Why look for a Guitar Pro alternative
Guitar Pro 8 is the standard tab editor, and it costs $69.95. It runs on Windows and macOS, but not on Linux. If you mostly read tabs, practise with them and write down your own parts, you're paying for a lot you won't use, and if your computer runs Linux you can't use it at all.
guitarnotation covers the part most guitarists use every day: reading a tab with the notation above it, slowing it down, looping the hard bar and writing your own. It costs $25, once, for Linux, Windows and macOS, and one licence covers all of your own computers.
Your Guitar Pro files open as they are
guitarnotation opens every Guitar Pro format since Guitar Pro 3: .gp3, .gp4 and .gp5 from Guitar Pro 3 to 5, .gpx from Guitar Pro 6, and .gp from Guitar Pro 7 and 8. The strings, frets, tuning and techniques come across, and bends, slides, hammer-ons, harmonics and palm mutes are drawn on the tab as they were written. More on each format: opening .gp5 files.
When you're done, export a .gp file and Guitar Pro 7 or 8 opens it, or export MusicXML for MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius or Dorico. Nothing is locked into our own format.
What you get for $25
- Tab and standard notation together, aligned beat for beat, or either one on its own.
- A fretboard that follows playback, with the current chord shape behind the note you're playing.
- Slow down from 25% to 150% without changing the pitch, and loop any bar.
- Keyboard note entry: type fret numbers and the notation writes itself.
- Guitar, bass, 7- and 8-string, banjo, ukulele and mandolin, with standard, drop and open tunings and a capo.
- Exports to PDF, Guitar Pro, MusicXML, MIDI, WAV, SVG and plain-text tab.
Every feature is in the one version. See them all on the features page, or try the player and editor in your browser first: the free demo needs no sign-up.
What Guitar Pro still does better
Guitar Pro has had decades to grow, and it shows. It writes drum tracks and several voices on one staff; guitarnotation has one voice per track and no drums, so when it opens a Guitar Pro file it leaves those out and tells you what it skipped. Guitar Pro's own sound engine is also more realistic than the General MIDI SoundFont guitarnotation plays with. If you arrange full band scores, Guitar Pro is still the better tool.
The other alternatives
There are good free options too, and they may suit you better:
- TuxGuitar is free and open source, and opens Guitar Pro files on Linux, Windows, macOS and Android.
- MuseScore Studio is a free notation program for every instrument, with tab as one kind of staff.
- Soundslice runs in a web browser and syncs notation to real recordings, with a free plan and Plus at $50 a year.
And for Guitar Pro itself, see guitarnotation vs Guitar Pro 8. Everything side by side is in the table below.