When comparing FL Studio vs Reason, the Slant community recommends FL Studio for most people. In the question“What are the best DAWs? ” FL Studio is ranked 5th while Reason is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose FL Studio is:
With the producer or signature bundle, updates are free forever.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free lifetime updates
With the producer or signature bundle, updates are free forever.
Pro Easy to install
No complex activation shenanigans. No dongle and such.
Pro Easy to learn DAW
The FL Studio DAW utilizes drag and drop, and can generally be learned quickly without any prior knowledge. There are also a lot of resources to help begginers and experienced users learn.
Pro Inbuilt cross 32/64bit plugin bridge
You don't need to install/configure a third party bridge.
Pro Intuitive piano roll
Piano roll is a FL Studio's instrument step sequencer. It is considered to be among the most intuitive and flexible tools for quickly creating patterns and manipulating all aspects of each note. A single left click inserts a note, while a right click deletes it. It's possible to mute notes, splice them, stretch them, add shuffle, etc quickly.
The Piano Roll caters for those new to Music Theory as well, containing an array of chords from which to choose, be it a Major, Minor, Minor 5th, Minor 9th, what have you.
Pro Scalable interface
The interface adapts to the screen size it's used on.
Pro Non-invasive DRM
Forget copy protection USB-dongles and phone-home activation. Just import a reg key file and your license is activated.
Pro Has the best startup sound
Pro Powerful Sound Editor
Edison is a great way to record and edit samples, sound effects and is a very easy way to create sample packs and sound libraries.
Pro Supports resampling
Supports resampling (non stretch) which is something some DAWs don't support.

Pro Excellent for visual learners
All the stock plugins look really nice and really show users what is being done, it's a great way to learn mixing theory for a beginner. This approach makes FL Studio easy to learn compared to other DAWs.
Pro Great support & community, lots of tutorials
Pro Flexible non-linear workflow
Pro Fully open: accepts a variety of formats
Accepts VST/VSTi (v2,v3) Wav, Aiff, Rex, Acid, Apple Loop, Ogg, Mp3 as well as almost every video format including Mov and Mp4.
Pro Sampler
FL Studio has a very unique sampler which allows all kinds of sounds to be experimented with, be it a siren, a water drop, or more commonly, the infamous "Progressive House" Kick. The Sampler also allows the user to retune a sample to any key he/she desires.
Pro Very comprehensive plugin suite included
You have basic and advanced plugins right out the box.
Pro Each update is major
When Image Line releases an update, it's safe to assume that there are major improvements in there.
Pro Unlimited creativity
With tools in the piano roll like the "Riff Machine", and the "Randomize" tool, you can literally let the computer automate the production if you want. In addition to plugins like "Gross Beat", Slicex, DirectWave, the ideas can be limitless.
Pro Good for the studio
Some DAWs are good for live shows, some DAWs are good for production, but the FL Studio DAW has carved its niche in the studio recording arena.
Pro Smooth UI
Compared to other DAWs, FL's UI moves at full monitor refresh rates while others are somehow laggy.
Pro Can import/export 32bit audio
Just as the internal engine bit depth, there's no loss in quality.
Pro It comes as VSTi and Rewire
So you can use it inside another DAW. There's no other DAW capable of doing that.
Pro The only DAW with a VJ graphic generation suite (ZG Editor Visualizer)
No other DAW has that.
Pro Fully vectorial UI that will scale to virtually every screen
Because most DAWs don't scale well yet.
Pro Sample/MIDI Manipulation in the Playlist Mode
The Playlist mode comes with various tools for cutting out sections of a sample, midi arrangement, or otherwise. One can also clone, mute, solo out, and stretch a sample by any degree, although the sample's key will change.
Pro Flexible internal linking engine
Its linking engine and controller plugins are very flexible and useful all across the software. For mixing and also for performance mode.
Pro Patcher: Modular environment
Patcher is similar to Max for Live in Ableton and The Grid in Bitwig and allows you to build your own complex generator and effect chains.
Pro Perfect for engineering because of the production style workflow
The workflow for creating beats in FL Studio is among the fastest which make mixing and mastering a breeze inserting plug-ins and routing on the mixer.
Pro It is the only DAW where you can program real scratching sequences (Turntablism)
You can make your own scratches with the "Fruity Scratcher" or "Wave traveller".
Pro Imports video for scoring
You can open several video players.
Pro It's possible to run FL Studio on Linux via Wine without a noticeable performance impact
Version 12 of FL Studio includes a new Generic ASIO driver that's capable of achieving same low latency performance as the native Windows version. Instructions on how to set up the DAW to run on Linux via Wine can be found here.
Pro Reasonable and liberal license
Buy once, and you're allowed to use it on every computer you own.
Pro Amazing sequencer to input midi
Pro perfect for arrangement and homerecording
Pro Complete control over multiple Launchpad Pro animation lightshow projects
Live can, but working with more LPs is a pain.
Pro Shows other instrument notes in background if needed
Pro A lot of good synthesizers and instruments (over 30)
E.g. Harmor, Flex, Sakura, Sawer, Sytrus, Poizone...
Pro FL is famous for its great sequencer
Great software for creating rhythms.
Pro Well-functioning mobile version
Pro Large number of effects (approx. 70)
E.g. GrossBeat, Newtime (tuning), Patcher (own complex generators and effect chains), Maximus, Soundgoodizer...
Pro Built in Audio Visualizer
Game Editor . lets you make cool sound-triggered animations in no time
Pro Soundgoodizer
HAHA Soundgoodizer goes brrrrrr
Pro Very flexible timeline
Pro Best stretching algorithms in the market
Pro Developed by a team of friends
Pro Modular enviroment
Synths, effects, and utilities can be modularly wired via audio and CV.
Pro Easy to learn
Reason may look intimidating at first, but it is just as easy to learn as any DAW, if not more so, yet has incredible depth once you delve deeper, with some options that are just not possible in other DAWs.
Pro Now supports VST
As of version 9.5, Reason now supports VSTs.
Pro Stable
Very stable and fluid. Rarely crashes.
Pro Built-in Audio Pitch Editor
Reason's Audio Pitch Editor easily can hold its own to Melodyne Essentials. Makes editing vocals and other monophonic sound very easy.
Pro Easy and intuitive while being feature rich
You can go really deep into creating sound and routing. Find possibilities you cant do with any other DAW.
Pro Supports MIDI out
MIDI out is a new addition in Reason, allowing feedback to MIDI devices.
Pro Multi FX presets
The multi fx are very nice. Great for transitions and complete sound management.
Pro Mimics true hardware through a skeuomorphic GUI/UX
Reason's rack and mixer visually emulate real studio hardware through a skeuomorphic GUI/UX, allowing you to route audio cables and CV very intuitively. Hit "tab" on your computer keyboard, and you can see the rear of the rack, making routing very easy to understand.
Pro Massive free video tutorials content
Professionally produced tutorial videos often released by Propellerhead that show you how to use the software. Reason also has a thriving user base that offers video tutorials showing you how to do almost anything you need.
Pro Great for live peformances
Pro Ssl mixer
One of the best if not the best mixer on any daw.
Pro Great set of tools
Pro Offers an easy way to quantize and slice audio
Reason makes it easy to stretch audio or slice it up for glitchy sound effects. When audio is loaded, it is analyzed so slice markers can be placed at the beginning and end of each note. Slice markers appear when the audio sample is double clicked.
Pro Block mode
Is great for more ideas and creativity.
Pro Vst3 Rack
Can work with reason Rack in any Daw
Pro Loop, convert and overdub on the fly
Pro Amazing automation arrangement
Using clips makes it very easy to automate precisely.
Pro Stock samplers
Has one of the best and creative samplers among the DAWs and in the market. Like Mimic.
Pro Powerful devices included
Great set of instruments and players and samplers included out of the box.
Pro Fast and smart search engine
Pro Work with multiple projects support
You can open and work multiple projects at the same time
Pro Multiple screen support
Can display reason windows onn multiple screens
Pro Great built in instruments and effects
Mulitple high quality built in synthesisers, drum loops, samplers and effects with plenty of pre-built patches to explore plus the ability to create your own unique sounds.
Pro Can convert audio to REX files
REX files record effects and slices on top of the original file, and will play audio at the tempo of a project. REX files provide many uses and are a great addition to Reason.
Cons
Con The Browser is archaic
Every time it has to refresh, it closes the entire menu. So if you just navigated several dropdowns to find an automation parameter of a third party plugin and you want to automate a second parameter, you have to navigate back to that dropdown all over again. Searching within the browser is a slapped on feature that only shows you a single result at a time, and you have to press a hotkey to cycle through them one by one. Really, your browser in FL is the Windows File Explorer, or Finder in OS I assume. The FL Browser is workflow molasses and should be avoided at all costs except to find samples you already know the location of.
Con Not intuitive for track based recording approach
Con Shortcuts are weird
And non-reconfigurable.
Con Audio recording not as good as the other DAWs
Recording audio is always a problem in FL Studio.
Con The GUI is very difficult to see
The color scheme of GUI is terrible. They use a lot of dark and similar color for the GUI.
Con Most controls are hidden
In the mixing console, mid, bass, and treble are not explicitly stated as they should be.
Con Limited number of 125 mixer channels (500 tracks) and 10 effects slots
You can use the Patcher plugin or routing to the next channel, but it does not always work efficiently and properly
Con Not great for Mixing
Every channel should have input gain controller and extra plugins should be added for more creativity.
Con No Dolby Atmos / Surround
Con Lack of other midi keyboard brands
Con A
Con Bad sound for expensive piano plugin
Rendered using the same MIDI note and compared it to the render on other daws, it's really bad.
Con Crashes when loading plugs
Con Brak ARA (komunikacja audio np. z Melodyne/VocAlign)
Con Has a slight tendency to crash
Always save before loading a new VST or doing something important: FL is prone to crashes.
Con The soundfont player will trash your projects, no 64-bit version available
Remember that nice project with a soundfont in it ? Yeeeah, load it again and prepare to face stuck MIDI notes and a trashed project.
Con No channel folder and channel grouping in mixer
Con No Saturator
Only Waveshaper, Fast dist, Maximus + Soundgoodizer.
Con Proprietary
Con Can not customize the GUI
Can not change the UI as you like.
Con Look
Con No Dolby Atmos / surround
Con Added Subscription
They've added Subscription. And some Re racks are only subscription based.
Con No ARA (audio communication e.g. with Melodyne / VocAlign)
Con Expensive Re expansions
Con GUI not for everyone and complicated
Con Mix only by ear
You can not type in a value in the mixer.
Con A very backward sequencer
Lacking some features.
Con Very outdated workflow
They haven't optimized their workflow in a long time.
Con No MPE and MIDI2.0
As of Reason12, MPE and MIDI2.0 are not supported.
Con Confusing GUI for Noob
Con Closed source
