Back On Stage vs. My Gigs: Which One Actually Runs Your Band?
If you've been using My Gigs to keep your band's schedule straight, it's probably because it's cheap, simple, and does exactly one job well: everyone knows where and when you're playing. That's a real problem solved. The question worth asking is what happens the week after the gig, when you're the one chasing a signed contract, sending the invoice, and figuring out who still needs to get paid. My Gigs was never built to touch any of that. Here's an honest look at where the two actually differ.
Back On Stage vs. My Gigs at a glance
| Feature | Back On Stage | My Gigs |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Runs the whole gig lifecycle: staffing, contracts, invoicing, payouts | Shares your gig schedule and basic gig info with your group |
| Musicians & crew | Always free, unlimited, on every plan. Only admin seats are counted. | One flat fee per group covers everyone up to the tier's member cap, no free-musician distinction |
| Entry pricing (2026, billed annually) | Starter $19/mo (1 admin seat) | Free forever (up to 100 members, capped to 10 gigs, 3 setlists, 50 files) or Small $3.60/mo (up to 5 members, unlimited gigs/files) |
| Higher tiers (billed annually) | Pro $40/mo (3 seats), Agency $63/mo (5 seats), extra seats $8-10/mo | Medium $7.30/mo (up to 10 members), Large $14.60/mo (up to 100 members) |
| Automated staffing/booking | Yes, Auto-Book and Shotgun Book send gig offers automatically, from the Pro plan | No. Scheduling is manual, with one-way (free) or two-way (paid) iCal sync to keep calendars aligned |
| Client CRM & lead capture | Lead capture forms with automated follow-up email sequences, 1 form on Starter, unlimited on Pro/Agency | Not offered. My Gigs manages your existing group, it doesn't capture new client leads |
| Contracts & invoicing | Digital contracts with e-signature, invoicing, and a branded client portal on every plan | Not offered. My Gigs shares gig pay info with your members, it doesn't invoice or collect from clients |
| Musician payouts | Auto-Pay sends musician payouts via PayPal, from the Pro plan | Not offered. You can log each member's fee for a gig for visibility, but My Gigs doesn't process the payment |
| Setlists & sheet music | Unlimited setlists, sheet music, and reference recordings, exportable straight to ForScore | Up to 3 setlists free, unlimited on paid tiers, with file storage (50 files free, unlimited paid) |
| Calendar sync & website embed | Not offered as a public feature today | iCal sync to any calendar app, plus an embeddable schedule widget for your own website |
| Trial & guarantee | 30-day free trial, 90-day money-back guarantee | Free forever plan, no credit card required, cancel anytime |
Back On Stage prices shown are the annual billing rate (paid yearly), which is how most bandleaders actually pay. Monthly billing runs higher. Features reflect Back On Stage's published Starter/Pro/Agency plans and My Gigs' published pricing page as of August 2026. Check backonstageapp.com and mygigs.com/plans-pricing directly for current numbers before you decide.
Where Back On Stage is actually different
My Gigs solves a real problem cheaply: it keeps a group's calendar straight and lets people check venue details, sound check times, and pay info in one place. If that's genuinely the only thing slowing your band down, its Small plan at $3.60/month will do the job, and there's no reason to spend more.
But for most bandleaders, the calendar was never the hard part. The hard part is everything downstream of the calendar: staffing the gig without a 20-text group chain, getting a contract signed before the deposit is due, sending the invoice after the show, and making sure every musician actually gets paid without a parking-lot Venmo session. My Gigs doesn't touch any of that, and it isn't trying to. Back On Stage was built to run the business, not just publish the schedule.
The other real difference is what happens as your roster grows. My Gigs prices by total group size, so a 10-piece band already needs the Medium plan, and a full-scale entertainment company with 100+ members needs Large. Back On Stage keeps musicians and crew free and unlimited on every plan. Your price is set by how many admins you need managing the business, not by how many people are in it.
"But My Gigs is basically free"
It is, and that's a genuine strength if a shared calendar is truly all you need. A five-piece cover band that just wants everyone looking at the same schedule has no real reason to pay more than $3.60 a month for it.
The gap starts to matter once you're running the band as a business rather than a hobby. My Gigs' Free and Small plans don't send a single invoice, don't generate a single contract, and don't move a single dollar to a musician. Add up what a missed invoice, a verbal-only agreement, or a late musician payout actually costs you in a season, not just the monthly bill, and the $19/month Starter plan usually pays for itself the first time it catches something My Gigs never would have.
Run the whole gig, not just the calendar
Back On Stage staffs your gigs automatically, gets contracts signed before the deposit's due, and pays your musicians without a parking-lot Venmo session after every show.
Start your 30-day free trial at backonstageapp.com
