Gig, band and website tools
BandHelper is for the stage. GigTag is for the floor.
On stage you need to know two things: what you are playing next, and what the room wants. Your charts answer the first. GigTag answers the second, with one code on the mic stand that lets the audience request songs, save your next date and enquire about booking you. If you were looking at BandHelper, this is the piece that faces outwards.
- No app for your audience
- Free to start
- One code that never changes
Why GigTag
What a BandHelper setup gains from GigTag
BandHelper is built for the players: every chart, track and set list in step across the band. It is very much a tool for your side of the monitors. GigTag is for the other side. It gives the audience a part in the night and gives you their requests, their follows and their booking enquiries.
- 1
The audience gets a say
On Pro, people scan the tag, pick from your song list and their request joins a live queue. A band with its whole repertoire in BandHelper is well placed to say yes: the chart is already on the tablet. GigTag supplies the request, and your existing setup supplies the song.
- 2
A reason to come back
Your next gig and weekly residencies are on the page behind the tag, and people can add a date to their calendar on the spot. BandHelper's schedule is built to tell the band where to be. GigTag tells the audience, which is how a function-room crowd finds your public gigs.
- 3
Enquiries while you are still playing
A guest who wants the band for their own event can send a booking enquiry from the dance floor, through the form on your page. It is on the free plan, and GigTag takes no commission on bookings. By the time the last chord rings out, the enquiry is already in your account.
- 4
No screens, no cables
The tag is a printed piece in your own design. It goes on the mic stand next to the tablet holder and asks nothing of your rig: no power, no pairing, no extra screen to watch. The code on it never changes, so it works the same at every gig the band plays.
- 5
Deps and line-ups covered
Band members can join the band, and on Pro one account holds more than one act, so the trio and the full band can both have a place. The audience needs nothing but a camera and a browser, with no app and no account. That keeps the request side simple even on a night with a stand-in.
In short
BandHelper and GigTag, in four lines
- BandHelper keeps a band's songs, set lists, schedule and finances in sync, with apps for the stage.
- GigTag gives the audience a code to scan: requests, your next gig, links and a booking form.
- Requests arrive in a live queue, so the room can shape a set you already have charts for.
- Our recommendation: keep BandHelper on the tablets and add a GigTag to the mic stand.
Side by side
GigTag vs BandHelper, topic by topic
On your devices
Nothing for the audience to install
You manage GigTag on the website or the GigTag phone app. The audience uses their own phones, with nothing installed.
BandHelperIt runs as an online service with iOS, Android and Mac apps, and members read lyrics and chords on phones, tablets or external displays.
The songs
A public song list people request from
Your song list on GigTag is the menu the audience requests from. Open requests let them ask for anything else.
BandHelperEach song can hold lyrics, chords, tempo, duration, starting pitch and custom fields, and can be sorted and searched by any of them.
Working as a band
Members join the band, more acts on Pro
On GigTag, band members can join the band. On Pro, one account can also hold more than one act, a duo and a band for example.
BandHelperSet lists and song changes reach every member automatically. Administrators set what each member can see or edit and can suspend access.
Getting gig details out
Your next gig, saved to fans' calendars
Your public gigs and weekly residencies show on your page for the audience, who can add a date to their calendar.
BandHelperMembers get email notifications when an event is confirmed or changed, and the leader can send standard gig invitations to the band.
Money after the gig
Invoices paid online, and tips with 0% taken
On Pro, GigTag sends clients an invoice in your own design to pay online. Tips go to your own Stripe or Ziina account.
BandHelperIts site describes logging income and expenses and a report showing how much of the band's balance is due to each member.
The quick view
| GigTag | BandHelper | |
|---|---|---|
| A QR code your audience scans | Yes, one that never changes | – |
| Song requests from the crowd | Yes, on Pro | – |
| Tips by card or Apple Pay | Yes, on Pro, into your own Ziina or Stripe. GigTag takes 0% | – |
| Booking enquiries | Yes, on the free plan | – |
| Your gigs and weekly residencies | Yes, on the free plan | – |
| Invoices for bookings | Yes, on Pro | – |
| A printed tag for your mic stand | Yes, in your own design | – |
| Works without an app for the audience | Yes, it opens in the browser | – |
A dash means we did not confirm it for BandHelper, not that it is missing: see what BandHelper offers above, or ask on its site.
BandHelper or GigTag
Where GigTag is different from BandHelper
Who is holding the screen
With BandHelper the screen is on your music stand, showing you the next chart. With GigTag the screen is in a customer's hand. They scan the tag on your mic stand, your page opens in their browser, and they can request a song, check your next gig or follow you. Nothing is installed and no account is made. The two screens never compete.
Requests arrive while you play
Your set list in BandHelper is the plan. GigTag brings in what the room wants. On Pro, people pick from your song list, or ask for anything if you open requests, and each request joins a live queue you can check between songs. If it is in the repertoire, you already have the chart in BandHelper. Call it and play it.
Something the audience takes home
When the last song ends, the charts go back in the bag. The GigTag code keeps working. Anyone who scanned it has your page: your next gig and weekly residencies to add to their calendar, your socials and music links, and a booking enquiry form. The printed code never changes, so the same tag works at every gig you play.
A night with GigTag
A function band with a stand-in bassist
Tonight is a company party in a hotel function room, and your usual bassist is away. The stand-in has the charts on a tablet. You have something else on the mic stand: the band's tag. During the first set you invite the room to scan it. Staff at the tables open your page in their browsers and look through the song list. On Pro, their requests arrive in the live queue on your phone, and you choose the ones the stand-in already has in front of them.
By the second set the dance floor is deciding the order. Between songs you check the queue and call the next tune. At the bar, a guest from another firm scans the tag and sends a booking enquiry for their own event. Somebody else sees the band's next public gig on the page and saves it to their calendar. All of it happens on their own phones, and none of it touches the charts on your tablets. After the last song you check the app once more and find the enquiry waiting.
About BandHelper
What is BandHelper?
BandHelper is an online service with apps for iOS, Android and Mac, made to take the organising out of being in a band. It holds the band's repertoire, set lists, schedule, contacts and finances in one account that every member shares. Change a lyric, a key or a gig time on one device and the rest of the band sees it, so everyone works from the same version.
At rehearsal and on stage, members read lyrics and chord charts from a phone or tablet, with auto-scroll, transposing and foot switch control. The app can play backing tracks and click tracks and send MIDI to instruments and lighting. Away from the stage, the band leader sends gig invitations, logs contacts with venues, draws stage plots for sound engineers and tracks income, expenses and what each member is due.
- Where
- Worldwide
- Website
- bandhelper.com
How BandHelper works
- 1
Enter the repertoire. You add songs with lyrics, chords, tempo, key and any custom fields the band wants. Its site says existing material can be imported from ChordPro files and spreadsheets.
- 2
Build and share set lists. Songs are dragged into order, with labels for set breaks and pauses, and the running time is calculated. The set list reaches every member's device, and can be emailed as a PDF or printed.
- 3
Rehearse and perform. On stage, each member reads from a phone or tablet with auto-scroll. The app can play recordings and backing tracks, show a tempo, and respond to Bluetooth foot switches.
- 4
Run the band. The leader sends gig invitations and confirmations, logs dealings with venues and contacts, draws stage plots for sound engineers and records income and expenses, with a report of what each member is due.
Who BandHelper is for
Bands sharing one songbook. Groups where every member needs the current lyric sheet, key and arrangement. Its site describes a master version of each song that the band shares, while members keep personal edits and notes of their own.
Acts with tracks and automation. Bands that play to backing tracks, click tracks or programmed lighting. Its site describes MIDI sent to instruments and automation that scrolls lyrics, starts recordings and changes settings at set points in a song, so the show runs the same way each night.
Bandleaders and deps. Leaders who book the players and bring in substitutes. Its site describes gig invitations and confirmations sent to members, and charts and reference recordings provided for a stand-in who has to learn the set quickly.
The verdict
GigTag or BandHelper: which should you choose?
The bottom line
If your band plays to an audience, add GigTag. The strongest reason is that it gives the room a voice: requests in a live queue, chosen from songs you already have charted, plus a way to follow you and book you from one scan. BandHelper remains the right home for the repertoire, the tracks and the band's admin, and nothing here replaces it. The stage has two sides, and a working band should cover both.
This is an easy pairing. BandHelper runs on your devices for charts, set lists, tracks and band admin. GigTag sits on the mic stand for the audience. A request comes in on GigTag, you pull the song up in BandHelper. A booking enquiry comes in on GigTag, the confirmed date goes into the band schedule. Neither replaces the other.
- Step 1
Keep the repertoire in BandHelper
Carry on storing songs, charts, tracks and set lists there. It remains the place the band looks when it needs to know what to play and how.
- Step 2
Copy your titles to GigTag
Add the songs you are happy to be asked for to your GigTag song list, so that audience requests match charts the band already holds.
- Step 3
Put the tag out
Fix the tag to the mic stand at each gig, keep the request queue open on a phone, and check it between songs and at the break.
Choose GigTag if
You want the people watching to request songs, see your next gig and enquire about booking you, without downloading anything.
Start freeBandHelper may still suit you if
You want lyrics, charts, backing tracks and the schedule synced to every member's device.
GigTag FreeYour page, your tag design, every gig and residency, a booking form. One act.
GigTag ProSong requests, tips, invoices, more than one act. AED 30, £11.99 or $15.99 a month.
GigTag Printed tagFrom AED 100 in the UAE, £24.99 in the UK or €28.99 in the EU, delivered free, with a large size for more; $32.99 elsewhere, plus postage from the UK. Or print your own, anywhere, for free.
Questions
BandHelper and GigTag: what people ask
Something else? Ask us. A person reads every message.
Is GigTag better than BandHelper for taking requests?
Requests from an audience are what GigTag is built for. On Pro, people scan the tag, choose from your song list in the browser and the request appears in a live queue. BandHelper is built for the band's own repertoire and set lists. Used together, the request comes in on GigTag and the chart is ready in BandHelper.
We have BandHelper. What are we missing at the gig without GigTag?
A way for the audience to act. Without a code to scan, someone who loves the set has to find you later, remember your name and search for a contact. With GigTag they can request a song, save your next gig, follow your socials or send a booking enquiry there and then, in the browser, with no app.
Is GigTag an alternative to BandHelper?
Not really. BandHelper manages a band's repertoire, set lists, schedule, contacts and finances, and shows charts on stage. GigTag is not a set list or chord chart app. It is a QR tag for your mic stand that opens your page for the audience. If you searched for a BandHelper alternative for charts, GigTag is not it.
Can song requests from GigTag go into BandHelper?
They are separate products. Requests on GigTag arrive in a live queue on the GigTag website or app. You then find the song in BandHelper as you normally would. In practice that means a phone showing the queue and a tablet showing your charts, or a quick glance at the queue between songs.
Does BandHelper work on Android as well as iPad?
Its site says BandHelper is an online service with apps for iOS, Android and Mac, plus access on the web. GigTag is managed from its website or the GigTag phone app, and your audience needs no app at all: your page opens in their phone's browser when they scan the tag.
Both BandHelper and GigTag mention invoices. Which should I use?
BandHelper's site lists invoices for clients among its band management tools. GigTag, on the Pro plan, has invoices in your own design that clients pay online, alongside the booking enquiries that come through your tag. Use whichever sits closer to where the booking started. Check BandHelper's site for the detail of how its invoices work.
How do bands take song requests during a set?
The simplest way is a code the audience can scan. With GigTag on Pro, people scan the tag on the mic stand and choose from the band's song list in their browser. Each request joins a live queue that the band sees on the GigTag website or app, and you decide between songs what to play.
Is there an app that shares set lists with the whole band?
That is the kind of tool BandHelper is. Its site describes songs and set lists distributed automatically to bandmates, with lyrics and chords kept in sync across phones, tablets and computers. GigTag does a different job: it is not a set list app, and it is used by the audience, not the players.
Can a stand-in player see GigTag requests?
Requests arrive in the live queue on the GigTag website and the GigTag phone app, which the act manages. Band members can join the band on GigTag. For a one-night stand-in, the practical answer is that whoever runs the queue calls the next song from the stage, as a bandleader would with any request.
What does a GigTag look like on stage next to our tablets?
It is a small custom tag made for the mic stand, in a design you create, with one QR code on it. It sits beside the tablet holders and pedals as a printed piece, with no screen of its own. You can order it printed, or use the print file from the free plan and print your own.
Looking for BandHelper itself?
This page is GigTag's. BandHelper's sign-in, prices, reviews and support are on its own site.
Apps like BandHelper: more gig, band and website tools compared
- BandMGTvs GigTag
- Bandzooglevs GigTag
- BookLivevs GigTag
- Gigwellvs GigTag
- Jotformvs GigTag
- Music Gluevs GigTag
BandHelper is the name of its owner's product; GigTag is not connected with it. What is said about BandHelper here comes from its own public website, checked on 7 October 2026. Products change: if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
For musicians
One code on your stand. Requests, tips and the next gig behind it.
No app for your audience, nothing to download. Free to start.