Availy vs My Music Staff — A Modern Alternative for Teachers
My Music Staff is a long-standing favorite for music teachers. Availy is a newer, all-in-one alternative built around student self-booking and lesson credits — and it isn't limited to music, so it fits any private instructor.
| Feature | Availy | My Music Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Student self-booking | Native — students book from your real-time availability | Yes — public self-booking (a more recently added feature) |
| Works beyond music | Any subject — music, academic, language, coaching, fitness | Music-focused (built for music studios) |
| Lesson credits & packages | Prepaid credits with instructor-set rates and optional expiry | Invoicing, recurring billing and packages |
| Learning plans & homework | Goals and homework tasks per student, shared with parents and pulled into lesson reminders | Repertoire and practice logging alongside lesson notes |
| Email & SMS reminders | Both included, opt-in per channel | Both included |
| Calendar sync & invites | Instructors connect Google Calendar: lessons push into it and their Google busy times block availability. Plus a personal feed for every user (Google, Apple & Outlook) and an invite on every booking email | Subscribable feeds per account and teacher; external calendars connect by pasting a public ICS URL |
| Online payment processing | Yes — students pay invoices by card via Stripe (USD & CAD), no Availy markup, plus balance & who's-paid tracking | Yes — online payments and recurring billing |
| Student & parent portals | Students and guardians get their own logins | Yes — student & parent portal |
| In-app messaging & file sharing | Message students and parents, share worksheets & recordings | Portal messaging and file storage |
| Your own branded subdomain & landing page | Studio plan: yourstudio.availy.app with your brand | Studio website and booking page |
| Starting price | $29/mo solo, $99/mo studio — flat, unlimited students | $16.95/mo + $4.95 per additional teacher |
Comparison based on each product's publicly published features and pricing as of July 2026. My Music Staff is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with Availy. Details change — check their site for the latest.
When My Music Staff is the better fit
If you teach music, want the lowest starting price, and value music-specific touches like practice logging — from a tool thousands of music studios have relied on for years — My Music Staff is an excellent, proven choice, especially for a solo teacher on a tight budget.
Common questions
- Is Availy cheaper than My Music Staff?
- Not for a solo teacher. My Music Staff starts at $16.95 per month plus $4.95 per additional teacher, while Availy is $29 per month for a solo instructor. Availy's $99 per month Studio plan covers up to 10 instructors with no per-teacher fee, so a multi-teacher studio can end up paying less with Availy, but at the low end My Music Staff is the cheaper option.
- Can I move my students from My Music Staff to Availy?
- Yes. Export your roster from My Music Staff as a CSV and import it into Availy: you map your columns to Availy's fields, see a preview of exactly what will be created, and then commit. One row can carry both the student and their parent, and the two are linked automatically. There is no My Music Staff-specific importer — it is a generic CSV import, which is why it works with whatever your export looks like. Credits, payment history and past lessons are not imported, and no invitation emails go out until you choose to send them.
- What does Availy do that My Music Staff doesn't?
- Availy is built for any subject rather than music specifically, and students book themselves from your real-time availability using prepaid credits instead of you entering each lesson by hand. Every student and guardian gets their own login, and each student can have a learning plan with goals and homework tasks that families can see and check off.
When to choose Availy
Choose Availy if you want a modern, student-first experience across any subject: real-time self-booking, lesson credits, email and SMS reminders, and student and parent accounts — with your own branded studio subdomain — in one flat-priced plan you can launch the same day.
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