Looking for a Daslight alternative?

Who is Daslight right for?

Daslight is right for professional and semi-professional operators programming scenes and timelines. It is a mature, cross-platform tool built for people who want to program every scene by hand, and if that is how you like to work, the hand-programming route is the whole product rather than a fallback. Years of released versions sit behind it, and it is not going anywhere.

It sits in a €300–1,500 price band, which puts it well below a professional console and well above free. What each version includes, which interface it expects and what it costs today are all on daslight.com — check there rather than trusting a competitor's summary, including this one. This page is written by the people who make HitLight.

If you are already fluent in Daslight and it does what you need, there is no argument on this page that should make you switch. The reasons to look elsewhere are usually specific: the way you work has changed, or you want lighting to follow music you have not programmed in advance.

What does Daslight do that HitLight does not?

Daslight runs on Windows. HitLight's DMX output runs only in the macOS app and requires macOS 14 or later, so a Windows machine cannot drive a rig with HitLight at all. Daslight is also a finished, released product with years of versions behind it, while HitLight is public beta software whose formats and quotas may still change.

The macOS version floor catches people out. HitLight needs macOS 14+ to output DMX, which rules out an older Mac that would otherwise run a lighting rig perfectly well. Daslight publishes its own system requirements, and they are not ours to summarise — read them on Nicolaudie's site before assuming either tool runs on the machine you have.

Daslight also does not require an internet connection for its core features. HitLight needs internet access for account sync, collaboration and AI features; offline recovery is being tested during the beta and is not yet promised. In a venue with no usable network, that is the end of the comparison.

What does HitLight do differently?

HitLight programs lighting from a description rather than from channel numbers, and it can run a rig live with no scenes programmed in advance. Turn on Auto Show and HitLight listens to the room through the Mac's system-default microphone, follows the beat and the structure of what is playing, and drives colour, intensity and eligible movement without a cue sheet.

There is no track pre-analysis and no DJ-software integration in HitLight. That matters both ways: it means less certainty about what happens on a given bar, and it means the music can be unreleased, improvised or played live by a band and the lights still follow it.

• Plain-English scene programming. The assistant works from the profile you actually patched and the values actually on the wire, so it does not invent your fixture's channels. You describe the look; the resulting scene is an ordinary editable scene, not a black box.
• Fixture profiles drafted from a PDF or a photo. Point HitLight at the manual that came with the light, or a photograph of the DMX chart printed on the back of it, and it drafts a working profile in seconds. Generated profiles stay marked as drafts until you have tested the channels on the real fixture — see the fixture library.
• ENTTEC, Art-Net and sACN with no per-universe charge. HitLight supports ENTTEC Open DMX USB, the ENTTEC DMX USB Pro, and any Art-Net or sACN node. It does not sell a DMX dongle and never charges per universe. The matrix is on supported hardware.
• A two-second watchdog. A native watchdog running outside the interface latches DMX output to an all-zero frame within two seconds if the app stops responding, and output stays down until an operator restores it.
• Hazardous channels removed in code. Auto Show will not drive lasers, flashing strobes, blinders, UV, smoke, haze, fans, flame or pyro, nor fixture macros and unverified effect channels. Those channel types are stripped from every automatic path in code, not by convention, and the assistant cannot arm them either. See lighting safety.

The hand-programming surfaces exist as well, because most shows need them: a matrix scene editor with steps down and fixtures across, cue lists with GO and BACK and per-cue waits, a multi-track timeline, a virtual console of buttons, faders and XY pads you lay out yourself, MIDI learn including a footswitch, and palettes that update every scene using them.

Should you pick Daslight or HitLight?

Pick Daslight if you are on Windows, if you want a finished product, or if programming every cue by hand is the job rather than the obstacle. Pick HitLight if you are on a recent Mac and would rather describe a look, or want the rig to follow music nobody has analysed in advance.

Pick Daslight if

• You use Windows, or you share a show file with someone who does. HitLight cannot drive a rig from a Windows machine at all.
• Your Mac cannot run macOS 14 or later, and replacing it is not on the table.
• You need lighting control that keeps working with no internet connection. HitLight requires it for sync, collaboration and AI features.
• You want a mature, released product rather than beta software with an uncapped list of things that might still change.
• You already own a DMX interface that Daslight supports and HitLight does not. Check our supported hardware matrix before you assume either way.
• You want to program every scene and timeline by hand, and an assistant that writes scenes is a thing you would switch off.

Pick HitLight if

• You are on a Mac running macOS 14 or later and want lighting that follows live music without programming it first.
• You would rather describe a look — "warm sunset", "colorful and punchy" — and then edit the scene it produces than build every step from zero.
• Your fixtures are not in any library and you would rather upload the manual than write a profile by hand.
• You want Art-Net or sACN output with no per-universe charge and no proprietary dongle to buy.
• You want several people on one show: browser and iOS remotes forward control to the Mac that is connected to the rig.
• You want to try it before spending anything. HitLight is free during the public beta, with no credit card, though launch pricing has not been announced and that is a real uncertainty rather than a footnote.

If you are still undecided, the cheap experiment is to patch your real rig in HitLight's 3D stage with no hardware attached, build one scene the way you would build it in Daslight, and see which one you would rather have been doing. That costs an evening and nothing else.

Last verified 1 August 2026.