Soundraw vs Uppbeat Comparison 2026
Soundraw generates instrumental music from scratch, so there is no rights holder to file a claim, adjustable to fit a cut, from $16.99 a month with no free downloads. Uppbeat licenses music made by humans and safelists your channel against its catalogue so a claim does not arrive after publishing, free for three downloads a month or from $6.99 a month at entry. Uppbeat is well under half the price at entry, and the two clear a claim by different mechanisms: nothing to license against, or a channel cleared in advance.
Generated music you keep the rights to
Music for video with a free tier that clears claims
At a glance
- Uppbeat starts cheaper, at $6.99.
- Only Uppbeat has a free tier.
Side by side
Soundraw | Uppbeat | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $16.99 | From $6.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Not stated |
Soundraw
Generated music you keep the rights to
Soundraw writes the track rather than licensing one, so you pick a mood, a genre and a length and then adjust the arrangement until it fits the edit. Downloads come as WAV or as separated stems. Because nothing is licensed from a rights holder, there is no claim to dispute and no attribution to remember.
Our note
Take this over a stock library when the brief is background music and the risk you want gone is the copyright claim. The output is competent rather than memorable, which is the right trade for most edits and the wrong one for a title sequence.
Uppbeat
Music for video with a free tier that clears claims
Uppbeat licenses music for YouTube and social video, and its free plan is three downloads a month rather than a trial that runs out. Channels are safelisted so a claim does not arrive a week after publishing. The catalogue is smaller than Epidemic Sound's, which is the trade being made for a bill under ten dollars.
Our note
The cheap alternative to Epidemic Sound, and the catalogue is where you pay for it. If a track has to be one nobody else is using, this is the wrong library; if it has to fit and clear, it is most of the value at a third of the price.
Why people weigh these two
- Uppbeat instead of Soundraw
- Uppbeat has a free tier that clears claims, paid from $7.
- Soundraw instead of Uppbeat
- Soundraw generates the track and hands the rights over outright, from $16.99, nothing to credit once it is downloaded.
Which one should you pick
Pick Soundraw when the track needs to fit a specific cut exactly, adjusted for energy and length, and you want zero licensing question at all since nothing is licensed from a rights holder. There is no free download; a subscription from $16.99 a month is required to take anything out of the tool.
Pick Uppbeat for a real catalogue of human-made tracks at a lower price: free for three downloads a month, then $6.99 a month for its entry tier, well under half of Soundraw's price. Channel safelisting is what stops a claim arriving after publishing, and Pro at $14.99 a month adds the extended licence a freelance editor needs for client work.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper?
- Uppbeat by a wide margin: its entry tier is $6.99 a month against Soundraw's $16.99, well under half.
- Can I download anything for free on Soundraw?
- No. Generating and previewing is free, but downloading needs a paid subscription. Uppbeat's free plan gives three real downloads a month, renewing, from a quarter of its catalogue.
- How does each one actually prevent a copyright claim?
- Soundraw generates a fresh track with no rights holder involved at all. Uppbeat instead safelists your channel against its catalogue, so a track you downloaded is cleared for that channel specifically.
- Which has the bigger catalogue?
- Uppbeat's is explicitly smaller than Epidemic Sound's, which is the trade for its lower price. Soundraw is not a catalogue at all; every track is generated fresh rather than picked from a library.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.