Live 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.

How Software Advice ensures transparency

Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.

How Software Advice verifies reviews

Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.

Independent research methodology

Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.

On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Live

4.8

(124)

Pricing

Starting at $99.00 one time

About Live

Live is a workflow management software, which allows instrumentalists and musicians to create, edit and produce music, sounds, rhythms, tunes, audios, songs, melodies and more. The solution offers a built-in sound library, which enables creators to add multiple sounds to the melody.

The on-premise application provides various electronic instruments such as drum rack, simpler, impulse and sampler for instrumentalists to utilize while transforming the audio track. With Live, musicians can capture multiple sounds from the real world and combine them with songs via the MIDI functionality. Additionally, it allows artists to develop, categorize, manipulate and assemble tunes on a timeline using an arrangement view mode.

Live facilitates integration with Playbeat, rekordbox, Modulaser, SoundSwitch, Riffer, MadMapper, Resolume, Camelot, Remixvideo, Reason, Figure and more. Pricing is available on a one-time license and support is extended via FAQs, knowledgebase and other online measures.

Live Screenshots

Live Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $99.00 one time

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

$99.00

per feature, one time

No plan information available

Live Features

Popular features found in Audio Editing
Audio Manipulation
Audio Mixing
Audio Recording
Plug-in Integration
Video Editing
More features of Live
Activity Dashboard
Audio Capture
Audio Editor
Configurable Workflow
Graphical Workflow Editor
Instrument Management
Mastering
Third-Party Integrations
Workflow Management

Live User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.8

Ratings Breakdown

85%

13%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.1

Value for money

4.6

Customer support

4.5

Functionality

4.7

Andrew M.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2023

Live is for Serious Musicians

Totally fascinates me even after a few years how easy it is to make a track. Essentially it works in a way which makes composition much easier than other existing software programs.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Live provides 2 direct recording views including clip view and arrangement view. This suits those who prefer to multi-track conventionally or those who build up loop tracks.

Cons:

Live is a very big piece of software and the learning curve is steep. However, as you get to learn shortcuts on the keyboard then managing this beast becomes much easier.

Reasons for choosing Live

I prefer Live's inteface over FL Studio.

Reasons for switching to Live

Audio is essential for my recordings and Cubase does not provide a fluid way in which to quickly edit and playback audio.

Michael S.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

501-1000 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2024

Ableton Live Review

Overall a great DAW to use, can be polyvalent, specially in Live set, where Ableton Live shines the most. With the integration of MPE, it can be a really good value paired with Roli keyboard for example.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

One of the most used DAW, a lot of documentation and videos to help Integration with home company hardware (Ableton Push) Has the ability to be used in Live sessions Really great workflow Session view

Cons:

Can be CPU consuming VST integration can be hard sometimes A lot of good features block behind Suite version

Reasons for switching to Live

Can be use on Mac AND Windows A lot me intuitive for Live sessions compared to Logic Pro

Redley P.

Verified reviewer

Computer Networking

Self-Employed

Used weekly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2022

Able Live overall review

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The management! Most especially with organizing instruments/Vsts/plug-ins is quiet easy to navigate through and even categorize. I like that it can detect new plug-ins as a posed to some other DAWs where it's a hassle to even detect something new. The audio quality and being able to stack many plug-ins is awesome and does fairly decent with my current CPU.

Cons:

The piano roll is quiet a pain for beginners. Almost everyone I know gives up after trying so hard to navigate through the piano roll. Also a few good instrumental plug-ins would be nice. The price can be difficult sometimes especially from third world countries like mine. Accessibility to Ableton is almost impossible.

Ashley B.

Verified reviewer

E-Learning

Self-Employed

Used monthly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed October 2025

A creative’s dream software

I love the the ability to create such dynamic and highly customized work. The software itself is creative and different tools can be used in so many ways. I think it caters to a variety of different user skills, which is a plus.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

There is nothing you can’t create in this software! As a newer user, I love that the preloaded library is so rich. I also love that I can do simple audio cuts.

Cons:

There’s so much to learn and it’s very complex. That comes with the territory, so it’s not at the fault of the software, but it would be super cool if there were some in app tutorials.

Christopher A.

Verified reviewer

Media Production

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2022

Ableton Live - High performance DAW

From audio design to performing live music, recording, and editing, this software has been my favorite platform for over a decade now. I do not plan on changing any time soon.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

What I like the most about Ableton Live, is the ability to switch between the arrangement and session view. This allows a workflow that is fast and efficient. The software is fully expandable thanks to its 3rd party plugin integration and its rewire function.

Cons:

I would like to see an improvement in the mixer section. A more "old school" or analog approach would allow different ways to mix down a project. Although this can be achieved in its current state, it would be nice to see some more routing, bus, and group options.

Reasons for switching to Live

Ableton is a lot more versatile when it comes to live performing and manipulating audio in real-time.

James F.

Verified reviewer

Music

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2023

Ableton live review

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I love tracking in live I’ve been using it as an artist for over two years now. I’ve learned so much using live about mixing music

Cons:

Personally I think live would be a big recommendation for EDM or hiphop music

Reasons for switching to Live

It’s industry standard and amongst one the most used pro daws out there

Rob G.

Verified reviewer

Music

Self-Employed

Used other for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2021

Cutting Edge Creativity, Workflow Catching Up

Overall, when I do reach for Live it’s for compatibility with others’ projects and its sound design capabilities. For this it is excellent. Also it’s live show elements and integration with creatively-oriented controllers. Live is like a fun modular synth with a lot of quick patching and patterns on hand. The downside is that it is a fairly basic mixing, editing, and composition experience, but it’s hard to specialize in everything so that’s only a downside if those functions (think Pro Tools, Cubase, and Studio One) are important to you.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

In Live, there is no shortage of features that have a creative and inspirational application. The control surface application is great (the caveat being that the feature set is geared towards performance, not mixing). The included plug-ins are wonderful and easy to deploy, as well as stable, and all of the features related to on-the-fly manipulation of patterns are very developed. The software has a great feel of cohesion about it. Horizontal inspectors (effects racks) aren’t totally my thing but you can’t deny that they have really streamlined the sound design / midi effects / pattern manipulation parts of the program (the “live show” element is included in that).

Cons:

The program is fairly underdeveloped in the realm of mixing, audio editing, assisted music composition, and audio export. Also I’ve never really enjoyed their approach to the browser and especially searching in the browser.

Reasons for choosing Live

I did not choose Live solely over Studio One. In fact, I have both and use Studio One much more frequently due to its better feature set in editing, mixing, and exporting. I found song creation happens fairly quickly in most DAWs (Live has the benefit of lots of fun creative sound design possibilities integrate beautifully) but where I really need the features to be present and streamlined is in the mixing and editing phase and Live is still a little short there.

Marouane O.

Verified reviewer

Music

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2022

Ableton Live Review

I have enjoyed every project i worked on in Live so far. I will never stop pushing it and recommending it to my friends who just started producing.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I think Live is the only DAW that truly allows you to be creative with a really use to use interface and plugins that inspire. But it also allows you to dive deep into the program if you want to with advanced midi routing and modulation.

Cons:

I don't want to sound too optimistic but there's very few things wrong with this program. Ableton has done an amazing job perfecting this software over the years and with extra additions like the Live Enhancement Suite the possibilities become limitless.

Reasons for switching to Live

Live is much more simpler to use and allows for more creativity.

Eric F.

Verified reviewer

Information Technology and Services

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed September 2021

Ableton Live is by far my favorite DAW.

I LOVE ABLETON LIVE!! I have t-shirts, stickers, a hat... All things ableton.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I've been using Ableton since version 4. I have other DAW's on my machine for integration with collaborators. My go to for music production is 100% Ableton. VERY good with MIDI and audio the same. I just recently switched my dad from HIS favorite DAW. He is 69 years old and caught onto Ableton very quickly.

Cons:

I would say my LEAST favorite thing about Ableton is that I'm not sponsored by them yet. hahaha!!

Reasons for switching to Live

At the time, Fruity Loops was a joke and Logic didn't have the abilities to do some of the things I needed. I wanted something more "professional" so I made the switch and I never looked back.

Ian R.

Verified reviewer

Music

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2022

Ableton Live 11 review