This does not require academic/theologian pricing.

If you decide you like it, you can buy it for $300.

You can check out Finale with a free 30-day trial version. Not finding collision avoidance when I tried the software, my interest in Finale ended. And why wasn't collision avoidance turned on by default for an imported score? There may also be some plug-ins that resolve collision problems. I just tried looking for this feature again, and it appears that it might be in Document Options -> Music Spacing-not the obvious place to look. I was unable to find a tool that would automatically fix all the collision problems and that ended my interest in Finale. The imported score was full of collisions (not any worse than MuseScore). First, I noticed that I had to use the scroll bars to move the score-this always puts me off as it requires moving the mouse away from the area I'm working and locating the scroll bar and moving it carefully. I'd like to be able to say more about this, but I examined Finale only briefly. It's just not an option for professional use. I could go on, but I didn't spend a lot of time exploring Notion. While looking into tremolos, I noticed that two-note tremolos were improperly notated the notes were drawn as though the tremolo were half the duration it actually was.

The tremolo ended with the starting note. Maybe I could use it just for performing a piece? The first piece I tried it on had a tremolo on a tied note. There is no way to create parts with multiple instruments. And the slur tool will always prefer voice 1 over voice 2, so adding a slur to voice 2 when the two voices share the same starting and ending notes is difficult. Double-clicking on a palette entry doesn't apply the tool to the current selection. Notion has items grouped in multiple palettes (as does MuseScore), but you can only view one sub-palette at a time. Want to move the score? Use the scroll bar. This is a common failing, but in Notion, there is no work-around because slurs can't be modified. For example, cross-beam slurs have major problems. While Notion has a better performance engine, with high quality sounds and VST support, it doesn't have the flexibility needed to produce professional scores. I recently had a chance to compare MuseScore to Notion, Finale and Sibelius, and I can offer some comments on all these to anyone curious.

Sibelius 8.6 compatibility