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8 Best DAWs of 2024 (Free & Paid Options)
A DAW (or Digital Audio Workstation) is a software program that allows creatives, musicians and sound designers to create music. In this blog post I’ll highlight what I think the 8 best DAWs of 2024 are.
Neo Moon Studios is a VST development agency that helps audio companies build software. We also run a no-code VST development course.
Finding the Best DAW in 2024 – Easier Than You Think
In this tutorial we’re going to look at the best free and paid Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) on the market in 2024. This list is in no particular order in terms of our personal preference. We use Ableton at NeoMoon studios, but we’ve dabbled with all of the DAWs that you’ll find in the list below. At the end of the day it really boils down to which DAW has the features and workflows that you’re most comfortable with. It can take many months to get comfortable with a DAW so find one that you like and try to learn it inside and out. The truth is, most of them do pretty much the same thing. Keep in mind that the paid DAWs in this list all have free trials, so you can download them and play with them to see if they do what you want, how you want to do it.
So let’s jump in and look at the DAWs
Ardour (Free)
First, on the list we have Ardour. Ardour is a free and open source DAW that allows users to record, edit and mix music. And although Ardour comes bundled with less in terms of built-in instruments and plugins, it’s easy enough to add instruments and audio effect plugins into Ardour because they allow you to use both VST2 as well as VST3 plugins within their DAW. VSTs, for those of you who don’t know, are “virtual studio technology” and they usually come in the form of instruments or FX plugins. For example, you could add a piano, synth, drum or a specific reverb VST to help you bring your music to life.
And as a side note, if you want to learn how to develop VSTs, without having to know how to code, check out our VST development and design courses. In our courses you’ll learn how to develop and design your own virtual instruments and audio effects plugins from scratch, without having to code.
LMMS (Free)
Next up we have LMMS. This is another free and open source DAW, which arguably doesn’t have the most beautiful UI, but it’s a very powerful DAW that can do most of what the other DAWs can do in this list. Again, out of the box it doesn’t have an impressive audio and effects library, but again it’s something you can add to overtime. The main limitation I see with LMMS is that they don’t natively support VST3 plugins, and this is the direction the industry is heading. That said, they do support VST2 plugins and I’ve published a work around to the VST3 issue here. In fact, I’ve published a complete beginners tutorial on how to use LMMS on our blog, so if you’re looking for a Free DAW, this is going to be one of your best bets, so download it and then check out our getting started tutorial to see if this DAW suits your needs.
Reaper (From $60)
Now, we’re getting out of the free category and into the paid category. I’ve included Reaper next because it’s more affordable than many of the paid options on this list. In fact, you can get a discounted commercial license to use this DAW for only $60 as long as your company doesn’t make over $20,000 in revenue / year. For most people just getting started in music, this discounted license will be sufficient. It’s also a very good DAW if you’re looking for something light-weight. It’s much less bloated compared to other paid daws on this list. That said, it doesn’t come out of the box with that much, but you can easily extend the functionality of Reaper through a suite of free JS plugins that you can install immediately after you add Reaper to your computer. Also, you might not find Reaper very beautiful out of the box. But its look is totally customizable. The community is huge and there are countless skins and themes you can install to make your installation of Reaper look beautiful. You can get started with Reaper today with a 60 day free trial.
Cubase (From €99)
Next, on the list we have Cubase. A lot of producers find cubase a very intuitive and beautiful DAW. And it works and looks great out of the box. What I appreciate about Cubase is that it tends to prioritize space within the UI in a way that makes toggling between different jobs a breeze. For example, adding different types of instruments or toggling between mixing and editing a sample can all be done with at he click of a button. You can perform most of what you need to perform from the main interface. And while it is more expensive than Reaper, it also comes with more out of the box. Even their cheapest plan comes with over 20gB of sounds and loops. So it’s very easy to jump in and just start working with, without having to worry about extending it in any way. Cubase is available to try for free for 60 days.
Logic Pro ($199)
Next up we have Logic Pro which is exclusively available on macOS. Again, it’s a beautiful DAW out of the box and many producers use it because it doesn’t it doesn’t use tiered pricing. You get everything they have to offer for one price. With many of the other paid DAWs, their introductory tier, strips back a lot of the paid features, But logic doesn’t’ take this approach. It comes with a huge number of stock instruments and plugins which will allow you to get started out of the gates.
Ableton (From $79)
Next, up we have Ableton Live. Ableton is actually the primary DAW that we use at NeoMoon studios. We actually have a VST development agency, where we develop audio plugins for individuals or businesses who want to create, brand and sell their own virtual instruments or audio plugins. So whenever we’re creating instruments, we often use Ableton to help us with this process. It’s considered by many to be one of the best DAWs on the market today. But again, it just really boils down to what you’re comfortable with and used to. For example, we recently produced two different tracks and we produced one in Ableton and the other in the free DAW, mentioned earlier, called LLMS. And honestly, I like the song from LMMS better. So it just goes to show that your DAW won’t make or break your music. What makes a great track will be you, not your DAW. But one of the things I love about ableton is its default session view, where tracks are aligned vertically. It’s a creative approach to music making where you can audition sounds quickly before you add them into the more traditional arrangement view. It’s something I use all of the time in Ableton. Again, you can download a 30 day free trial of Ableton to see if it suits your needs.
FL Studio (From $99)
Next up we have FL studio. It’s one of the most popular DAWs on the list. It’s especially popular for some reason with hop hop producers. I think it’s because their drum sequencing tools are just so easy and intuitive to learn how to use. There is also a huge community and countless tutorials online so the learning curve can be a bit less steep than some of the other DAWs on this list. FL Studio can record music directly into the DAW, use third party VST plugins and use their huge library of built in samples and loops to get you up and running right away. FL Studio uses a tiered pricing structure, but their introductory DAW is more than enough to get most producers started. They also offer a free unlimited trial, but there are some restrictions, especially around saving and re-opening files.
Pro-Tools
And lastly, let’s talk about Pro Tools. Some of my favorite producers use pro-tools. And it’s one of the most used DAWs in professional recording studios. I really like their big workspace browser and to me it feels very open, beautiful and spacious. Each row within Pro Tools is its own audio track. What I like about this design, is that on the left side of each track, you can manage the content of that track directly in the workspace browser. You don’t have to toggle a property panel to do some of the things you’ll find yourself doing time and time again (like automation for instance). You can even hand-draw automation directly on the track, or add and view multiple automations lanes on one track. You don’t have to toggle between different automation, or manually change a setting to view multiple automation lanes. You can see them all stacked on top of each other. So there is just lots you can do while being able to keep your main workspace browser open.
Conclusion
So those are the best DAWS of 2024. I hope you’ve found this tutorial helpful and I hope that I’ve helped you pick a DAW for your specific use case and budget.
Again, just before you leave today, I want to remind you that if you have a VST idea that you’re trying to bring to life and you’d like to outsource the design or development of your VST concept, head over to NeoMoon today to see how our VST development agency might be able to help with your build.
Or, like I mentioned before, if you want to do it yourself, we offer comprehensive courses on both no-code VST development as well as VST design.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Neo Moon Studios is a VST development agency that helps audio companies build software. We also run a no-code VST development course.
Want to Make Your Onw VSTs?
Do you love sound design? So do we! For this reason, we created a no-code VST development course that walks you through the process of bringing your virtual instrument visions to life without needing to know how to program and without having to be an artist. We will teach you how to bring your VST to life in our 8 hour 50 + module no-code VST development course.