CSistine

I have purchased the Oxford DeClicker, because I have the DrumGate and that one is an extraordinary plugin. IMHO Sonnox is a superior plugin company and with iLok authorization you have a kind of guaranty that plugin usage is guaranteed, contrary to CR where you rely on the mercy of the company and its existance. CR is ***** of the customer, because he never knows whether or how long he can use what he has paid for! Frankly, nowadays I am reluctant to use CR plugins in projects that are important for me for more than a year (it's all caused by the experience with some developers)!

I guess I have it not yet installed on my 3rd machine that is W11. But I am quite sure it runs without issues. The other 2 pcs, where I have installed it, are W10.

Yes, when BandLab increased the re-authorization cycle to 4 weeks, I dropped CbB and now I use Platinum and Reaper. (I use 3 systems, 2 of them offline and the re-auth takes not some seconds as someone pretended above. For all 3 it takes minimum 1 hour and it is a hassle; one pc is in another building). By the way I also installed Sonar X3 and I wondered that there is not a lot I am missing!

Very early in the beginning of CbB I remarked that the re-activation of a "free" DAW is very suspicious. The top developer told me then that it is only to collect some information about usage ... What a mean lie! I think this kind of "free" is just a trial with undefined duration! Not usable if you want to do some serious work with it IMHO, but YMMV!

It would be great if BandLab would do the same as Tracktion, i.e. make CbB, that is some kind of previous version, kompletely free (without re-activation requirement). This would be a really generous, token gesture! 😉

The license for usually 2 major versions is perpetual! But yes, you are right it is not for all major updates. 2nd: My license that I bought is still valid for updates after 5 years!!!

There are certain differences, too: You can buy a perpetual license for Reaper (it is totally offline!) for only $60 if you are an individual that makes no or not a lot of money from your music! The evaluation version is not sold as "free", it is meant to be for evaluation. If you want a real free capable daw, then you may use Tracktion.Waveform. The second newest version is always free (can also be installed totally offline). Sorry, forum guards that I infringed the rules here! But such comparisons above demand a response.

This is only half the truth! It is if you are always online!!! I have seen a lot of people having trouble with the required browser login since the developers introduced this in CbB! It's following the motto "if it's simple make it more complex"! 2. The complains about having no ThemeEditor anymore: Democrathy in the user - company relation is not modern anymore! Nowadays developers force a lot of things to their users, if they like it or not!

BandLab have changed the rules for CbB IMHO, as they altered the re-authorization interval from 6 months to some weeks (2 or 4). For me this was a crucial cut, because my major systems run offline usually and the new interval a) introduced to many chores and b) ruined my confidence in the company. I guess that BL will soon stop CbB with the introduction of the "free" SONAR. Again, this would be an essential shift for the people using CbB, because they would be forced to change their installations/habits/workflows. And besides the functionality is probably reduced in some areas.

For me a software is not really free if I have to re-authorize each month! Someone above said it correctly, essentially it is a free subscription and that means you can not trust in it IMO. You'll never know how long you can open and edit your projects that costed you hundreds of hours. That's too risky, especially if you have learned how open this company is actually! I have spent and lost so many hours to trust in them. No, I am healed! They can keep their pseudo-free stuff! I jumped the boat with an uncertain feeling. But now I am glad I did. Mixing the last album I used my new DAW for all but one song. Already now after less than a year I miss some functionality of my new daw in Sonar. I never expected that happen so quickly! No instabilities and performance issues any more!

Unfortunately STACKs requires internet connection at least every 30 days!

I wrote in my first post that my pc is offline and that I know about iLok (only 1 seat)! 😉 I have plugins from a huge array of providers, but I never have machine based authorizations vanishing without hardware changes, except for 3 companies (Sonible, Cherry Audio and Magix). It's a PITA, because those 3 not only require online activation, but their auths go up in smoke sometimes.

Okay, I expected someone telling this! I guess your computer is always online that's why!

Sonible is one of the worst companies related to authorization IMHO. Several times when I wanted to use one of their plugins authorization had gone (pc is usually offline), the only one that always worked is the one using iLok (but only 1 poor seat). Frankly, even for free I would not install any of their plugins anymore, 'cause you could never know if it ran opening the project the next time! They are an excellent example for why mostly not the software companies are pirated, but their users!

1000+ As I already have too many plugins, I have begun to collect almost plugins that follow the rule above! You are so right that CR is primarily a burden for the legitimate user and I doubt that those CR companies sell more stuff because of that! Me in any case, I hesitate to purchase plugins with CR nowadays. If it is pure online activation, then it is even a NO GO! And I agree with @Luc that if a company wants to protect their plugins, then I also prefer iLok. Anyway, there are some big companies that missed 100s of dollars from me, because of their authorization and installation management (Waves, Universal, IK, NI, ...), where as I decided several times to support small developers with a user-friendly authorization!