REAPER
Full recording and mixing studio with an official Linux version, a 60-day free trial and a low one-off licence.
Our verdict
REAPER is the strongest answer for anyone who makes music or records audio and is moving to Linux. Cockos builds a Linux version alongside the Windows and Mac ones, so you are running the same program the rest of its users run, not a compatibility trick.
The trial is unusually honest. You get the complete program free for 60 days with nothing to sign up for. After that a discounted licence covers personal use and businesses under a small revenue threshold, and it is a one-off payment rather than a monthly bill. There is a commercial licence for larger businesses.
The catch is taste. REAPER ships looking grey and functional and assumes you will arrange it the way you like. It also brings almost no sounds of its own. And like every move between music programs, your old project files do not come with you. Bounce your Windows projects down to audio before you switch and keep those files.
What's good
- Cockos makes and supports the Linux version itself, so it is not a workaround
- Free fully working 60-day trial with no registration and no card details
- A licence is a one-off payment with no subscription, and the discounted price covers personal use
- Small download and light on older machines
- Loads Linux plugin formats including LV2, CLAP, VST and VST3
What to know first
- Looks plain and is set up in a way that expects you to change things to suit yourself
- Very few instruments and sounds included, so you supply those
- Cannot open project files from FL Studio, Ableton Live or Cubase
- The Flathub listing is packaged by the community rather than by Cockos
The details
- Cost
- Paid
- Open source
- No (Proprietary)
- How you install it
- App store (Flatpak)
Windows apps it can replace
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