Today, 1 November 2026, Fretlist leaves Early Access. Fretlist is a chord sheet and setlist app for musicians: you keep your songs with lyrics and chords, transpose them to any key, put them in setlists, and play from them on stage, on any device, with or without internet. I build it on my own, and from today it has paid plans.
This post is a thank you to the people who got it here, and a plain list of what changes today.
From a WordPress site to a chord sheet and setlist app
Fretlist started as a WordPress site for me and my buddy Ruud, so we had one place for our chord charts, with a key, capo and tuning per song. I wrote about that in why I built Fretlist.
At the start of 2026 I began building it again as a real app. The first version on the changelog is from 16 January. A few days later I shared it on Threads, and 35 people signed up overnight.
The first 50: the Early Birds
The first fifty accounts became the Early Birds. Most of them joined in February, before Fretlist worked offline and before you could bring a whole library over. They found the bugs first, and they told me what was missing.
As promised, Early Birds keep Pro free for life.
Then hundreds more in Early Access
After the Early Birds came Early Access: free, unlimited use while I kept building. As of 31 October, over 600 musicians have an account. Between them they hold more than 40,000 songs and over 1,400 setlists.
A lot of what I built this year started as an email. Someone's import came out wrong, a chart broke on a tablet at a gig, a button was in the wrong place, a band needed something I hadn't thought of. I answered them myself, fixed what I could, and wrote down every idea. The in-app feedback form alone brought in around a hundred messages, next to everything that came in by email.
134 releases in ten months
The changelog has 134 releases between 16 January and 30 October. Some of them were small polish, some were big. These are the ones that changed what Fretlist is:
- February: Play Mode, the full-screen view for playing live, and sharing songs and setlists by link.
- March: Fretlist works offline, version 1.0.
- April: bring your whole library over, from OnSong, SongbookPro, Ultimate Guitar and more.
- May: the docs went live, Frets drew chord diagrams for every song, and folders arrived.
- June: print and export, rebuilt.
- August: chord grids, show and hide any part of a song, and a big update to the song editor.
- September: Fretlist learned what instrument you play, and Follow Me keeps a whole band on the same song.
- October: change a song's key with all its chords, Version history for songs and setlists, tags, notes for the stage, fit the song to the screen, and wind instruments.
Many of these came straight from someone's email. Some came from several.
Have a chord chart lying around? Paste it into Fretlist, set its key, and open it in Play Mode. Try Fretlist.
What changes today
From today there are three plans. Every plan has every feature: Play Mode, offline, chord diagrams, print, export, sharing and bulk import. A plan only changes how much you can add.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | 50 songs and 3 setlists |
| Pro | €24 a year, or €3 a month | No limit on songs or setlists |
| Bands | €58 a year, or €7 a month, for the whole band | One shared library for up to 15 people, you included |
The starter songs Fretlist adds when you sign up don't count toward the 50. Your first band is free for 30 days, with no card needed. When you pay for a band, Pro on your own library is included. Plans and limits has the details, and the bands post explains how a band library works.
You keep what you have. No plan ever hides, locks or removes a song or setlist you made. If you have 80 songs on the Free plan, all 80 keep working, on stage too. You just can't add number 81.
If you signed up before 1 November
You were here during Early Access, so every paid plan is half price for as long as you use Fretlist: Pro at €12 a year, Bands at €29 a year. Start any paid plan by 1 December and that rate stays with your account, also for plans you take out later. After 1 December the offer closes.
I wrote about why Fretlist is a subscription, and not a one-off fee, in the pricing post.
What stays the same
- I still build Fretlist myself, and I still answer every email myself.
- Your songs are yours. You can export all of them, in several formats, at any time.
- Updates keep coming. The changelog lists every one.
Thank you to every Early Bird, every Early Access musician, and everyone who took the time to write to me. Fretlist is what it is today because of you.
New to Fretlist? Import your songs from another app or paste a chord chart, and build your first setlist. The Free plan holds 50 songs and 3 setlists. Start with Fretlist.
Dear John