Amped Studio Alternative: Free VST3 in a Browser

If you landed here you probably found Amped Studio, liked that it runs your own plugins in a browser, and then hit the part where VST Remote is a Premium feature. It's $6.99 a month, or $12.99 with the AI tools, after a 7-day trial. The Amped Studio alternative I'd point you at is SoundCraft plus the ClipCraft Bridge, which does the same job for free. I work on it, so read this with that in mind. I've tried to keep the comparison fair, including the places Amped is ahead.

How plugins in a browser work at all

They don't, strictly. A browser tab cannot load a native VST3 binary, and no amount of WebAssembly changes that. Every browser DAW that supports plugins does it the same way: a small native helper runs on your desktop, hosts the plugin, and talks to the tab over a local connection. Amped calls theirs VST Remote. Audiotool has one too. Ours is the ClipCraft Bridge.

So the honest framing is that a handful of browser DAWs can now do this, and the differences are in what the bridge can do and what it costs. Not in whether it's possible.

What the Bridge does

Two things. It hosts instruments as real channels, so Omnisphere, Massive X and Kontakt show up as tracks you can play live from a MIDI keyboard, browse patches on while hearing them, and record MIDI into. When you hit play, the MIDI clip renders through the actual plugin rather than through an approximation.

And it processes clips through effects. Right-click an audio clip, pick Process with plugin, and it bounces through Auto-Tune Pro or whatever else you own. Undoably, so a bad take of tuning doesn't cost you the clip. Analysis-style plugins work as well, which means Auto-Key can listen to a track and set the key for you. iLok licensing works. Plugin state saves with the project, so reopening a session two weeks later brings back the patch.

The rest of the DAW

Plugins only matter if the thing around them is usable. SoundCraft is a real multi-track timeline with sample-level zoom, audio recording with an input picker, MIDI recording into a piano roll with a velocity lane, and 15 built-in effects including a parametric EQ, Auto-Tune, reverb, delay, compressor and a limiter.

Automation goes deeper than I expected to build. You can draw envelopes, curve individual segments, record live knob moves, and automate any effect parameter plus pan and channel power. Channel groups are Ctrl+G. There's a sampler, a subtractive synth, a multi-sampled Yamaha C5 grand, a concert harp, a guitar with three tones, drum pads with per-pad effects, and a two-deck DJ module that tears off into its own window. Export is WAV or MP3, and a finished track posts straight to the public music feed if you want it heard.

All of that is free. So is a ClipCraft account, which you need for saved projects but not for trying the editor.

Where Amped Studio is ahead

Amped has been around longer and it shows in a few places. Their VST Remote supports VST2 as well as VST3, and a lot of beloved old plugins never got a VST3 build, so that's a real gap on our side. Their shared-project collaboration is more developed than anything we ship today. And they have a Mac build of the bridge, which we don't.

That last one is the big caveat and I'm not going to bury it: the ClipCraft Bridge is Windows-only right now. If you're on a Mac, SoundCraft still works as a browser DAW with its own instruments and effects, but your plugin folder stays out of reach. That's the honest state of it.

What it costs, side by side

• Amped Studio: free tier without plugin support. Premium at $6.99 a month unlocks VST Remote, shared projects and parameter automation. Premium plus AI is $12.99. Seven-day trial.
• ClipCraft: SoundCraft is free, including automation and all 15 effects. The Bridge is a free download. Paid plans start at $1.99 and buy storage and AI compute tokens, not DAW features. Details on pricing.

The Bridge is currently free with "for a limited time" wording on it, which I'd rather flag than hide. There's no plan to charge for it today, and if that ever changes it won't change retroactively for people already using it.

Who should switch

If you're on Windows, you own VST3 instruments, and you resent paying a subscription to use software you already bought, this is a straightforward win. Make a free account, install the Bridge, open SoundCraft, and your plugins are in a browser tab in about two minutes. If you need VST2, a Mac, or mature collaboration features, Amped is the better fit and I'd rather you use the thing that works.

There's a longer setup walkthrough in using VST plugins in an online DAW, and if you want to see it running with specific plugins, Omnisphere and Auto-Tune in a browser DAW has the screenshots.