Laseras, RDWorks and LightBurn

Most people reading this already own one of the other two. This is what each one is for, including the places where Laseras is the newer program and it shows.

Feature comparison of Laseras, RDWorks and LightBurn
	LaserasWhat this site is about.	RDWorksRuida's own software, free with the machine.	LightBurnThe paid standard, and the one most shops move to.
Basics
Price	49 USD a year	Free	99 USD, plus 40 a year for updates
Free trial	30 days, everything unlocked	Not needed	30 days
Runs on	Windows, macOS	Windows	Windows, macOS, Linux
Ruida CO2 controllers	Yes	Yes	Yes
Other controller brands	No	No	Trocen, TopWisdom, GCode, EZCad
Galvo and fibre lasers	Planned, not shipped	No	Yes
Drawing and preparing
Node editing and booleans	Yes	Limited	Yes
Text on a path	Yes	Yes	Yes
Photo engraving	Yes	Yes	Yes
Import repair on open	Names what it found, never guesses	No	Some
One summary before you cut	Time, travel, sheet use, cost	No	Time estimate
Fitting parts together
Finger joint generator	Yes	No	No
Box generator	Seven styles, inside or outside sizes	No	No
Living hinge generator	Yes	No	No
Press-fit slots and corner relief	Yes	No	No
Kerf measured from a test strip	Yes	Single number	Single number
Puzzle, jig and tag makers	Yes	No	No
Material and the sheet
True-shape nesting	By outline, parts inside holes	No	By outline
Nesting onto a saved offcut	Yes	No	No
Offcut rack traced by camera	Yes	No	No
Several jobs merged onto one sheet	Layers merged by what they do	No	No
Shared-edge cutting	Yes	No	No
Camera
Camera alignment to the bed	Yes	RDVision, separate	Yes
Calibrate from one engraved dot	Yes	No	No
Accuracy check that gives a number	Yes	No	No
Print and cut from registration marks	Yes	Yes	Yes
Any USB camera at any mounting	Yes	No	Listed cameras
Running the shop
Job library with scannable numbers	Yes	No	No
Cut log that learns per material	Yes	No	No
Tube hours against your own history	Yes	No	No
More than one machine at once	Yes	No	One at a time
Illustrated guide inside the app	Every tool	No	Documentation site

Prices, platforms and controller support checked on each vendor's own site, 2 September 2026. They change; if you are deciding on price, check before you buy.

Where RDWorks is still the right answer

It came with the machine and it writes settings into the controller. Laseras deliberately never writes controller settings: they are the recovery path when everything else has gone wrong, and a program that can overwrite them can lose them. If you need to change what is stored on the controller itself, that is RDWorks' job, and it should stay installed.

Where LightBurn is ahead

Breadth and years. It drives galvo and fibre machines and dozens of controller brands that Laseras does not touch, it runs on Linux, and it has been refined by a large community for long enough that the corners are worn smooth. If you own several kinds of laser, it is the one program that runs all of them.

Where Laseras is ahead

The work that happens either side of the cut. No other program here generates a joint, packs parts onto a remnant it traced off the bed, merges three orders onto one sheet without tripling the cutting passes, or remembers what a material actually did last time. That is where a shop loses hours and material, and it is what Laseras was built to take back.

Try it against your own work

The trial is 30 days with nothing switched off, so the way to settle this is to open a job you have already cut and see which program gets it onto the sheet faster. Download Laseras, or read the guides first.