# Halqora vs My Music Staff

> My Music Staff is a low-cost studio system for music teachers. Halqora is built for online academies with a classroom, per-student currencies and pay rules.

URL: https://halqora.com/compare/halqora-vs-mymusicstaff
Last updated: 2026-10-21

## Verdict

Choose My Music Staff for a flat-price music studio system with a student portal, practice log and website builder. Choose Halqora for an online academy that needs a built-in classroom, per-student currencies and teacher pay tied to class outcomes.

## Who should choose which

### Choose Halqora if

- Online academies, including music academies, teaching one-to-one live lessons.
- Owners billing families in different currencies without converting invoices.
- Teams that want a built-in classroom with a whiteboard, synced PDF books and screen share annotation.
- Academies whose teacher-pay policy fits fixed lateness and no-show rules.

### Choose My Music Staff if

- Music studios wanting one flat low price, a website builder and a practice log.
- Teachers who teach in person or on their own Zoom links and want mileage and expense tracking.
- Studios that want SMS reminders included and a long-established product.

## Feature by feature

My Music Staff details checked 2026-10-21 on its public pages. Key: Yes = the public pages say so. Partly = narrower, or only through an add-on or another tool. No = not available. Not listed = not found on the vendor's public pricing, feature or help pages; it does not prove the feature is missing.

### Scheduling

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Recurring classes in each person's time zone | Yes. Recurring rules are stored in each person's IANA time zone. | Yes. Teachers and students can set own time zones once multi-time zone setting is on (2024 update post). |
| Group classes | No. Every class is one-to-one today; siblings can share one family invoice. | Yes. Help centre has an article on scheduling group lessons and taking group attendance. |

### Classroom

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built-in video classroom | Yes. Built-in classroom with video and screen share. | Partly. No built-in video; saves Zoom, Skype or FaceTime links per lesson and in reminders. |
| Whiteboard | Yes. Shared whiteboard in the classroom. | Not listed. Not on the features, pricing, integrations or portal pages. |
| Quran Mushaf viewer | Yes. Synced Madinah Mushaf with tajweed colouring and translations. | Not listed. Not on the features or pricing pages. |
| Silent observation with consent | Yes. Admins join hidden; camera and mic shown only with consent on file. | Not listed. Not on the features, multi-teacher or pricing pages. |
| AI class summaries | No. Nothing is recorded or transcribed today. | Not listed. Not on the features or pricing pages. |

### Billing

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic monthly billing runs | Yes. Monthly runs create draft invoices for admin review. | Yes. Invoices generated automatically per lesson, week, month, semester or year; bulk invoice creation. |
| Prepaid forecast and reconciliation | Yes. Prepaid billing with forecast and reconciliation, or postpaid. | Partly. Lesson packages sold upfront, hours tracked as lessons complete; forecast and reconciliation not shown. |
| A currency per student | Yes. Each student is billed in their own currency; invoices are never converted. | Not listed. Currency is a business Region setting; per-student currency not found in help centre or invoicing pages. |
| PayPal and Stripe sync | Yes. PayPal and Stripe invoice status sync; Mercury sync for USD. | Partly. Stripe and PayPal online payments and Auto Pay; automatic invoice status sync not stated on page. |
| Wise transfer matching | Yes. Wise transfers matched by reference or amount; unmatched queue for admins. | Not listed. Not on the integrations or invoices pages. |

### Payroll and reports

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Teacher pay rules tied to class outcomes | Yes. Lateness and half-class wait rules turn outcomes into teacher pay. | Partly. Teacher pay by hourly rate or percent of revenue with category overrides; no lateness or no-show rules shown. |
| Cancellation, no-show and lateness rates | Yes. Teacher and student cancellation, no-show and teacher lateness rates. | Not listed. Business features list Income, Billable Hours, Payroll reports; no cancellation or no-show analytics. |

### Families and messaging

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Family access without accounts | Yes. Private class and invoice links; families need no account. | Partly. Optional Student Portal for parents and students; families log in to it. |
| WhatsApp messages | Yes. From your academy's paired number: invoice messages, payment follow-ups, join and no-show alerts, and an after-class report to the family. | Not listed. Not found; SMS reminders and bulk SMS are included instead. |

### Apps and integrations

| Feature | Halqora | My Music Staff |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Native mobile apps | No. Browser-based; no native mobile apps. | Not listed. Help-centre article titled 'Is there a My Music Staff mobile app?'; its answer text could not be read, so we have not confirmed either way. |
| Xero or QuickBooks | No. No Xero or QuickBooks integration. | Partly. No native Xero or QuickBooks link per help centre; spreadsheet export and Zapier route (QuickBooks named). |
| Public API | No. No public API. | Not listed. No API mentioned on integrations or Zapier pages; Zapier only. |

## Pricing

### Halqora

- **Starter:** $39/mo. Up to 25 active students.
- **Academy:** $2.50. Per active student a month, $99 minimum.
- **Scale:** Custom. For 300+ students.
- Annual billing: 2 months free. 14-day pilot. Free onboarding and data import.

### My Music Staff

- **Starting price:** From $16.95/mo, one plan with all features, 30-day free trial.
- **What you pay for:** Flat base plus $4.95/mo per additional teacher or staff member; no student limit.

## In depth

My Music Staff is the better value for a music studio. It costs from $16.95 a month and adds a student portal and website builder. Halqora costs more and suits online academies that need a built-in classroom, per-student currencies and teacher pay tied to class outcomes.

Halqora is our product. We've tried to keep this comparison fair: competitor details come from their public pages, checked on the date shown. Tell us if anything is out of date at support@halqora.com.

### Halqora vs My Music Staff: the short answer

My Music Staff is built for music teachers and studios, according to its homepage as of 21 October 2026. The same company sells TutorBird for general tutors. If you teach music, the practice log, student portal and website builder are directly relevant, and Halqora has none of them.

Halqora is management software for online academies and tutoring businesses from Talt AI; Murouj Academy runs on it. It schedules, bills and calculates teacher pay for one-to-one classes, and it includes the classroom those lessons happen in. A studio that mainly needs a portal, practice log and website should not choose Halqora; an online music academy with teachers and families in several countries may.

> **Definition:** Fixed outcome rules turn a recorded class result, such as a completed lesson or student no-show, into a billing or teacher-pay decision using the same rules each time.

### Where My Music Staff is stronger

My Music Staff charges one flat price with every feature included, plus a small fee for each extra teacher. For a solo teacher or small studio that is hard to beat. The 30-day trial and 90-day money-back guarantee, listed on its pricing page as of 21 October 2026, also lower the risk of trying it.

Its student portal lets students self-schedule, turn cancellations into make-up lessons and keep a practice log. Families log in to use it. That suits studios where students and parents expect an account, and it is a real difference from Halqora's private links.

The matrix on the [comparison hub](https://halqora.com/compare) shows the rest of the picture. My Music Staff lists group lessons in its help centre and Stripe and PayPal payments on its invoicing page. We could not find a built-in classroom, silent observation, Wise matching or reliability analytics on its public pages. That is not proof it lacks them; ask the vendor if they matter to you.

### Online lessons and the classroom

We could not find built-in video at My Music Staff. Its integrations page describes saving a Zoom, Skype or FaceTime link against each lesson, so teachers still run the lesson in a separate tool. That works well for many studios.

Halqora includes a one-to-one classroom with video, a shared whiteboard, synced PDF books such as sheet music you have rights to use, and annotation over PDFs and screen shares. Chat stays closed until an admin opens it. Admins can observe silently, and camera and microphone access depends on consent on file.

### Billing, currencies and teacher pay

Both products create invoices automatically. My Music Staff generates them per lesson, week, month, semester or year, according to its invoicing page as of 21 October 2026. Halqora's billing runs create draft invoices for an admin to review and send, in prepaid or postpaid mode.

Halqora assigns each student a currency and never converts invoices. We could not find per-student currencies at My Music Staff, where the help centre describes currency as a business setting. Ask about this if your families pay in different currencies.

For teacher pay, My Music Staff supports an hourly rate or a percentage of revenue with category overrides. Halqora pays by class outcome: up to 2 minutes late is free, 3 to 5 minutes costs a flat 5% of that class's pay, and beyond that each minute late costs a minute of pay. A student no-show pays in full only after the teacher waits at least half the class. Halqora's rules are fixed in this version, so check that your policy agrees with them.

> **What it doesn't do:** Halqora does not support group classes, a student portal, a practice log or a website builder. It has no mobile apps, accounting integrations or public API, and it does not send class reminders. The academy's paired WhatsApp sends invoice and payment messages and follow-ups, join and no-show alerts to admins, and an after-class report to families, and nothing else.

### Choose My Music Staff if...

Choose My Music Staff when you teach music, want the lowest subscription cost and value a website builder and student portal. Choose it too if your lessons happen in person or on Zoom links your teachers already use.

### Choose Halqora if...

Choose Halqora when you run an online academy of one-to-one live lessons, [music included](https://halqora.com/music-school-software), and want scheduling, classroom, invoicing, payment matching and teacher pay in one place. It fits best when your teacher-pay policy matches the fixed lateness and no-show rules, and when families in several currencies need invoices that are never converted.

## Questions

### How much does My Music Staff cost?

As of 21 October 2026, My Music Staff's pricing page lists $16.95 per month with one plan, plus $4.95 per month for each additional teacher or staff member. It offers a 30-day free trial without a card and a 90-day money-back guarantee. The page does not state a currency code for the dollar sign.

### Can My Music Staff be used for online lessons?

Yes, with an outside video tool. As of 21 October 2026, the integrations page describes saving Zoom, Skype or FaceTime links against each lesson. We could not find a built-in video classroom, whiteboard or Quran viewer on its public pages, so check how your teachers would run a lesson end to end.

### Is Halqora a good alternative to My Music Staff?

Only if you run an online academy. Halqora is built for one-to-one live online classes, with a built-in classroom, per-student currencies and teacher pay rules. A local music studio that wants a student portal, practice log and website builder is better served by My Music Staff, which is built for music teaching and costs less.