Do I keep paying for Sonar?

[Cannimagine]

I have been paying for Cakewalk and Sonar for decades. It used to be that they announced an update, gave you the prices, and DAW versions. I always bought the top-of-the-line versions, and you were good till the next update. The updates were always cool with new instruments and effects and new toys to play with. I liked Cakewalk Sonar Platinum so much I bought the lifetime upgrade. That all went to ****, as we all know, then BandLab came and offered free Sonar to everyone. It still let me use my plugins I had paid for, but it was now free. Then they announced it would not be free anymore, so I paid again for the program, only to find a couple of months later it was free again. Now the membership I paid for has expired. Most of the things included with the paid membership I don't even know what they are. What are the drawbacks of just using the free membership? Will all my VST instruments and effects still work? It looks like the free membership does almost everything I paid for again. Thanks for the advice. I am just a home hobby recorder.

[57Gregy]

56 minutes ago, Cannimagine said:

I am just a home hobby recorder.

Me, too.

Core Plug-ins are not included with the Sonar Free Tier.
There are several threads around here about what is and is not included, maybe on the Announcements page. There is currently a great offer for CaSon at a steeply reduced price... for new users only. But they add that you can let your current subscription expire (if it's near that time) and you can get the deal. Check out the staff post at the top of the main forum page. You can get the deal since your subscription has expired.

[AB99]

If you VST effects and instruments are not about the Cakewalk/Sonar Vsts, you should be fine in that area.  I did not read anything about free Sonar that would not allow 3rd party VSTs to work.

I hope this chart helps you:
https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/49546667908121-Sonar-Free-Tier-vs-Membership-Tier

Edited 16 hours ago by AB99

[Bass Guitar]

For me the deal breaker with the free version was no workspaces and as a rule I won't use any software that has a nag screen. I always toss them a few pennies to just get rid of them. I don't like wasting time when I open a program no matter how brief.  

And you never realize how dependent you are on simple things like the Workspaces. It is also a time waster for my workflow to have to re set up my views. I prefer the one button reset that workspaces allows. The rest I could care less about. I have hundreds of plug ins including the ones from Platinum etc. I haven't used Sonitus plug ins for years and don't plan on returning to them. 

Sonar is not my main Daw but I have important workflows that I need to use it for because it is still the best at doing certain things for me. Especially working with Midi. I think no one should only use only one Daw. 

I am 100% am against the Membership plan but that looks like it will never go away now. And when asked if the Free version would be available forever a staff member said there was no answer to that because it's a business and things can always change. 

The membership is on sale right now for a reasonable price. I am just going year by years for now. I can always use Platinum in an emergency but it become very apparent how far we have come since then and it's like driving an old car with no ABS brakes.