Free DMX software for Mac

Is HitLight free?

Yes. HitLight is free to use during the public beta and takes no credit card. Launch pricing has not been announced. Assistant usage is capped while we validate what the AI costs to run, and that cap is the only allowance in the product today. When HitLight does start charging, there will be a free tier that stays free, and a one-time purchase option alongside any subscription.

We are stating the one-time option now because we have read enough threads in this industry to know how people feel about software that locks them out of a rig a year after they paid for it. You should hold us to it.

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.
• Internet is required for account sync, collaboration and AI features. Offline recovery is being tested during the beta and is not yet promised.

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?

Hardware, and only hardware. 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, and it never charges per universe, so whichever interface you already own is very likely the one you keep using.

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 1 August 2026.