CadenzaChordify alternative
Chord charts from your own songs — without a subscription.
Chordify is the best-known way to get the chords of a song: paste a link and the chords play along with the music. If what you want instead is to work from audio files you already own, offline, and to pay once rather than every month, that is what Cadenza’s Transcribe was built for. Here is the honest difference — including where Chordify is the better choice.
| Cadenza Transcribe | Online chord services | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A Mac or Windows app. The analysis runs on your computer. | In a browser or a phone app; the audio is analysed on their servers. |
| What you give it | Audio files you already have: MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG, Opus — up to 15 minutes. | Usually a YouTube link or a search in their catalogue; some also take uploads. |
| Paying | One payment — Everything, €69 — no subscription. 3 days free first. | Typically a free tier with ads or limits, and a monthly or yearly subscription for the rest. |
| Your files | Never uploaded. Charts are saved on your disk. | Processed on their service. |
| When it is wrong | You correct a chord and it re-reads the song around your correction. | Depends on the service. |
| What you get out | PDF chart, ChordPro, plain text, MusicXML chord symbols — or a lead sheet in the Recorder. | Chords played along with the song; printing and exports vary by service and plan. |
| On a phone | No — Mac and Windows only. | Yes. |
Where Chordify is the better choice
If you want chords for a song you do not have as a file — straight from a YouTube link — or you want them on your phone, Chordify does that and Cadenza does not: there is no box for a link, on purpose, and Cadenza runs only on Mac and Windows.
Chordify also has a huge catalogue of songs other people have already run, so a popular song is often ready before you ask. Cadenza starts from your file every time.
Where Cadenza is the better choice
You pay once. Transcribe comes with Cadenza Everything — the Recorder, the Grips voicing course and the full live window too — for €69, with every update, and no renewal.
Your audio never leaves your computer, and it works without an internet connection. Rehearsal recordings, a band’s demos, a student’s practice take — files you might not want on someone else’s server.
And it is built for correcting. Every chord it is unsure of carries a ? and waits in a review list; fix one, press “Re-analyse with my edits”, and it reads the song again with your correction held fixed, so the chords around it tend to fall into place.
What it is not
Transcribe writes chords, not notes: no melody line, no piano part. And it writes a first draft — clear piano, guitar and band recordings come out mostly right, dense mixes leave more to correct. Try it on your own songs for three days before you decide; after that, Basic — the live chord names and the grand staff — stays free.
Try it on your own songs.
Everything is unlocked for the first three days — drop in the songs you actually want to play and judge the drafts yourself. After that Basic stays free; Transcribe comes with Everything, one payment of €69.