Software Alternatives & Reviews

Reaper VS GarageBand

Compare Reaper VS GarageBand and see what are their differences

Reaper logo Reaper

Reaper is a focused digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Cockos. In the creation of the software, the digital audio technology company intended to make audio editing accessible to the masses.

GarageBand logo GarageBand

GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio for Mac
  • Reaper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06
  • GarageBand Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-15

Reaper

Categories
  • Audio & Music
  • Audio
  • Audio Recording
  • Music Production
  • Digital Audio Workstations
Website reaper.fm

GarageBand

Categories
  • Audio & Music
  • Audio
  • Audio Recording
  • Music
Website apple.com

Reaper videos

Reaper DAW review - best free daw software for music production?

More videos:

  • Review - Why Reaper? | pros and cons
  • Review - Why I love Reaper with Glenn Fricker - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

GarageBand videos

Garageband review 2020 - WORST or BEST free DAW Mac?

More videos:

  • Review - Professional producer tries GARAGEBAND
  • Review - Garageband vs Logic Pro X: What's the Difference?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Reaper and GarageBand)
Audio & Music
62 62%
38% 38
Audio
63 63%
37% 37
Audio Recording
63 63%
37% 37
Music
56 56%
44% 44

User comments

Share your experience with using Reaper and GarageBand. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Reaper and GarageBand

Reaper Reviews

Top 18 Free Music Making Software for Beginners [2023]
Launched by Cockos in 2006, Reaper has grown into a robust, feature-rich DAW, offering full audio and MIDI recording, sound editing, mixing, and mastering functionalities.
5 PRO TOOLS ALTERNATIVES FOR RECORDING AND MIXING AUDIO
Reaper is a low-cost digital audio workstation with many features. It is available for Windows and Mac and can record, mix, and master audio. It has many features, including multichannel recording, surround sound support and a powerful effects engine. Reaper is a good option for home recording and mixing, and has many features that make it an alternative to Pro Tools.
9 Adobe Audition Alternatives That Do More Than Cleaning
Not as recognized as rivals like Ableton, Pro Tools, and FL Studio. If your employer or client requires you to have access to these tools and you’re only using Reaper, that could be a problem.
Best FL Studio Alternatives In 2022
Reaper puts its stamp in the conversation as it offers users an incredibly active community as well as everything you need in a DAW. Speed is one of the selling points with Reaper as it loads up extremely fast compared to certain DAWs. This is mainly due to its lightweight size, with its downloader being less than 20MB. In making Reaper, the software devs also did a...
Top 12 Audacity Alternatives You Could Use
Lastly, you can also check out Reaper, which features multi-track audio editing, processing, and more. Plus, it supports a wide range of hardware and plugins, and also comes baked with some pretty neat features such as the ability to record and edit musical notations with support for key signatures, multiple clefs, and more. What’s more, Reaper also supports scripting, so...
Source: beebom.com

GarageBand Reviews

10 Best GarageBand Alternatives for Android
There was a time when making songs was a difficult and time-consuming task as songs were recorded live without autotuning, and supported by real-world instruments. But with time, technological innovations have led us to that point where we have Digital Audio Workstations to create, mix, edit, and fine-tune songs. These DAWs are so powerful software that they can process...
Top 18 Free Music Making Software for Beginners [2023]
GarageBand is a DAW developed by Apple, mainly for use on macOS PCs. It comes loaded with a robust sound library and features you can leverage to record, mix, and master music from one interface.
Expand Your Arsenal of Music Creation Tools With BandLab Alternatives
GarageBand is an iOS app that makes creating music on your iPhone or iPad easy. The app features various instruments and effects and the ability to record multiple tracks simultaneously using the built-in microphone or connected instrument input. You can also collaborate with others online by sharing projects or joining sessions in real-time.
Source: bandlabwin.com
5 PRO TOOLS ALTERNATIVES FOR RECORDING AND MIXING AUDIO
GarageBandGarageBand is a free DAW popular among music producers and sound engineers. It has a wide range of features for audio recording and mixing, as well as a built-in mixer.
9 Adobe Audition Alternatives That Do More Than Cleaning
Logic Pro is the big sister of GarageBand. Many users who started on the stripped-down DAW upgraded to Logic Pro after outgrowing its features.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Reaper seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 79 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Reaper mentions (79)

  • Ask HN: Is There a Blender for Music?
    Almost free. https://reaper.fm It's cheap enough for almost anyone to buy and you can play around with the free version. - Source: Hacker News / 24 days ago
  • Best DAW for putting E-drum tracks on PC
    I'm a big fan of Reaper (reaper.fm). It's technically not free, but $60 is totally worth it, plus you can trial it full featured, indefinitely. Source: 5 months ago
  • What Is the Future of the DAW?
    If you use the Linux port, you may want to use Yabridge to load Windows VSTs in a transparent way. http://reaper.fm/ https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Where do I start designing my own audio for my games?
    My recommendation would be Reaper from reaper.fm Reaper is used in the video game industry due to it's customization, routing, batch processing and scripting capabilities. It's very customizable and has small CPU footprint. Source: 9 months ago
  • I use Vegas Pro 14 mostly for audio editing, should I upgrade to Vegas Edit or Vegas Pro?
    Audio only? Don't torture yourself. Reaper's based on the early Vegas platform, easy to learn and use, and one of the most powerful audio editing tools out there: http://reaper.fm/. Source: 9 months ago
View more

GarageBand mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GarageBand yet. Tracking of GarageBand recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Reaper and GarageBand, you can also consider the following products

Audacity - Audacity is a free and open-source audio production software suite that includes a surprising array of editing tools and recording systems.

FL Studio - Image-Line's FL Studio, now on it's 12th version, is a well-known music production suite and the most popular beat processor on the market, due no doubt to its longevity. Read more about FL Studio.

LMMS - Make music with a free, cross-platform tool

Ardour - Record, edit, and mix on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Cubase - Cubase is one of the world’s most powerful music creation software packages. From first idea to finished recording, Cubase helps you to make outstanding music.

Studio One - Studio One raises the bar for music production software. Developed by PreSonus, this platform has been used by both professional and amateur artists to make live and studio recordings.