REAPER
a tiny, DRM-free DAW for $60, with updates through version 8.99
This version
Cockos ties the discounted price to revenue, not to hobbyist status, so read the purchase page before assuming you qualify. The licence is version-locked in the long run: it covers everything up to 8.99, and REAPER 9 will be a new purchase, which historically has meant one paid upgrade every six or seven years. The bundled instruments and loops amount to almost nothing, so budget for plugins. The stock interface is dense rather than attractive, and the 60-day evaluation is unrestricted and enforced only by the honour system.
Cost over five years
$60 once = 3 months of Adobe Audition. Over five years that is $1,380 rented against $60 owned — $1,320 kept, and you still have the app.
Adobe Audition priced at $276 a year — single-app plan at US$22.99/mo, annual billed monthly. Checked 2026-09-22.
REAPER is a download of a few tens of megabytes that opens before your hand leaves the mouse, and it can be rebuilt into almost any shape you want. Podcasters use it because batch editing and rendering are quick. Post people use it for the routing and the video track. Everyone else uses it because the licence costs less than two months of the alternatives.
What $60 buys is coverage of every update through version 8.99, which in practice has meant years of releases spanning two major versions. There is no activation server and no dongle: the installer is the same file for everyone, and paying makes the reminder screen stop. The 60-day evaluation is the full application with nothing withheld.
The detail people miss is in the wording of the tier. The discounted licence is for individuals and for businesses under $20,000 a year in gross revenue; above that Cockos asks $225. Same software, same updates, different number.
Skip it if you want instruments and loops in the box, because REAPER ships almost none — expect to buy plugins and to spend a weekend on configuration before it feels like yours. If you want to open an app and find it already finished, Logic will make you happier.
What it looks like
What it does
- Small install and near-instant startup on Apple silicon
- Free updates spanning two major versions, 7.x through 8.99
- Scripting in Lua, EEL and Python, plus a fully reskinnable interface
- Unlimited tracks, arbitrary routing and a video track for post work
- No activation server, no dongle, no online check
Cancel instead
Also bought outright in media
The facts
- Price
- $60
- Licence
- Own this version forever
- What you get
- One payment buys this major version outright. The next major version is a separate purchase, if you want it.
- Details
- "$60 : discounted license" for individual personal use, education, non-profits, and businesses with yearly gross revenue up to $20,000. "$225 : commercial license" above that. Both include free upgrades through REAPER version 8.99.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Cockos Incorporated
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $60 to $120