student lesson taught Meters student lessons taught, so every pupil in a group lesson counts separately. Prices in US dollars. Opus1 From $98/mo; Starter capped at 200 active students Publishes one price and routes the rest to a demo. Meters active students. Prices in US dollars. My Music Lessons £9.95/mo + £2.95 per teacher, plus each hired facility UK-priced in GBP, and meters teachers and facilities rather than charging one flat fee. Jackrabbit Music From $49/mo, tiered on total student count at month end Prices on the whole roll rather than on teaching, and publishes only its starting figures. Prices in US dollars. MusicNotes PMI £0 until January 2027, then £12/mo UK, GBP, built for independent teachers: invoicing and scheduling, free until January 2027.

All nine in one table, with the criteria published before any product is named: music school software, compared on the facts · teaching on your own? the solo-teacher version · run the cost on your own numbers

Or skip the comparison and read what LessonLoop does for your shape of studio: music school software for a whole team of teachers · music teacher software for teaching on your own

Questions

Straight answers.

What happened to Fons?

MakeMusic (a Peaksware company, acquired Fons in January 2023) rebranded it to MakeMusic Studio in June 2026. Same product, same team, same login — existing users kept their pricing. Both fons.com and studio.makemusic.com are live during the transition.

Isn’t $19.95 cheaper than LessonLoop?

For one teacher taking no payments, nearly (≈£16 vs our £15). The real bill is the meter: $4.95 per extra staff member plus a processing stack on every payment — 2.9% + 30¢ per card, +0.4% on subscription volume. A studio collecting £4,000/mo in fees pays more in payment costs alone than LessonLoop charges in total.

What does MakeMusic Studio have that LessonLoop doesn’t?

The MakeMusic/Alfred content world: an interactive music catalog with method books and repertoire, plus a free marketplace listing. If bundled publisher content is central to how you teach, that’s a real advantage. For running the business — billing, payroll, VAT, Xero, AI — it isn’t the tool.

Can I import my Fons / MakeMusic Studio data?

Yes — export your clients, families and appointment history and we’ll map and import it for you, free, on every plan.

Is the rebrand a problem for existing users?

Honestly, no evidence of that — the transition kept the founder, the team, the data and everyone’s legacy pricing, and we found no user backlash. Our case doesn’t rest on the rebrand; it rests on the per-staff meter, the payment cut, and what’s missing: AI, native mobile, VAT, Xero.

See it on your own studio.

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