Looking for a practice app alternative? Check the export first
People search for alternatives to practice apps — Modacity, Andante, Music Journal and the rest — for one of three reasons: the app went to a subscription, the app stopped being updated, or the app will not give their history back. The third reason is the one that should worry you most, because it is the one that decides whether switching costs you a year. Here is what to check before you move, in the order that matters.
1. Can you get your sessions out as rows?
Not as a chart, not as a PDF summary, not as a screenshot of this month. As rows: one line per practice session, with the piece, the date, the length and anything you wrote.
Do this test on the app you are leaving before you commit to the one you are joining, and do it on the new one on day one rather than year two. If an export exists but produces a picture of your data instead of your data, treat it as no export at all.
2. Can the new app read it back in?
An export nothing can import is a souvenir. The useful shape is a plain CSV, because a CSV opens in a spreadsheet, is readable by a two-line script, and can be reshaped into whatever the next tool wants.
practicebook writes a CSV with one row per session — session id, piece, start, end, seconds, minutes, note — and reads that same file back, merging rather than overwriting and matching on the session id so nothing duplicates. If you are coming from another app, reshaping its export into those columns in a spreadsheet is usually ten minutes of work, and then your history is continuous again.
3. What happens if the developer stops?
Small practice apps are often one person's evening project, which is also why they are good. But it means the honest question is not "will this be maintained for ever", it is "what do I still have if it is not?"
The answer should not depend on anybody's goodwill. With practicebook it does not: the whole log is in your browser rather than on our server, and the exported files are plain Markdown and plain CSV. If this site switches off, your exports keep working, because nothing about them needs it.
4. Does it push you, or record you?
This one is taste rather than risk, but it is the reason a lot of serious players leave. Streaks, badges, levels and nudges are built for people who need persuading to start. Somebody who already practises most days does not need persuading, and a streak that breaks when they have flu is an insult rather than a motivator.
practicebook has none of them. It records minutes, days and what you wrote down, and leaves the conclusions to you.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import my history from another practice app?
If you can get it out as a CSV, yes. Reshape the columns to session_id, piece, started_at, ended_at, seconds, minutes, note in a spreadsheet and import the file; rows without a session id get one generated, and nothing duplicates on a second import.
Is practicebook free?
Yes, every feature, with no account and no trial. The work happens in your browser and your log never reaches our server, so there is no per-person cost to recover.
Will my log sync between my phone and my computer?
No, and that is a deliberate trade for having no account. Your log lives on the device you made it on; moving it is an export on one and an import on the other, which takes about twenty seconds.
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