Comparison
Music studio management software in Australia, compared
. Competitor pricing and capabilities last checked .
Almost every music studio management tool is built and priced for the United States. For an Australian studio the differences that matter are GST aware invoicing, BECS direct debit, native Xero sync and term pack billing, and most of the market has none of them.
Side by side
| Capability | TeachMusic | Typically elsewhere | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priced in Australian dollars | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Only OneBookPlus and TeachMusic price in AUD. Everything else exposes you to the exchange rate. |
| GST aware invoicing | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | The registered and unregistered cases produce different documents. Getting it wrong is an ATO problem, not a software preference. |
| Term pack billing aligned to school terms | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: Partly | Australian studios bill by term. Tools built for monthly subscriptions make you fake it. |
| BECS direct debit | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Card surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa is prohibited from 1 October 2026, so card fees come out of your margin. |
| Native Xero sync | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Most Australian studios that use an accountant use Xero. |
| A public directory that sends you enquiries | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Every other tool in this category is software only. Finding students is left entirely to you. |
| No commission on lesson income | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: Yes | Studio software does not take a cut. Lead marketplaces do, which is a different kind of product. |
Search for music studio management software and you will find a dozen good tools, almost all of them built and priced for the United States. Most comparison articles you will find are also written for that market, which is why they rank the options on features that are identical here and ignore the four that are not.
This page is the Australian version. We make one of these products, so the section on where each competitor beats us is not a formality.
The four things that actually differ in Australia
Everything in this category does scheduling, student records and invoicing. Comparing those is close to a waste of your time. What separates them here:
Currency. A USD subscription changes price when the dollar moves, and your bank adds 2 to 3% on top as a foreign transaction fee. Two of the tools below are priced in Australian dollars. The rest are not.
GST. Registered and unregistered studios need different documents. An unregistered teacher's invoice must not say "tax invoice"; a registered one must show an ABN and a GST line. Software that does not model the distinction produces the wrong document for one of you.
How families pay. BECS direct debit is the Australian default for a recurring bill. From 1 October 2026 the Reserve Bank prohibits surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa, so card fees on a term invoice come out of your margin rather than the family's.
The term. Australian studios bill by school term, not by month, and the dates differ by state. Monthly billing software makes you approximate this by hand every ten weeks.
The shortlist
My Music Staff. The incumbent, and the one most Australian teachers are already using. Mature, reliable, well supported, US priced. See the dedicated comparison for detail.
Teachworks. The nearest equivalent. Same US assumptions. A native mobile app has been its most requested feature for years and is publicly marked as not planned.
Opus1 and Jackrabbit. Built for multi location schools, and genuinely good at that scale. Deep rostering, franchise reporting, room management. If you run one school with one teacher they are far more tool than you need, and priced accordingly.
Duet, Fons, TutorBird, TeacherZone. Same category, different trade offs, all US built and USD priced.
OneBookPlus. Melbourne based, priced in AUD, with term pack billing. The only genuinely Australian option on this list other than us. It is a general small business tool with a music vertical rather than a music product, and there is no directory attached. If the Australian argument on this page persuades you but you would rather buy from someone with a longer history than us, this is the honest recommendation and we mean it.
Nova Music and Practis. Newer. Nova has a free tier and a native iOS app, which is more than most of this list offers.
Where we fit
We are the only option that is Australian and paired with a public directory. That pairing is the actual argument: studio software helps you run the students you already have, and a directory is how new ones find you. Every other tool here leaves the second problem entirely to you.
The Australian specifics are built in rather than worked around. GST aware invoicing that knows whether you are registered. BECS direct debit. Native Xero sync. Term packs aligned to your own state's school calendar. Group and one to one lessons treated as equals, because most studios run both. Make up credits tracked as a real balance with an expiry, which is the single most common billing argument in this industry.
A$25 a month for the first teacher, A$7 for each additional, capped at A$116. No commission on lesson income, no per student fee, no per lesson fee. Thirty day trial without a card, and a 90 day money back guarantee.
Where the others beat us
All of them have more history. We are new. Every tool above has more users, more years and more already discovered edge cases. If that is what you are buying, buy that.
Opus1 and Jackrabbit do large schools better. Multi location rostering and franchise level reporting are theirs, not ours.
Some have shipped mobile apps and we have not. If a native app is the deciding factor today, we are not the answer.
And if you teach a handful of students and invoice by hand, none of this software is necessary. A spreadsheet and a calendar is a perfectly respectable way to run a small studio, and the honest advice is to spend the money on something else.
How to choose
Ignore feature counts. Ask four questions instead: does it bill me in dollars I can budget in, does it produce the right invoice for my GST situation, can families pay by direct debit, and does it understand a school term. If a tool answers no to three of those, the length of its feature list is not going to rescue it.
Then check the exit before you commit to any of them, including us. Full data export, any time, free, without cancelling first. If a vendor makes leaving hard, that tells you what they think of their own product.
Where we are not the right answer
- We are new. Every tool listed here has more history, more users and more edge cases already found. That is a genuine reason to choose one of them.
- Opus1 and Jackrabbit are built for large multi location schools and do things at that scale we do not, including deep rostering and franchise reporting.
- If you only teach a handful of students and invoice by hand, none of this software is necessary and a spreadsheet is a perfectly respectable answer.
- Our mobile apps are not shipped yet. Some competitors have none either, but a few now do, and if that is your priority we are not the right choice today.