DuetStudio

DuetStudio is a studio-management service for private music teachers who want scheduling, lesson records, student practice, and billing in one workflow. Its unlimited-student free plan makes it a sensible starting point for solo instructors, while multi-teacher studios should look elsewhere until the Organization plan is ready.

The strongest case for DuetStudio is its combination of teacher administration and a student portal, with control over which lesson notes are shared. Manual roster setup and the absence of a native app are meaningful trade-offs.

Overview

DuetStudio brings recurring studio tasks into a single web app: arranging lessons, tracking attendance, assigning practice, and handling invoices. Students use an emailed magic link to see upcoming lessons, assignments, practice logs, and shared notes without a password. That creates a useful bridge between a teacher's records and a student's work between lessons.

Teachers can keep notes private or share them with students and parents, which suits instructors who want to provide lesson guidance without making every internal note visible. The onboarding drawback is clear for established studios: students cannot yet be imported from another tool and have to be entered manually.

Key features

Scheduling and lesson records

The week calendar supports one-off and recurring lessons, attendance, and cancellations. Automatic morning-of email reminders can reduce routine follow-up, while lesson notes let teachers keep teaching records alongside scheduled sessions. This is a solid set of essentials for a solo studio, though a calendar alone will not remove the work of setting up an existing roster.

Practice and payments

Students can view assignments, log practice time, and track completion in their portal. Pro adds practice analytics and repertoire tracking, giving full-time teachers more visibility into student work than basic assignment sharing provides. Online card payments run through Stripe; teachers can also provide Venmo, Zelle, or Cash App payment details. DuetStudio says it takes no share of lesson payments.

Privacy and support

The privacy policy describes HTTPS/TLS, Supabase Auth, row-level security, and environment-separated API keys as data protections. DuetStudio also says it does not use third-party analytics, advertising trackers, or marketing cookies, and does not sell user data. Support is available through the contact page or at [email protected].

Pricing

DuetStudio is freemium. Free costs nothing and includes unlimited active and inactive students, scheduling and calendar, lesson notes and assignments, the student portal and practice tracking, a notebook, manual invoicing, and email notifications and reminders. That is unusually accommodating on roster size, but invoicing remains manual and the plan does not include Pro's automatic invoicing or advanced practice and repertoire tools.

Pro costs $120 a year, billed $120.00 per year (= $10.00/month, billed annually). It includes everything in Free plus online card payments with automatic receipts, practice analytics and repertoire tracking, automatic invoicing, a music library, a public booking and lead-capture page, and custom branding. It is the more complete fit for a full-time solo teacher who wants to reduce billing administration and present a branded booking page; the annual term means committing for the year.

Organization costs $208 a year, billed annually, with a minimum of 2 seats. It includes everything in Pro for every teacher, teacher and admin roles, roster assignment, a studio dashboard, 7-month reports, an audit log, billing modes, a public studio profile, and a 50 GB shared music library. The plan is marked coming soon, so studios needing multi-teacher controls now should not rely on it being ready.

Platforms

DuetStudio runs on the web and is responsive on phones and tablets. That makes it accessible on mobile browsers, but teachers who require a native mobile app should choose a different service.

Who it's for

The Free plan suits hobby teachers and college students teaching on the side, particularly those who want an unlimited student roster without a subscription. Pro is aimed at full-time solo teachers whose workload justifies automated invoicing, card payments, analytics, and a public booking page. Multi-teacher studios and small academies are the intended audience for Organization, but its coming-soon status makes it a future rather than current fit.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Free supports unlimited active and inactive students, so roster growth does not itself force an upgrade.
• Pro: Student portal, assignments, practice logs, and selectively shared notes connect lesson administration with student follow-through.
• Pro: Pro adds automatic invoicing and payment options while DuetStudio says it takes no share of lesson payments.
• Con: Students from another system must be added manually, creating extra setup work for teachers moving an established studio.
• Con: There is no native mobile app, which may be inconvenient for users who prefer dedicated phone software.
• Con: Organization is marked coming soon, limiting its usefulness to studios that need multi-teacher administration today.

Alternatives

Music Lesson Scheduling Software is a useful starting point for comparing services in this category.

Adagio is another free-plan option, with Android, iOS, and web support; choose it if native mobile access matters, or if its nonprofit background is relevant to your choice.

Clefwise offers a free plan capped at 3 students and supports iOS and web. It may suit an iOS-using teacher with a very small roster; DuetStudio's free plan does not impose a student cap.

Nova Music supports iOS and web, and its free plan covers up to 10 students along with group lessons, direct messaging, and 100 MB file storage. Consider it if those capabilities and an iOS app matter more than DuetStudio's unlimited free roster.

OPS has a free Organizations plan with up to 3 setlists, 2 user accounts, and a score library capped at 20 pieces; consider it for that score-library and setlist workflow rather than DuetStudio's lesson administration.

CogNote is self-hosted or web-based, and its maker describes it as built by a working piano studio for daily use. It is worth considering if that studio-built approach or self-hosting is a priority.

GroovConnect is a free web option designed for music schools, so it may be a better fit for a school-oriented workflow.

Harness offers a free Hobby plan for up to 5 students, with scheduling, attendance, a family portal, and income and expense tracking. It may suit a small teacher who prioritizes financial tracking; DuetStudio's free plan allows unlimited students.

MyMusicBuddy has a free Starter plan capped at 5 students, 1 instrument, and 1 lesson rate. It is an option for a teacher whose needs fit those limits, while DuetStudio is less restrictive on student count.

Verdict

DuetStudio is a strong choice for private teachers who want lesson scheduling, student practice tracking, and billing tools tied together, especially if an unlimited-student free plan is important. Choose Pro when automatic invoicing and practice analytics justify its annual cost; look elsewhere if importing students, a native app, or multi-teacher management right now is essential.