Reply To: The Long-Term Cost of DAWs Compared

[peter]

On fossile said

might be worthwhile to expand the table to clearly show the costs including:

1. purchase price for “perpetual license”
2. monthly subscription price(s) – DAW vs truly optional component and services
3. annual “maintenance / support fee” (if any)
4. version “upgrade fee” (if any)

for example, Studio One dropped all versions except “Pro”, so all users who had artist etc who want the next version have to pay for the “pro” upgrade vs the previous “artist” upgrade (an extra ~$100). and now they’re on v7, but in 5 years will be v10 or v11. each upgrade (assuming they keep the same price – which is not historically how it’s been going) $164 for say 3 upgrades, + the originally $199. is now $691 for a 5 year period (presuming that most SO users want the latest features which will only be available via an upgrade charge). and at some point (usually no more than 6 months after a new version is released, the older version is no longer supported, and so you’re on your own as far as OSes compatibility goes)

so if doing a 5 year analysis on CoO, it’s important to include – what is the least amount someone with no interest in upgrading or having support, vs some % of users who will likely persue upgrades and/or support options over that time. otherwise you don’t have a proper balance against the subscription model which (typically) has this “built-in”…

so the SO pro subscription w/ all the goodies, on an annual cost is $179/yr x 5 years = $895 (oddly the same as Cakewalk subscription) BUT you get all the upgrades on the DAW + upgrades on the goodies + support relative to your OS of choice.

now if you really want expensive, time to include ProTools 🙂

 

I definitely can and will improve this chart and your recommendations are very helpful. So thanks!

My intent, of course, was to convey the minimum required pricing for the various DAWs over 5 years, as I wrote in the original post, “we’re looking at the long-term costs of DAWS, comparing the minimum cost to use the DAW for a period of 5 years, looking at both perpetual license software and subscription software.” So perhaps, I should adjust the title to MINIMUM COSTS to use a DAW long-term (or over a 5 year period) to be more specific? I think so after reading your post, agreed?

The point I was after is to get people to look at the MINIMUM costs, because when we purchase a DAW, we’re very likely to use it for a period of several years or more. As we all know, it’s a lot of time and work to learn a new DAW. And I want to ensure that those researching the various DAWs consider that factor. Because Sonar is an outlier. All of the other DAWs compared allow a user to pay a one time perpetual license fee and nothing else and open up and edit files with that software for 5 years without paying additional fees. Only Sonar requires that a user must pay $895 to continue to open and fully edit all project files created in the DAW over that 5 year period. That’s really the only point I was trying to make, because I think that is a very important point and one that will not occur to every person researching and comparing DAWs.

Of course, it’s also a point that I could never make at Cakewalk Forums due to Bandlab’s censorship practices. So, I’ve actually wanted to make this point for a LONG TIME. But it took having a community where we aren’t censored to do so.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3