Head to head
BandLab is the most complete free DAW you can open in a browser: recording, effects, a sample library and a community. It expects you to know what a track, a bus and a plugin are. This starts from a loop that already sounds good, and explains everything, including what its AI does.
Last checked . Facts about BandLab come from the pages listed at the end.
BandLab has earned its place. A free plan with unlimited projects and sixteen tracks each, thousands of instruments and loops, phone apps, and a community where people finish each other's songs. It is what many people mean when they say "free online DAW". If you know your way around a DAW and want one for nothing, it is hard to argue with.
Its AI features are tools rather than a collaborator. SongStarter turns a genre or a lyric into three short ideas to start from. Splitter separates stems. Mastering, AutoMix and Generate (for chords, drums and basslines on the Pro and Max plans) each do one job with one button. None of them looks at your project, listens to what you ask, and changes the thing you pointed at while telling you why.
That is the part this instrument does. The grid, the blocks and the arranger are simpler than BandLab's timeline on purpose, so that a beginner can see the whole song. The co-producer works on that same project with the same operations you use, explains each change, and can be undone in one press. Different tools for different people, and this page tries to say which is which.
BandLab Technologies
The other column
Short answers on purpose. The difference is usually in the how, so each row says what happens rather than ticking a box.
| Capability | BandLab | Riffgarden |
|---|---|---|
| What kind of thing it is | A digital audio workstation: a multitrack timeline with recording, effects, a mixer and a sample library. | An instrument: a step grid, recipe blocks, sounds you shape, and an arranger that stacks patterns into a song. |
| Runs in a browser | Fully, plus apps for phones and tablets. | Fully, on a laptop or desktop. There is no phone version. |
| Generates song ideas | SongStarter makes three short ideas from a genre, an emoji or a lyric, free, to open in the studio. | Nothing is generated. Every project starts from a loop that already sounds good, and you change it. |
| An assistant that edits your project | We could not find one. BandLab's AI features are single-purpose tools: SongStarter, Splitter, Mastering, AutoMix, Generate, voice cleaning. | The co-producer changes your project through the same operations the buttons use. Ask for a lazier feel and the swing changes in front of you. |
| Undo an assistant's turn in one step | The studio has normal undo for your own edits. There is no assistant turn to undo. | Every co-producer turn is one undo, however many things it changed. |
| Explains what it did and why | The tools return results, not reasons. Help articles explain the tools. | Every change comes with a plain sentence about what changed and why that is something musicians do. |
| Notes that stay in key | Instruments play any note; you choose the right ones, or use Generate on a paid plan. | Melodies and basslines are steps of a key, so a wrong note is not something you can click. |
| Teaches while you use it | Tutorials and a blog. Inside the studio, the vocabulary is the standard DAW vocabulary. | Every musical word explains itself when you point at it, the lessons are loops you play with, and the co-producer says why. |
| Audio recording and effects | Recording from a microphone or instrument, guitar amps, a full effects chain, and time-stretching on paid plans. | No recording. You can import audio and slice it, and shape built-in sounds with a few effects. |
| Stem separation | Splitter is free for four stems, with seven stems on paid plans. | On paid plans only, as a separate tool that returns four stems. |
| Sharing and community | A large community, a feed, collaboration on the same project, and distribution to streaming services on paid plans. | Private until you share. A shared song gets a page that plays in any browser, and can be opened for remixing. No distribution. |
The free plan is real: unlimited projects, sixteen tracks each, recording, effects and a large library. Paid membership adds more tracks, more samples, distribution and the Pro and Max tools. Prices were $14.99 a month or $99 for the first year of Pro when we checked.
It has AI tools: SongStarter for ideas, Splitter for stems, Mastering, AutoMix, Generate for chords, drums and basslines, and voice tools. We could not find a chat assistant that edits your project when you ask it to. That is what the co-producer here does.
No. This instrument does not record audio, has no mixer or effect chains, and does not distribute music. It does beats, basslines, chords, sound shaping and arrangement, with a co-producer that explains itself and stays undoable.
If you have never made music, this instrument, because you cannot play a wrong note, every word explains itself, and the assistant teaches as it edits. If you have used any DAW before and want a free one, BandLab.
Yes, and people should. Make the beat and the parts here, record your song to audio, and bring that audio into BandLab to add vocals and mix. Or slice a BandLab export here and build a new loop around it.
Everything about BandLab on this page was read on September 22, 2026 from these pages. Prices and features change; if something here is wrong or out of date, tell us through the contact form and we will fix it.
Open a project that already sounds good, change one thing, and ask the co-producer why it worked. Free to start, and everything you make stays yours.