flowkey teaches you songs. A video of somebody’s hands runs alongside the notation, wait mode holds the score until you find the right note, and you can loop a section at half speed until it sits. SightReader teaches reading: unfamiliar graded music, marked note by note as you play it, with your timing scored separately from your pitch. The clearest way to choose between them is to ask what you want at the end of a run — flowkey gives you a song you can play, SightReader gives you a verdict on how you read.
Full disclosure: we make SightReader. flowkey has a catalogue, video instruction and section looping we do not, and all three are covered below.
Want to know which grade to start at? The three-minute placement check is free and needs no account.
The assessment gap
This is the whole page, so it is worth stating precisely.
In wait mode, flowkey holds the cursor until you play the correct note. That stops you running past a mistake, and it is a decent practice aid. What it does not do is judge the attempt. There is no accuracy figure, no timing figure, and nothing that distinguishes a run you played cleanly from one you fumbled through. As a review at Pianist’s Compass puts it, whether you play the entire lesson without a single mistake or “ten wrong notes between every right note”, you move on just the same.
That is a design choice, not a bug — flowkey is optimising for the feeling of progress, which is a legitimate thing to optimise for, and it is part of why people stick with it.
But sight reading specifically is trained by feedback. You read something unfamiliar, you get it partly wrong, and something tells you which part. Without that last step you are practising playing, not practising reading. SightReader colours each note as it goes — green for right, red for wrong, and with the metronome running, blue for early and yellow for late — then reports the totals: accuracy, the percentage of notes that landed on the beat, and your average tendency in milliseconds.
What flowkey has that we do not
Three things, and they are not consolation prizes.
The catalogue. flowkey’s own figure is over 1,000 songs, licensed pop and film alongside the classical repertoire, with arrangements at several difficulty levels. Ours is 4,000+ pieces but all public domain — good reading material, no help if you came to learn a specific song.
Video instruction. The split screen with a real pianist’s hands is genuinely useful for technique, fingering and what a passage should look like. We show you a score and mark what you play. There is no teaching in it.
Section looping and speed control. Loop a passage, drop it to 50% or 75%, drill it. We have no bar-range looping and no hands-separate practice on repertoire. If your problem is one awkward bar rather than reading in general, flowkey is the better tool and it is not close.
What we have that flowkey does not
A verdict. Covered above.
Rhythm scored on its own. Turn on the metronome and the score stops waiting for you. Every note is measured against the beat, and the results tell you what proportion was on time, how the rest split between early and late, and which way you lean.
Exam alignment. Our library and graded exercises follow ABRSM’s published parameters from Initial Grade to Grade 8. We are aligned to ABRSM, not affiliated with or endorsed by them, and our grade pieces are not exam material.
Import. flowkey has no sheet-music or MIDI import at all. SightReader takes any MusicXML file on the Pro tier, which means the piece your teacher set you last week can go in beside the library. Exporting it from MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico takes about twenty seconds.
Side by side
| SightReader | flowkey | |
|---|---|---|
| How it grades you | ||
| How it listens | MIDI, exact | MIDI or microphone, inferred |
| Marks the attempt | Accuracy, per-note, every run | Waits for the right note; no score |
| Independent rhythm scoring | Yes — on-time %, early/late split, ms tendency | ✗ |
| Works with an acoustic piano | ✗ | ✓ |
| Material | ||
| Exam-syllabus alignment | ABRSM Initial–8 (aligned, not affiliated) | ✗ |
| Library | 4,000+ real pieces, graded | 1,000+ songs, licensed pop and classical |
| Video instruction | ✗ | Split-screen tutorials |
| Section looping and speed control | ✗ | ✓ |
| Bring your own music | Any MusicXML file (Pro) | No import of any kind |
| Practical | ||
| Free tier | 54 pieces, both modes | 8 songs |
| Monthly | £5 | $19.99 |
| Annual | £48 | $119.88 |
| Platforms | Any browser, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, desktop |
| Teacher and class tools | ✓ | Teacher programme |
| Languages | English, Spanish, French, Italian | Multiple |
The import row is the one flowkey users write to us about. It is on Pro — any MusicXML file, no limit.
When flowkey is the better choice
You want to learn specific songs. That is the product. It does it well, the arrangements are graded sensibly, and the catalogue is licensed.
You learn better by watching someone play. The split-screen video is the feature people stay for, and we have nothing comparable.
You need to drill a passage. Section looping plus 50%/75% speed is exactly the right tool for a bar that will not sit. Our score runs at tempo or it waits; it does not loop.
You have an acoustic piano. flowkey listens through a microphone as well as over MIDI. SightReader is MIDI-only, and if you have an upright and no keyboard, that rules us out. The reasoning behind that constraint is a design argument, but it is still a constraint.
And if you want the opposite of that
If you have been through flowkey’s wait mode enough times to notice that it never actually tells you how you did, the missing piece is assessment. That is the whole of what we build.
FAQs
Is flowkey or SightReader better for sight reading?
SightReader, for that specific job. flowkey is built around learning individual songs from a video-plus-notation split screen, with wait mode holding the score until you play the right note. It does not grade the attempt: reviewers observe that you progress through a lesson whether you play it cleanly or badly. SightReader marks every note as you go, scores your timing separately once the metronome is on, and organises everything by ABRSM grade. flowkey is the better song-learning tool; SightReader is the better reading tool.
Does flowkey tell you if you played it wrong?
It waits for the right note in wait mode, so you cannot advance past a note you have not played. What it does not do is judge the attempt as a whole — there is no accuracy score, no timing score, and nothing to distinguish a clean run from a scrappy one. If you want a verdict at the end rather than a gate in the middle, that is the difference.
How much does flowkey cost?
flowkey’s monthly plan was listed at $19.99 when we checked on 1 August 2026, with a 12-month plan working out at $9.99 a month ($119.88 up front) and a 3-month option in between. There is a permanent free tier of 8 songs. SightReader Pro is £5 a month or £48 a year, and its free tier is 54 pieces with the full scoring and both practice modes.
Can you upload your own sheet music to flowkey?
No. flowkey has no sheet-music or MIDI import — you practise what is in its catalogue. SightReader accepts any MusicXML file on the Pro tier, so a piece your teacher set you can go straight in alongside the 4,000-piece library. Exporting MusicXML from MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico takes about twenty seconds.
Does flowkey have section looping?
Yes, and it is one of the things it does better than us. flowkey lets you loop a section and slow it to 75% or 50% while you drill it, with the tutorial video alongside. SightReader has no bar-range looping and no hands-separate practice on library pieces. If your problem is a specific awkward passage rather than reading in general, flowkey is the better tool for it.
How we checked
flowkey details come from its own product and help-centre pages, its app-store listings, and published reviews, all read on 1 August 2026. Prices are the list prices advertised on that date; flowkey’s plan structure varies by region and promotion, so check the figure you are shown. Criticism is quoted from a named third-party review rather than asserted. Where we say a feature is absent, we looked for it on the vendor’s own pages and did not find it. SightReader figures are our own.
Elsewhere: SightReader vs Simply Piano, SightReader vs Synthesia, and the best sight-reading apps for piano.
