Here are some of the most popular tools for audiovisual projects, and how Vuo compares:

Vuo

  • Price — free Vuo Community Edition, $299 USD for Vuo Pro
  • Platforms — macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

cables

  • Price — free
  • Platforms — web browser
  • User interface — visual programming

Isadora

  • Price — $550 USD for new license
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

Max

  • Price — $399 USD for new individual license
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

Nodes

  • Price — “personal and evaluation purposes only”
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS, Linux
  • User interface — visual programming

Notch

  • Price — £99 Base monthly subscription, £189 Pro monthly subscription, minimum 6 months
  • Platforms — Windows
  • User interface — visual programming

Patternodes

  • Price — $39 USD for new standard license
  • Platforms — macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

Processing

  • Price — free
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS, Linux (plus export to iOS and Android)
  • User interface — text coding

Pure Data

  • Price — free
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS (plus export to Android)
  • User interface — visual programming

Quartz Composer

Resolume Wire

  • Price — 399€ for new license
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

TouchDesigner

  • Price — $600 USD for new commercial license, $2,200 USD for new pro license
  • Platforms — Windows, macOS
  • User interface — visual programming

vvvv

  • Price — free for non-commercial use, 500€ for new commercial license
  • Platforms — Windows
  • User interface — visual programming

Don’t see your favorite creative coding tool here? Contact us with suggestions and corrections. This list is not intended to cover every one of the hundreds of tools out there, but tries to include today’s most popular tools for audiovisual work.

How does Vuo compare?

Vuo has many of the features you’ve probably come to expect if you’ve used other visual programming tools, including:

  ✓ Node-based interface — drag and drop building blocks to create a composition
  ✓ Live editing — modify your composition while it’s running and see the results immediately
  ✓ GPU-accelerated graphics — fast, high-quality 2D and 3D rendering
  ✓ Multiple graphics windows — output to one, two, or more windows/screens, or go headless
  ✓ SDK for custom nodes — use community nodes or code your own

Why use Vuo? Many Vuo community members find that once they get started with Vuo, they can use it again and again for lots of projects. Plus they can take advantage of features that many similar tools don’t have:

  ✓ Free version — Vuo CE free for personal use and small organizations, Vuo Pro $299 USD with educational and bulk discounts available
  ✓ Easy to learn — video tutorials, in-app documentation of nodes, thorough user manual
  ✓ Flexible — event-driven design and wide range of nodes robustly support both graphics and general-purpose creative coding
  ✓ Exports apps — turn compositions into native macOS apps
  ✓ Exports movies — real-time recording of video and audio, offline rendering of video
  ✓ Exports FFGL plugins — create generators and effects for Resolume Avenue, Resolume Arena, Magic Music Visuals, VDMX, and Isadora 3 on macOS
  ✓ Exports FxPlug plugins — use in Apple’s Final Cut Pro X and Motion for macOS
  ✓ Exports screen savers — create your own macOS screen savers
  ✓ Open source — Vuo CE source code on GitHub
  ✓ SDK for running compositions — developers can leverage Vuo in their own applications


Try Vuo for free