QLab licensing, costs, and what it all means

TL;DR:
A primer on what you have to pay for – and what you don’t. And how it’s more affordable to use QLab than you might think.

The Story:
We have all been there. People use iTunes and Keynote (or, gasp, PowerPoint!) for a live production, because they don’t know what’s better out there. (That’s why you’re reading this, eh?) Well, you have a Mac, and you want to get started with QLab, but what version do you need? And what about the budget?

The Esoteric Bit:
First off, Figure 53, the company behind Qlab, has unlocked even more features in the free version of QLab, so there is even less reason for you to not be using it. And still, before you ask, no, there is not a PC version.

The program has three areas of capability: Audio, Video, and Lighting, and can cost you anywhere from Free to $999.00. It all depends on what you need. A handy chart is provided by Figure 53 here: https://figure53.com/docs/qlab/v4/general/features/

FREE VERSION OF QLAB: Are you a school or a band playing back simple stereo files over the headphone output of your computer? Get rid of iTunes and embrace the control, editing, fades, and volume adjustments QLab has to offer, for free! You also get one basic screen of video, remote control via the iOS app, and some minimal DMX addresses for lighting.

$399 LEVEL: This is where you start to get the full capabilities…for ONE department.

If you need 64 audio outputs and be able to use plugins for live, on-the-fly processing, buy the Pro Audio License.
Maybe you’re doing some projection mapping or playing back on multiple screens, need plugins for real-time effects, image warping/keystone correction, edge blending, etc, you’ll want the Pro Video License.
New to Version 4, Lighting is now a major component of QLab. The Pro Lighting License gives you unlimited DMX addresses, instead of 16 with the other versions.
All of these Pro Licenses include the basic free features, obviously, but they also step you up into being able to work with MIDI, OSC, Scripting, Network Cues, work with Timecode, and use more advanced controls like Pause, Devamp, Arm & Disarm, and more.

RENTAL: Boy, here is a progressive software plan. Sure, even $399 is more than you might be able to spend/budget for. But you can even rent Qlab – for as little as $4/day! All the power and options – for less than a sandwich. It’s easy, and you can plan your rental dates in advance. With this, you can set up your show, get as far as you can get with the Free version, and then rent the full version for just the days you need it.

Recently, the company has introduced a login-driven, web-based system. In the past, you paid money for a license file, which would unlock the program features that you needed. Now they’ve done away with that, presumably to reduce piracy and lost files (I’ve seen more than one company legitimately say “we paid for QLab, but we lost our license file when we upgraded or the last designer left”).

Legacy Versions and Computers: The great thing is that each license of Qlab ALSO unlocks the version below it, which is convenient for legacy machines (a version 4 license allows you to use version 3, for example). Limited budget with only an old-but-stable computer to use? This is for you. It can be hard to kill a Mac, so plenty of theatres have old ones lying around. While I can no longer find downloads for v2, you can try older versions that might work with your machine by downloading them from here: https://figure53.com/qlab/download/archive/

Cheers!
-brian

by talkingtobrian