Table of Contents
Last Updated on January 4, 2024 by IDS Team
EDITOR’S NOTE: Looking for a summarised list of best rent-to-own VST plugins? Check the table below, with our selection of the four best rent-to-own services. Also please note that this list is constantly updated so bookmark it for later reference.
If you are on a mobile device, please scroll left and right in the table to see all the entries, and up and down in the cells to see all the content.
| Name | Plugins Included | Cost per month | Our Rating |
| 49 plugins on offer. Including: Serum, Ozone 9, Arturia, Studio 1 Professional. | Starts at 4.99$ per plugin. Option for a free 3 day trial. |
4.7/5 |
|
| Landr Rent-to-Own | Lethal Synth Auto-tune |
9.99$ | 4.1/5 CHECK OFFER |
| First month FREE! Weekly sound packs 70+ instruments and effects |
19.99$ | 4.6/5 |
|
| Over 200 waves plugins. to choose from. You will NOT OWN them at the end, you have to keep paying to access them. |
6.99$ for 16 plugins. 9.99$ for 42 plugins. 19.99$ for 60 plugins. |
4.9/5 |
It’s really fascinating when you think how easy it is today to make your own home studio and be able to make solid music with it. What’s more, you can even set up a mobile studio with your laptop and an audio interface and take it anywhere with you to either record or just make your music. It’s something that opens up new possibilities and was unimaginable back in the old days.
What’s also great is that you can even rent different plugins by using some handy services today.
In this brief guide, we will be taking a closer look and explaining how so-called “rent-to-own” plugin services work, as well as some great products that you can get on them.
Rent-to-own VST plugin system
The whole idea is to have a service and a system that will allow you to rent plugins for a certain monthly price. But, as the name of this concept would suggest, if you rent these plugins long enough to pay for their full price, the product (or, in some cases, a bundle of multiple products) is yours.
It’s the same principle we see on the housing market when you rent a home for a while, see if it fits your needs, and decide if you want to keep paying for it until you pay off the full price. You can just cancel any time you want.
What’s really useful here is that you no longer need to deal with demos and all the annoying features that come with such them.
And you don’t have to buy a full version after 30 days only to realize that you don’t really like this product 3 months after paying the full license price. Is there a plugin you think will help you in your creative endeavors? Try and rent it for a few months and see what the full product with all of its features is like.
If you think you’ll need the plugin in the longterm, you can keep renting it until you pay off the full price. If you need it for some smaller tweaks and adjustments in a few of your songs, then rent it for a month or two.
It really is that simple.
NOTE: Waves had a rent to own service but it has been discontinued. Instead, they made it cheaper but removed the “own” part, so that you perpetually pay for the subscription.
There are usually no extra charges and you pay around the same price in the end as you would for the plugin on the creator’s website. The plugins you can purchase via these services can be effects, synths, or any other different products, sometimes even entire Digital Audio Workstations.
It’s especially useful if there’s a pricy plugin that you set your eyes on but can’t afford to pay the full price upfront. All of the best vst plugins, the ones used by the pros, are now available for anyone with a few extra dollars per month.
With all this in mind, we’ll now go into some of the rent-to-own plugin services that you can find online.
VST plugins
Splice is one of the most famous services of this kind. On there, you can also buy royalty-free samples, get your hands on some of the plugins in the rent-to-own section, or even buy DAWs. Splice can either be used in the browser or via their specialized desktop app.
This app allows you to open project files of a few different DAWs: Logic Pro, Ableton Live, GarageBand, or FL Studio.
It also comes as an extremely useful service for collaborative projects, serving as sort of a GitHub for musicians. The rented plugins can be used in individual DAWs or within the app.
Whether it’s plugins or any other services that they offer, you can purchase them with Splice credits. There are four pricing models for buying these credits, going from $7.99 per month up to $139.99 per year.
At the moment, there are 49 plugins and DAWs to choose from. The list includes Ozone 9 Advanced compressor and EQ, Serum synth, Punchbox distortion and synth, and others. Some of these made our best vst synth list.
Here are some of the plugins on offer at :
| Plugin Name | Plugin Maker |
|---|---|
| 1. Serum | Xfer Records |
| 2. Ozone 9 Advanced | iZotope |
| 3. VocalSynth 2 | iZotope |
| 4. Nectar 3 | iZotope |
| 5. Neutron 3 Advanced | iZotope |
| 6. V Collection 7 | Arturia |
| 7. Studio One Professional | PreSonus |
| 8. Ozone 9 + Neutron 3 Advanced | iZotope |
| 9. Decimort 2 | D16 Group |
| 10. MOVEMENT | Output |
| 11. Pigments | Arturia |
| 12. RX 7 Standard | iZotope |
| 13. Punchbox | D16 Group |
| 14. Neutron 3 Standard | iZotope |
| 15. Toraverb 2 | D16 Group |
| 16. Devastor 2 | D16 Group |
| 17. Ozone 9 Standard | iZotope |
| 18. Ozone 9 + Neutron 3 Standard | iZotope |
| 19. Circle² | FutureAudioWorkshop |
| 20. Zone | Audiaire |
| 21. Regroover Pro | Accusonus |
| 22. Parallels | Softube |
| 23. Beatformer | Accusonus |
| 24. D16 FX Bundle | D16 Group |
| 25. Nuxx | Audiaire |
| 26. Tekturon | D16 Group |
| 27. Antresol | D16 Group |
Biggest Upcoming Competitor: Plugin Alliance by Native InstrumentsÂ
It definitely doesn’t have the wide range that Splice does, but did you know our friends at Plugin Alliance now offer three rent-to-own plugins, including an EQ, mastering software, and more?Â
Why are we excited about this?
For starters, these are great high quality plugins and it’s fantastic that PA is making them more accessible In addition, they are included as part of PA’s bundles, so there are multiple ways of paying for them if you decide the ren-to-own model isn’t ultimately for you. However, PA has a staggering variety of plugins and what we’re excited about is if this means they are going to start offering MORE OPTIONS on the rent-to-own model. Truly, this could be the start of something new, so BOOKMARK THIS PAGE to stay updated as we are keeping an eye out for any of their other plugins that they may add to their rent-to-own scheme.Â
CHECK THEM OUT HERE FOR ANY EXCITING UPCOMING NEWS.
Landr Rent-to-own VST Plugins
With Landr, you can try out plugins and other products for 3 days completely free of charge. But the platform is also very well-known for its different trap beats and samples and also allows collaborative projects, kind of similar to the Splice model.
Their main plugin offer is a synth called Lethal. This is a very versatile synthesizer plugin with around 50 GB of different sounds (with all expansions included), presets, and samples.
The monthly rent-to-own price is $9.99 and you can stop it or cancel it at any time. Although it’s aimed for trap sounds, it comes really in handy for other genres as well. With Lethal, you can get any of the 24 different expansions, each specified for a certain style of music. These expansions, however, are charged separately.
On display is also a very nifty auto-tune effect. You can get the Landr Rent-to-own on their website by clicking here.
Apogee Native rent-to-own plugins
We’re very pleased to shout out about the APOGEE NATIVE range of rent-to-own plugins.Â
We’re listing this next to LANDR because if you like the look of Landr’s versatility and expansion pack variety, you’ll love APOGEE NATIVE.
What does it involve?
The biggest plus of the APOGEE NATIVE range is that it includes versatile, one-of-a-kind plugins that you don’t really get elsewhere. If you want something a bit outside the mainstream, this is the option for you.Â
The rent-to-own scheme applies to its vintage/modern FX bundle as well as Clearmountain Phase (flanger/phaser) PULTEC Equaliser, Opto3A vintage compressor/limiter, and many more unique sounding FX at accessible prices!
This one is new and interesting for most old-school producers like myself. Oh, Reason! We loved you, but now we don’t because we all love Ableton now. Reason was the… reason we started. It had all the flexible routing that we need, and the workflow that suited us best until something better appeared.
We know Reason is back, and with a vengeance. If you already own Reason software, you will get 50% off the first year, which is great. For 19.99 per month you get not only plugins, but also the Reason stand-alone DAW and Reason Rack. Reason Rack is a plugin host (VST/AU/AAX) that you can insert into your own DAW of choice to access the main contents of this pack, which are 70+ plugins plus a lot of sound packs. These sound pack are always new and interesting and are updated weekly.
The 70+ plugins contain all the stuff that Reason has ever made! Also, you will get access to everything that Reason will make in the future. The Reason+ companion app will automatically give you the recent updates, for both devices and sample libraries. And if you are not sure, you get the first month free of charge!
Waves.com is a service that sells an abundance of different plugins. There are over 200 plugins for any kind of studio work that you need: effects, synths, distortions, even specialized professional-level guitar plugins. Waves VST plugins are top class, trusted and recommended by almost everyone in the industry.
Even if the service does not end with a full ownership of plugins, it is still worth noting on the list.
These plugins and different software can be bought in bundles. There are three basic subscription models for bundles. Depending on the number of plugins that you want, they offer a Silver, Gold and Platinum package.
If you feel that first you want to try music production with free products and then move to rent professional VST plugins, we have an extensive list here.
Of course, you can just cancel any time before the subscription period ends and you’ll be charged for the last payment at the end of the billing cycle. What’s really great is that there are literally hundreds of plugins to choose from.
You can also buy different product bundles straight away if you don’t feel like taking the subscription.
Aside from these, Waves offer different educational courses, digital mixers, racks, and even some specialized hardware products.
Final Thoughts
How do they all compare?
With the 2023/24 updates, we would say Splice, Plugin Alliance, Reason, and APOGEE NATIVE are the best options on this list for scope and versatility.
Ultimately rent to own is about the freedom to not have to make too much of an investment; ultimately, or top picks are the ones that balance ariety and range with affordability and accessibility.
To sum up:
So why consider rent to own if you haven’t already?
Investing in a good set of plugins for your music production setup can really have an impact on your sound. It used to be the case that the premium VSTs such as the ones sold by waves were only available for the professional studios, but fortunately along with technical innovation, plugin companies have been investing in business model innovation.
The results are great for the bedroom producer. You can now go pro for only a few bucks a month. We hope this article has helped you choose a rent-to-own service. If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comment box below.
