I get that it's a flashy plugin used by the entire music industry but why the prices are same for people from every country.

Like people living in US or UK are definitely going to have easier time buying these expensive plugins like Soothe2 is $200.

It's so expensive for people from smaller countries. Why do these guys do this to us?

It's a software not a hardware it doesn't have physical metal or plastic so it's cost of making must be quite lower than any hardware manufacturer.

Microphones, Audio Interfaces, Studio Monitors, Headphones, Guitars, Midi Keyboard all of this are affordable being a hardware.
Everything comes in a budget but these fkn people want to slam us with their Outrageous pricings.

It's like buy at our prices or GTFO no inbetween.
No Fs Given to the people from smaller countries.
It's prices are more than our monthly expenses like wtf should we do? Not only that it's more than monthly house rent in our country.

I would simply buy it as I bought many UAD & Sonnox plugins on sale but these few plugin are quite expensive even in their sale period. $139 in the BF sale,
bruhh not everyone is a US citizen have mercy.

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2025

I don't think plugins are so expensive nowadays, I actually think they got so cheap to the point that you can compete with 100% free plugins. But to answer your question about the outliers, they're just following the boutique pedal market, they have a brand that is strong and greatly attached to quality by the people who use it, and they're hard to get (as in, uncracked/outdated). Oeksound can charge $200 for soothe2 because they pretty much created the market for that kind of plugin. Does that mean you need soothe2? I don't think you need it, in fact, I would take SpecCraft a hundred times over soothe2, hands down.

To put it in simple terms: they charge too much because people are willing to pay too much for it, and they have a name to back that choice of selling it for a lot of money.

And lastly, I do agree that we truly need more developers to do some sort of regional pricing, but at the same time I think it's easier than ever to own good plugins, and even the free stuff is highly competitive. I would kill to have stuff like Analog Obsession back in the day.

Edit: just to be clear about one thing, if you think you need UAD, Sonnox and Oeksound to mix well, you're wrong. You're looking at the wrong places.

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2025

Pay money or ask the witches for a wish

 

I understand it's not expensive for people from Top Countries but for people like us from smaller countries. It's really expensive no kidding. It's literally more than our monthly expenses & monthly rent

Regional Pricing should really be a thing.
Like show your government registered documents like Drivers License or Passport & get the right price suitable for your country.

 

I don't think you were around when it was normal to charge $900 for a 16-bit digital EQ, we've come a long way trust me, haha.

 

I know it sucks because I'm in a similar situation. Because of groups like R2R, I have been able to get plugins for free, and the plugins that I end up using the most, I pay for them as I make money. The thing you should be doing instead is trying to focus on developers that are not trying to get every penny out of you. Companies like Kiive, Three-Body Technology, Kazrog, Tokyo Dawn Labs and a lot of others that I'm sure more people will chime in. Keep an eye out for sales on Plugin Boutique, try getting some Plugin Alliance stuff from sellers on this forum for super cheap, there are tons and tons of plugins out there that are great stuff and very affordable. And even when you can't afford anything, companies such as Tokyo Dawn Labs have free editions of their plugins that are absolutely killer, actual stuff professionals use.

Point here is: reward the companies that do well for the community, instead of striving to own the stuff that you think is doing harm.

 

You are wrong because you forget the R&D as well as the potential patents implied.
The fact that the product is digital and not hardware doesn't mean it has less value, far from it.

Also, I'm not sure if Iany software company in any field is pricing its products differently according to the country. You might see some differences due to the currency value (dollar vs euro for ex) but nothing more than that.

 

Nobody is forcing you to buy it.

The seller is free to sell at any price he wants and the buyer is free to accept this price and buy it. Or not buy it if he thinks the price is too high.

Like it or not, this is free market capitalism.

 

Many big innovative companies like Fabfilter have Sales and it gets quite affordable in the sale period. But plugins like soothe2 only went from $200 to $139 in BF sale... It's not even fair for people like us from smaller countries.

I know most of the developers don't have regional prices but why should you follow everybody when they have blindfolds on & they are already getting slapped by witches.

Really love UAD at this point they are so affordable I bet they have studied the market well.
Back in the days UAD was so expensive and quite Money hungry people but now it actually feels affordable also they are dropping freebies like no other.

 

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[my old stupid comment]

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2025

The prices of DSP format plugins have not changed all that much over the years. Look at the pricing from Sonnox. They have crazy sales for native formats, but the DSP formats never change by all that much. The are usually excluded from the sale or only reduced a tiny fraction.

 

Charging people is one thing and scamming is another. Trust me this $200 price tag is not affordable for people from many countries.
Even then $900 for a EQ was outrageous and many people would've raised their voices. Which now resulted to companies giving us affordable prices.

I recently bought a Mac Machine after collecting money for years cause Apple has quite a affordable pricing for a beast of a machine.

Atleast They are trying but these so cold premium developers are living above the skies slapping everybody with their Outrageous Pricing.

 

Oh, don’t get me wrong, plugin prices are not that accessible to me either, so I totally get where you’re coming from. I’m just pointing out that plugins actually aren’t more expensive these days; if you look back, they’re much cheaper now than they used to be. And honestly, I don’t think prices dropped just because people 'raised their voices.' There are still folks paying hundreds for plugins, it's a niche believe me or not. It’s more about how much the market has changed since the early 2000s, so much competition came in that the old pricing just couldn’t last. And I think this trend will keep going for a while.

 

UAD Spark is $150 a year and, unless I'm mistaken, you build no equity with your subscription like several others offer. I don't believe you ever get to own any of the plugins with Spark. There are much better deals if currency is an issue, such as MeldaPRoduction (your sub fees go towards purchase) or Analog Obsession... 80 or so plugins... all free... many of them very usable regardless if already own the fancy ones or not. BlepFx - quality free color plugins. Wave Alchemy - Free Bristcati inspired reverb. Audio Modern - all of their legacy plugins (former commercial) are free. Flux? Bunch of free. TDR? Bunch of free... and on and on.

I get that it really sucks have purchasing power limited... but there are tons of free plugins out there that I would have happily forked over $50 for (and generally still do with a donation instead).



That's this shitty thing with digital sales... most companies don't do regional pricing because the moment they do regional pricing everyone will vpn in and/or figure out whatever loopholes are necessary to acquire said thing.

 

Because making VST plugins with Claude Code is cheap!

 

Users showing Official Government Verified IDs should be the way to go right? Like Driving License & Passport or something.

 

@blinkitspenguin , The only thing you can do is boycott these companies and hoping that other people will do the same thing.

If, and only if, it happens, then prices will start droping eventually. As I said before, this is capitalism.

 

That that would even causally occur as a good idea speak volumes of the hellscape so many nations are gleefully marching towards. Smiles all around.

Also, that still doesn't really work. You gotta think beyond the individuals wanting a good deal. If there is profit to be made, profit shall be had. Some person/entity/group be they citizens, or paying citizens to purchase for them, or just good old fashion fake credentials will be willing to put serious cash (or stolen cards) on an offer if they can flip for a return and their usually is when regional priced for a weaker currency. Hell, even couple years ago when some of the euro currencies dropped a bit there was a steady 10-20% return to be made in Freedom Dollars if you knew a particular market well enough to casually flip.

 

Summer Sale, Winter Sale, Holiday Sale, Black Friday, Cyber Week, prices fluctuate... make a list of what you want and wait a while...

 

...is it a sarcastic question in a audiowarez forum ?

Anyway, I strongly suggest to (gradually) replace any warez software with open source stuff instead !

Check out the HyMPS project's resources collection (I've also contributed to):

• AUDIO (includes DAWs, Editors, Effects, etc. subsections)
• VIDEO (includes Editors, Tools, etc. subsection

Last but not least keep in mind that free does not means "free beer" but "free speech", so always support projects you use/like !

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2025