Can This Free AI Replace Suno? I Tested Both With My Own Original Lyrics
Forget Suno? That’s a very big claim. But this new AI is 100% free and gives you unlimited song generations. So I put it to the ultimate test.
- Can This Free AI Replace Suno? I Tested Both With My Own Original Lyrics
- What Is Sonato AI?
- How to Generate Music in Sonato AI
- How to Generate Music in Suno AI (For Comparison)
- The Live Test — Test 1: “Girly” (Afrobeat with Twi Dialect Words)
- The Live Test — Test 2: “I Do” (Original Song with Personal Demo)
- Honest Verdict — Sonato vs Suno
- Should You Switch from Suno to Sonato?
- Tips for Getting the Best Results from Either Tool
I gave both Suno AI and the new challenger — Sonato AI — my own original song lyrics, including words from my local Ghanaian dialect, to see which one would handle it better.
One of them failed completely.
🎬 Watch the full comparison here:
What Is Sonato AI?
Sonato AI (sonato.ai) is a brand new free AI music generator with unlimited generations — no credits, no paywall. When you first visit the site you’ll see:
- Staff Picks — featured community creations
- Top Posts — most popular community tracks
- Radio tab — listen to live community tracks with a built-in chat
- Make Music tab — where you create your own songs
You need a free account to generate music — sign up or log in with Google.
How to Generate Music in Sonato AI
Simple Mode — Quick Generation from a Prompt:
- Go to the Make Music tab
- Select Simple Mode
- Type a single prompt describing what you want — example: “An Afrobeat song about enjoyment in the style of Davido”
- Click Generate
Sonato generates 3 track options for you to choose from. Listen to each and pick your favourite.
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Advanced Mode — Full Control with Custom Lyrics:
- Select Advanced Mode
- Paste your custom lyrics into the Custom Lyrics box
- Add style tags — example: “High Life, Afrobeat, Afropop”
- Optional: Toggle No Lyrics to generate an instrumental version
- Click Generate
Advanced Mode gives you full control over your lyrics and genre — the key feature that makes it a real competitor to Suno.
How to Generate Music in Suno AI (For Comparison)
- Go to Suno AI and click Create
- Toggle on Custom Mode
- Paste your lyrics into the Lyrics box
- Add the same style tags
- Set your preferred voice (male/female)
- Click Create
Suno generates multiple tracks — two in the latest V5 (premium) and two in V4.5 (free tier).
The Live Test — Test 1: “Girly” (Afrobeat with Twi Dialect Words)
For the first real test, original lyrics from a song called “Girly” were used — written with some Twi (Ghanaian dialect) words — in both platforms simultaneously.
Style tags used on both: High Life, Afrobeat, Afropop
Result:
Sonato AI — Generated the song with the Afrobeat production style. The music was decent for a free tool.
Suno AI (V4.5 — free tier) — Handled the Twi dialect words impressively, pronouncing them almost perfectly, just like a Ghanaian would. This was genuinely surprising and impressive for an AI that wasn’t trained specifically on Ghanaian dialects.
Winner — Round 1: Suno AI 🏆
The Live Test — Test 2: “I Do” (Original Song with Personal Demo)
This was the most revealing test. Original lyrics from a personal song called “I Do” — a romantic Highlife/Afrobeat track — were used in both platforms. A personal recorded demo of the song also exists, making it possible to compare how close each AI came to the original vision.
Same style tags used: High Life, Afrobeat
Sonato AI Result:
Sonato generated a track with some elements of the original in the beat — but completely ignored the custom lyrics. The output was an instrumental with no vocals at all.
“I’m really disappointed with that. It just ignored the custom lyrics.”
This is a significant flaw. The entire point of Advanced Mode is custom lyric control — and it failed to deliver on the most important feature.
Suno AI V5 (Premium) Result:
Suno V5 delivered a full vocal track with the lyrics interpreted and sung — including the Twi dialect phrases and the romantic Highlife feel of the original concept.
Suno AI V4.5 (Free Tier) Result:
Even the free V4.5 version delivered full vocals — singing the lyrics with Highlife and Afrobeat production, including the dialect words and the song’s emotional arc.
Comparing both AI versions to the original personal demo showed that Suno came significantly closer to the intended feel of the song.
Winner — Round 2: Suno AI 🏆
Honest Verdict — Sonato vs Suno
| Feature | Sonato AI | Suno AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ✅ Free & Unlimited | Freemium (V4.5 free, V5 paid) |
| Simple prompt generation | ✅ Good | ✅ Good |
| Custom lyrics (Advanced) | ❌ Ignored lyrics in testing | ✅ Follows lyrics |
| Dialect/local language | Not tested fully | ✅ Impressive |
| Output quality | Decent | ✅ Better |
| Track options per generation | 3 | 2 (free tier) |
| Community features | ✅ Radio + live chat | Limited |
| Instrumental mode | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Should You Switch from Suno to Sonato?
Short answer: Not yet.
Sonato’s biggest selling point is unlimited free generations — and for casual music creation with simple prompts, it holds its own. The community radio feature and the 3-track output per generation are nice touches.
But the custom lyrics failure is a serious problem. If you’re a musician, songwriter, or content creator who wants an AI to sing your specific words, Sonato currently can’t be trusted to do that reliably.
Suno AI’s free V4.5 tier, while limited in generations, consistently delivers on custom lyrics — including dialect words that most AI tools would completely mangle.
Use Sonato if: You want unlimited free music generation with simple prompts and don’t need precise lyric control.
Stick with Suno if: You have specific lyrics you’ve written and need the AI to actually sing them.
Tips for Getting the Best Results from Either Tool
- Be specific with style tags — the more genre tags you add (High Life, Afrobeat, Afropop, 120 BPM, male vocal), the more targeted the output
- Keep lyrics clean for AI — avoid too many dialect-heavy words in a single line if you need them pronounced correctly
- Generate multiple times — both tools produce different results each generation, so try several before settling
- Use Simple Mode for background music — both tools excel here; simple prompt → great instrumental or background track
- Test Advanced Mode carefully — Sonato’s advanced mode needs improvement; if lyrics matter, use Suno
Found this helpful? Subscribe to BigWizTV on YouTube for more honest AI tool comparisons. Drop a comment — which AI music tool are you currently using and what do you think of Sonato?
