Free DMX software for Mac

Is HitLight free?

HitLight is in beta. Every account includes Venue / Install at no cost during the beta, with no credit card required. After beta, Hobby / Student stays free for non-commercial use. Pro costs USD 19 per month or USD 149 per year. Venue / Install costs USD 999 per site per year. Assistant usage is capped while we validate what the AI costs to run.

Every account includes Venue / Install during the beta. After beta, Hobby / Student stays free for non-commercial use, with one full DMX universe (512 DMX channels), the full editor and 3D visualiser, 10 Auto Shows per month and 500 Assistant messages per month. Commercial work needs Pro or Venue / Install. Compare those terms with the current beta when deciding whether HitLight fits your rig. No credit card is required during the beta.

What does free not mean here?

Free does not mean finished, and it does not mean cross-platform. HitLight is public beta software: features, quotas, file formats and availability may change, and it ships without an uptime guarantee. The client that drives real lights is macOS only and requires macOS 14 or later. The browser app runs everywhere and cannot output DMX on any platform.

• It is beta software. HitLight is not finished. Assistant usage is capped, quotas may change, and there is no uptime guarantee. See what HitLight cannot do.
• Hardware output is macOS 14+ only. HitLight does not run on Windows and there is no Linux build. Windows support has no announced date.
• The browser app cannot control real lights. It patches fixtures, builds scenes, visualises the rig in 3D and acts as a remote for a Mac that is connected to the hardware. Output over USB, Art-Net and sACN happens only in the macOS app.
• HitLight requires internet for account sync, collaboration and the AI assistant. For local file performances, prepare a rig for offline use while online, then open its saved Offline performance on the same Mac. Local recordings and the prepared rig remain private to that Mac.

What else is genuinely free?

QLC+ is genuinely free, genuinely capable and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. It is open source, it has been maintained for years, and if you are comfortable learning a console-shaped interface it may be all you need. For a Windows user who wants to control DMX today, QLC+ is the honest recommendation and HitLight is not an option at all.

The trade is the interface. QLC+ asks you to learn how a lighting console thinks — functions, scenes, chasers, the virtual console — before it does much for you. HitLight asks you to describe the look you want instead. Neither approach is better in the abstract; they suit different amounts of patience. Our longer write-up is HitLight compared with QLC+, and the project's own site is qlcplus.org.

Two other things cost nothing and are worth knowing about. The HitLight browser app is free and works on any platform for patching, scene building and 3D visualisation, so a Windows or Linux user can still design a rig even though they cannot drive it. And HitLight's 3D stage runs with no interface attached at all, which means you can build and rehearse a whole show before you buy any hardware.

What do you still have to buy?

Venue / Install is included during the beta, so hardware is the only thing you pay for. A Mac has no DMX port, so getting a signal to the rig needs one interface in between: a USB-to-DMX adapter, or a network node speaking Art-Net or sACN. HitLight does not sell a DMX dongle, so whichever supported interface you already own is very likely the one you keep using. After beta, Hobby / Student includes one full DMX universe (512 DMX channels); Pro unlocks multi-universe, Art-Net and sACN output.

Prices are approximate street prices and are not something we control. The full maintained matrix, including the interfaces that are still experimental, is on supported hardware.

Last verified 4 October 2026.