Avid Pro Tools vs. GarageBand

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pro Tools
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Avid offers Pro Tools, the company's flagship music and audio editing and recording suite.
$29.99
Per User / Per Month
GarageBand
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Apple offers GarageBand, a digital audio workstation packaged with its operating system.
$199.99
Pricing
Avid Pro ToolsGarageBand
Editions & Modules
Pro Tools
$29.99
Per User / Per Month
Pro Tools - Ultimate
$79.99
Per User / Per Month
Pro Tools - First
Free
Logic Pro (GarageBand Premium)
$199.99
Garageband for Mac
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Pro ToolsGarageBand
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Avid Pro ToolsGarageBand
Considered Both Products
Pro Tools
Chose Avid Pro Tools
Pro Tools, while great for audio recording, has always been behind the curve when it comes to MIDI production. Cubase is much better at it, and being able to jump into it quickly and efficiently is vital to my time-management, because I'm often on tight deadlines. Also, Cubase …
Chose Avid Pro Tools
In my opinion, ProTools is the best audio editing tool currently on the market. It's very user-friendly, incredibly intuitive and has so many different functionalities that would take weeks to learn how to use them all and well if you needed them. It is far better suited than …
GarageBand

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Avid Pro ToolsGarageBand
Small Businesses
Descript
Descript
Score 9.2 out of 10
Descript
Descript
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
Audition
Audition
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Avid Pro ToolsGarageBand
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(7 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(4 ratings)
9.4
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Avid Pro ToolsGarageBand
Likelihood to Recommend
Avid Technology
Pro Tools is great for recording multiple different tracks of audio at the same time with live inserts that you can later remove/edit if they do not suit the track. It always makes a backup of any file you copy in which is essential when working with original copies of files for clients, and you can rest easy knowing that any changes made can be reverted without having to start over or having any work be lost. You can compile many different tracks for larger-scale projects and group or bus them together with ease. The software is very user-friendly for beginners and is a great tool overall for anyone looking to edit audio. The only instance it is less suited it would be if you're only making small audio edits with any adobe video software. Also if your business is not heavy on audio editing or recording it may be a costly investment.
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Apple
Honestly, switching to Garage Band from Audacity for my podcast was a game-changer in the editing. I can do it so much faster with the tools that are available in editing--especially when you are dealing with more than one track to edit. I also think Garage Band could be fantastic for recording a whole album initially before sending it to be mastered elsewhere. And I think Garage Band could be perfect for sync music licensing because it's still relatively easy to use!
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Pros
Avid Technology
  • Highly-customizable, application and UI (performance, function and appearance).
  • Wide audio format compatibility; Ease of integrating audio of different formats, sample rates; equal ease of exporting.
  • Broadest hardware compatibility. The ability to tweak performance parameters extends hardware's useful life.
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Apple
  • Easy and simple interface that can be used by anyone.
  • The visual audio levels are great and help to clean out all the impurities in an audio.
  • Comes freely built in with all Mac computers, which are widely used.
  • Very user-friendly and intuitive at the same time.
  • GarageBand can be self-taught with no experience.
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Cons
Avid Technology
  • Loop-Based Production - Pro Tools is still in the old world of audio recording where you're expected to record a track from live sources. It has less features aimed at production of loop-based music like electronic music and hiphop.
  • Sample-Based Production - While you can sequence samples, you are expected to use MIDI to trigger the samples, for the most part. Of course, you can sequence them out without using MIDI to trigger a sampler plugin, but that's not the use case Pro Tools was designed for.
  • Creative Ideation - Pro Tools expects you to figure out what you want to record first, and does not have tools for helping you produce or create the music.
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Apple
  • Can't save the preferences for the tracks such as turning off reverb etc.
  • Project files are large, a 30-minute podcast episode with only 4 tracks is typically around 1 GB
  • Auto feature to silence guest not talking
  • Optimize for podcasters (I use the old version 6 as new versions hasn't had podcast options)
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Usability
Avid Technology
This is a hard question - I'd give it a 10 for having so many options but a 5 for being user friendly - as it has so many options.
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Apple
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Avid Technology
The times I've had problems with Avid, they've responded within about 48 hours, and most of the time with a reasonable solution. More often than not, however, I've had to resort to forums to get answers, because when I'm having a problem with the software, I can't afford to wait 48 hours for a solution
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Apple
I have never tried it. It's just simple, and you should be able to navigate most of it via self-exploration and Apple Help.
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Alternatives Considered
Avid Technology
As discussed above, these other products are likely better suited for home audio production, especially based on their integration of software instruments and their surface-level interface and tools. Pro Tools excels as a tool for professionals, who need to move audio along efficiently towards a polished form, especially in the context of vocal production
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Apple
I have used Adobe Audition before but found it to be hard to learn. Some of the features were very nice but too much for what I needed to justify the price. GarageBand is perfect for my needs and it came free with my Mac laptop. That is the best deal in town!
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Return on Investment
Avid Technology
  • I actually finish projects, because once I set up templates it's basically plug-and-play.
  • My customers enjoy my videos more now that the audio is better.
  • I might spend too much money on plug-ins, haha.
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Apple
  • Amazing value
  • Very easy to get started
  • For novices and professionals alike
  • Loops library is simply awesome
  • Export capabilities very effective to share tracks
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ScreenShots