Comparison

Set the Tune vs Fons.

Fons (by MakeMusic) is booking and payments for independent teachers and small studios - clients book online, autopay runs on ACH or card, and a cancellation policy bills itself. Set the Tune is a season-scheduling engine for schools with a roster to place. Here is where each one fits.

What Fons is good at
  • ♩Online booking with your own lesson rules
  • ♩Autopay on ACH or card via Stripe, recurring or per-lesson
  • ♩Automatic cancellation-window charging, so late cancels still pay
  • ♩Google Calendar sync
  • ♩A Marketplace listing for new-student visibility
Where it stops
  • ✱Built for one teacher booking appointments, not a school placing a whole roster
  • ✱No engine that schedules a full season in one click
  • ✱No drive-time routing for teachers traveling between homes
  • ✱No conflict engine across teachers, rooms, and availability windows
  • ✱No teacher workday rules or A/B week balancing
CapabilitySet the TuneFons
One-click schedule optimization (whole roster)♩ Yes-
Automatic conflict detection - double-booking, availability, overlaps♩ YesManual
Drive-time-aware scheduling for traveling teachers (real traffic data)♩ Yes-
Teacher workday rules - 8-hour cap, meal-break compliance♩ Yes-
A/B (alternating) week balancing♩ Yes-
Messy-file roster import (CSV/DOCX) with AI cleanup♩ YesCSV import
Waitlist with one-click placement♩ Yes-
Season clone & roll-forward♩ Yes-
Teacher self-serve availability links + calendar (ICS) feeds♩ YesCalendar sync
Online booking + autopay (ACH / card)-♩ Yes
Cancellation-window auto-charge-♩ Yes

Based on each product's published feature list and pricing page, June 2026. Spot something out of date? Tell us.

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What Set the Tune doesn't do.
Tuition invoicing, attendance, parent portals, family messaging. On purpose. Set the Tune is the scheduling layer - it builds the calendar your admin tools manage. If you need full studio admin, keep it and use both.
Set the Tune
  • ♩Starter $79 / Pro $129 / Studio $199 per month, per school
  • ♩Sized by students you actually schedule, not your raw roster
  • ♩Unlimited teachers on every tier - one price per school, never per teacher
  • ♩Free look at signup: build your real schedule free, pay only to export and keep it
Fons
  • ♩$29.95 per month for the first teacher
  • ♩+ $7.45 per month for each additional staff member
  • ♩Free or discounted plans for qualifying teachers and students

Can you use both?

Often, yes. A solo teacher who just needs booking and autopay may not need an optimizer at all - Fons is a clean fit there. The moment you are placing dozens of students across multiple traveling teachers each season, Set the Tune builds that schedule and hands the booked lessons back to whatever runs your payments.

Schedule the season in an afternoon, not a week.

See your schedule freeSee pricing
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