Questions from real bands
BandBinder FAQ
Short answers before you join.
Money
Is BandBinder free?
Yes, and it's not a trial. The whole app is free forever on every device: unlimited songs, custom charts, practice notes, setlists, and full offline Performance Mode. No ads, no song-count cage, no countdown. Sign in and your library gets a free cloud backup too - one latest snapshot, text-only, no version history. Learn how backup and recovery works. Syncing across your devices and sharing with your band are free too, right now during early access - that's the one thing that will eventually need a plan.
If the whole app is free, what does a plan buy?
Syncing across your devices and sharing your library with your band. Everything else - unlimited songs, custom charts, practice notes, setlists, full offline Performance Mode - is free forever on every device, and one free cloud snapshot comes with sign-in.
What does it cost?
Founder pricing is live, billed monthly by default. Band Plan: $2.49/month for the whole band, or $22/year - save 26%. Solo Plus: $1.49/month, or $11/year - save 38%. Leading more than one band? Each additional band is $1.49/month, or $11/year - save 38%. Free tier: always free, no ads. Cancel anytime - one plan covers every member of your band, every device, and every platform. You'll never buy the app twice and you'll never pay per member.
Do all my bandmates have to pay?
No. One plan covers the whole band. Whoever organizes the band buys it, everyone else joins free with a band code and stays free, on every device they own. Two members or twenty, same price. We don't charge per person inside a band, and we're not going to start.
How do I pay for my band?
On desktop or Android, open Band Hub in the app and choose a plan right there. On any device, sign in at bandbinder.app/billing/ - with Google, or with a code emailed to the address you use in the app - to see every band you're in, choose a plan for one you manage, or manage an existing subscription. Your band's manager is whoever pays.
What happens to our songs if we stop paying?
They stay. Your library stays readable and exportable on every device, forever. Sync and band sharing pause until you renew. Your features can pause. Your data doesn't.
Your songs
What happens to our library if BandBinder disappears?
Nothing on your device stops working. BandBinder is an installed app, not a website: your whole library lives in a database on each device and that copy is the source of truth, so the app keeps opening, reading and performing with our servers switched off and nobody signed in. Sync is a convenience layer on top, not the thing holding your charts. Any member of the band can export the entire library at any time, one ChordPro file per song and PDFs byte for byte, or take a single-file backup of everything on the device. Your charts are yours, in an open text format, and you can walk out with them whenever you want.
What's the difference between cloud backup and sync?
Backup is a spare copy for disasters. Free with sign-in, BandBinder saves one snapshot of your library in the cloud; you touch it only if a device is lost or broken. Sync is a different thing: it keeps all your devices matched, live, all the time - and it is how a band shares one library. Sync is free too, right now during early access. If your library syncs, you may never use backup at all: sign in on a new device and your synced bands download automatically. Backup is the free safety net for everything that doesn't sync.
My device was lost or stolen. How do I get my songs back?
Install BandBinder on the new device and sign in with the same account. Bands that sync come down automatically. For everything else, open Band Hub, choose Cloud backup, and Restore your snapshot - that replaces the new device's library with your last backed-up copy, all at once.
I deleted a song by mistake. Can I get it back?
Yes - from Trash. Synced bands keep a deleted song recoverable in the cloud for a full year; local-only bands get a 90-day window on that device. Just that song comes back; nothing else changes. Backup won't help here (it keeps only your latest snapshot) and sync won't either (it faithfully copies the deletion to your other devices) - Trash is the undo.
Getting started
What devices does it run on?
Windows, macOS and Linux are available now, with Android and iOS in early access. It's one app with the same features everywhere, and one band plan covers every platform your band uses. The desktop app is a real desktop app - keyboard-first and offline - not a phone app stretched to a laptop.
Can I bring in the songs I already have?
Yes. Import ChordPro, OnSong format, Ultimate Guitar tab paste, Genius lyrics paste, plain text, and PDF (text-layer PDFs convert into an editable chart, or keep the original and perform straight from it), then edit them into the arrangement your band actually plays instead of the one on the record. Export back out whenever you want, on the free tier, no strings.
How do I import my whole song library, like switching from OnSong?
Export your library as a folder of files from OnSong or whatever you use now, then in BandBinder's Songs list choose Import folder of songs... and pick that folder. It scans the files, flags which are new versus already in your library so you don't end up with duplicates, and imports everything you leave checked in one action. One limitation: it brings in the chart itself, but not any Spotify or YouTube link or album art from the old app - re-add those by hand for now. See the full walkthrough. See the full OnSong comparison for pricing and platform differences.
Can I move my library to another device without cloud sync?
Yes - the same round trip an OnSong refugee uses, just with BandBinder at both ends. On the device that has the songs, choose Export all songs in (your band)... and pick a folder: one file per song, ChordPro for text charts and the original PDF byte for byte for PDF charts. Copy that folder across, then on the other device choose Import folder of songs... and review what it found. It merges rather than replaces, and songs already in the band are matched by title and left unchecked, so re-running it later only picks up what's missing. It brings the chart - lyrics, chords, key and tempo - but not setlists, practice notes, Spotify or YouTube links or album art, which aren't part of chart files. See the full walkthrough.
Day to day
Does it work on stage without internet?
Yes. Performance Mode is 100% offline by design. The library on your device is the source of truth, you don't need to be signed in to perform, and nothing can time out in the middle of a set. Big text, high contrast, autoscroll, setlist navigation, Bluetooth page-turner support.
How fast does the band library sync?
Seconds, when you're online. Someone edits a chart and it reaches the rest of the band's devices almost immediately, with no sync button to press. Offline, nothing breaks: your device's own library is the source of truth, so Performance Mode works with no connection at all.
Can I print a setlist?
Yes. Open a setlist and press Ctrl+P for a print preview, then send it to the printer: one big-type line per song with key, BPM, and duration, break rows subtotaled - a paper backup for the music stand. That's the setlist stage sheet; printing an individual chart isn't available yet.
How is this different from the songbook app we already use?
Most songbook apps start at the gig. BandBinder starts at rehearsal. Import a chart, rework it as a band, drop practice notes anchored to the exact line they belong to ("drums drop out here"), run count-in and reference playback in the jam room - then flip that same library into Performance Mode and play the set with the notes hidden. The work your band puts in at rehearsal is the thing you walk on stage with.
Tips & tricks shows the moves nobody tells you about; the full user guide and ChordPro reference are at docs.bandbinder.app.
The songbook your band builds in rehearsal is the one you perform with.
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