DaVinci Resolve Free vs Studio: Is It Worth Paying? (Singapore Guide)

TLDR: What Will You Learn

• The free version of DaVinci Resolve is fully functional, not a crippled trial.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 was listed at S$375 in Singapore when I checked in August 2026 (a one-time purchase, not a subscription).
• Most creators, marketers, and freelancers genuinely do not need Studio to produce professional work.
• Our course at Equinet Academy teaches editing on the free version, so you can follow along without paying a cent.

Is DaVinci Resolve Really Free, or Just a Demo?

Let me answer the question that stops most people from ever downloading it: yes, DaVinci Resolve is genuinely free, not a locked demo, not a 30-day trial, and not a watermark trap.

Blackmagic Design offers a fully functional free version that you install and use without ever entering a credit card. There is no viewer mode, no export ceiling that stamps a logo across your footage, and no countdown before it stops working.

This is not accidental generosity either. Blackmagic Design founder and CEO Grant Petty has called the free build “extremely powerful” in an interview on the Building a Unicorn podcast, recalling how DaVinci went from a grading system costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to software anyone can download, and explaining that he avoids subscription pricing because it penalises loyal users.

What You Actually Get For Zero Dollars

The free version is not a stripped-back toy. It carries the same core structure as the paid DaVinci Resolve Studio release, spanning the entire pipeline from raw clips to a finished delivery.

That means you get real editing on the Cut and Edit pages, professional colour correction and grading, the Fusion page for visual effects and motion graphics, Fairlight for audio mixing, and the Deliver page for export. You can even run multi-user collaboration so a small team can work on the same project.

There are a few technical limits. At the time of writing, the free version handles most 8-bit formats, playback and output up to 60fps, and resolutions up to Ultra HD (3840×2160).

Please treat those figures as a snapshot. Blackmagic updates its specifications regularly, so before you commit to a workflow, verify the current limits against Blackmagic’s official Singapore documentation rather than taking my word or an old forum post.

I avoid promising “free forever” because Blackmagic has never framed it that way, and I would rather you plan around what is confirmed today than a marketing phrase.

A Realistic Singapore Scenario

Picture a lean SME marketing team here in Singapore producing weekly LinkedIn clips, a monthly corporate explainer, and the occasional event recap. Their footage is usually shot on a phone or a mirrorless camera at 1080p or 4K, 25 or 30fps.

Every one of those deliverables sits comfortably inside the free version’s limits. This team can edit, colour grade to match their brand palette, mix voiceover and background music in Fairlight, add a lower third title in Fusion, and export a clean UHD file, all without paying a cent for software.

The only real cost is time spent learning the tool, which is exactly why structured training pays off.

If you are picking up Resolve through a SkillsFuture-funded course, you can start with genuinely zero software cost, download the free version, and focus your budget on developing the skill rather than the licence. For most small business content teams, that is the honest, sensible starting point before you ever consider upgrading to Studio.

DaVinci Resolve Free vs Studio at a Glance

Before we go deep, let me give you the quick version so you can see where your money actually goes.

I get asked this constantly by freelancers in Singapore: Is the DaVinci Resolve Studio upgrade worth roughly S$375 (a one-time payment, not a subscription), or is the free version already enough for paying client work?

The honest answer is that the free version is genuinely powerful, and most beginners will not hit its walls for months. The table below is the fastest way to see what changes when you pay.

What You Already Get For Free

Notice how much is in both columns. The free version gives you the Cut and Edit pages, real node-based colour grading, Fairlight audio, and Fusion for visual effects.

Crucially, collaboration is not paywalled. If you and an editor friend want to work on the same project database, the free version supports multi-user collaboration, so do not upgrade just for that.

For a lot of corporate and social content in Singapore, meaning talking head videos, event recaps, and 1080p or UHD YouTube edits, the free version quietly does the whole job.

Where Studio Earns Its Keep

The paid tools cluster around performance and AI-assisted finishing. Magic Mask, advanced noise reduction, and the full Neural Engine features are the ones I reach for most on real jobs.

If you shoot log footage on a Sony or Blackmagic camera and grade in 10-bit, or you are delivering beyond UHD 60fps or at 120fps for slow motion, Studio removes limits the free version imposes.

A word of caution on the technical rows: several of these depend on your machine. Hardware H.264 and H.265 acceleration, and some 10-bit codec support, behave differently across Windows, macOS, and your specific GPU, so treat those as availability that varies rather than a flat yes or no.

For a freelancer weighing S$375 against a MacBook Pro or a mid-range PC build, the real question is not the feature list; it is whether your paid work leans on speed, AI masking, and high-end delivery. We will work through exactly that next.

How Much Does DaVinci Resolve Studio Cost in Singapore?

Let me answer the question you actually came here for: what does this software cost, and what will you pay in Singapore dollars?

Free Is Genuinely Free, Studio Is A One-Off Purchase

The free version of DaVinci Resolve costs S$0. There is no trial timer, no watermark on your exports, and no subscription nagging you every month.

DaVinci Resolve Studio is the paid tier, and unlike most professional editing tools, it is a single purchase rather than a recurring monthly fee.

When I last checked in August 2026, Blackmagic listed DaVinci Resolve Studio 21 at S$375 on their Singapore website.

Please treat that number as a snapshot, not gospel. Pricing can change between versions and over time, so confirm the current price on Blackmagic’s Singapore website before you buy.

I want to be careful with the word “lifetime” here. Many editors describe the Studio licence that way, but I will not claim it covers every future version unless the current licence terms say so, so read the fine print on the product page yourself.

Buy The Licence Directly, Not Through Resellers

I always point people to Blackmagic’s official Singapore product page as the primary source of truth on the DaVinci Resolve price. Reseller listings and grey-market activation keys float around, but the risk of a bad key or an unsupported licence is not worth saving a few dollars.

Here is a simple way to verify before you spend anything:

1. Go to the Blackmagic Design website and switch the store to Singapore.
2. Find the DaVinci Resolve Studio product page and note the listed S$ price.
3. Check whether the licence includes a physical activation card or a downloadable key.
4. Confirm the version number matches the one you intend to install.

One more thing worth knowing about the DaVinci Resolve Studio price: some Blackmagic hardware, such as certain capture devices or editor keyboards, has historically bundled a Studio licence in the box.

I would only rely on a bundle if the current product page clearly states a Studio licence is included, because bundle contents change from time to time.

Finally, a note for Singapore learners. SkillsFuture Credit and similar funding apply to accredited training courses, not to buying the software itself, so budget for the licence separately from any course you enrol in.

What You Can Actually Do With DaVinci Resolve Free

Let me clear up the biggest misconception first: DaVinci Resolve Free is not a stripped-down trial or a beginner sandbox. It is a genuinely professional tool that happens to cost nothing.

I have edited full client deliverables on the free version, and so have plenty of freelancers I know here in Singapore. The core workflow you use to learn post-production- editing on the timeline, cutting to audio, colour grading, mixing sound, adding titles- lives entirely inside the free build.

The Projects You Can Genuinely Deliver

Think about the actual work most people need video for. The free version covers nearly all of it.

• YouTube videos, from talking head content to long-form tutorials
• Corporate videos, interviews, and testimonials
• Social content for Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn
• Branded content and product features for clients
• Internal training and comms videos for companies

On the colour side, the free version gives you the full primary and secondary grading controls, curves, colour wheels, and nodes. You can push basic to intermediate grades that look clean and consistent, which is more than enough for most corporate and social work.

The Fairlight page handles your audio editing too, so you can clean up interview dialogue, balance levels, and add music without leaving the software. Titles, lower thirds, and simple motion graphics are all available in the Edit and Fusion pages.

For delivery, the free version exports 1080p and UHD 4K within its supported limits. For the vast majority of YouTube, corporate, and social briefs in Singapore, that resolution ceiling is not something you will bump into.

A Realistic Singapore Scenario

Picture a solo content creator producing monthly branded videos for an F&B client, maybe a cafe in Tiong Bahru wanting reels and a hero video each month.

Shooting on a mirrorless camera or even a phone, then editing, grading, mixing audio, and exporting in 4K- all of that happens comfortably on the free version. No Studio licence required, no watermarks, no missing core tools.

The same is true for a corporate comms team at a local company churning out internal training videos. They can standardise their entire pipeline on Free and never hit a wall for that kind of output.

And yes, you can absolutely invoice client work produced on the free version. No licensing restriction says free equals hobby only, so freelancers can bill for deliverables made entirely in Free.

If you are weighing up whether video skills are worth building at all, it helps to look at the top content creator jobs around Singapore and the skills employers want, because the ability to deliver polished video is increasingly what gets people hired.

What Does DaVinci Resolve Studio Actually Add?

When people ask me whether the paid version is worth it, they usually expect a giant feature list. What actually matters is which of those features solve a real editing headache you keep hitting.

So instead of dumping the full catalogue, let me group what DaVinci Resolve Studio adds by the job you are trying to do.

AI and Neural Engine Features

The biggest gap between Free and Studio sits in the Neural Engine, Blackmagic’s on-device AI. This is where Studio quietly saves you hours of manual work.

In the current release, you get tools like Magic Mask for isolating people or objects without hand rotoscoping, AI-powered region and object tracking, Voice Isolation for stripping background noise off dialogue, and the Music Remixer for restructuring music tracks to fit your edit length.

There is also the Dialogue Separator for splitting speech from ambience, and SuperScale for upscaling lower-resolution footage more cleanly than a basic resize.

Magic Mask alone can turn a tedious afternoon of masking into a few minutes of work. If you are curious how these fit into the wider landscape, it is worth reading up on the top AI video creation tools every beginner should know.

Noise Reduction and Image Refinement

Free Resolve has no built-in noise reduction on the colour page. Studio unlocks both temporal and spatial noise reduction, and this is often the single feature that justifies the upgrade for me.

Picture a common Singapore job: you shot an interview in a dim shophouse cafe, the client refused extra lighting, and the ISO was pushed high. The footage looks grainy the moment you grade it.

With Studio, temporal noise reduction compares frames over time to clean movement, while the AI-assisted spatial reduction smooths grain within each frame while trying to preserve edges. You can rescue that clip instead of reshooting.

Higher Resolution, Frame Rates and Professional Codecs

Free Resolve caps you at UHD, 3840 by 2160, at up to 60fps, for a lot of everyday work that is genuinely enough.

Studio removes those ceilings. You can go beyond UHD and work at higher frame rates, up to 120fps at higher resolutions, with expanded 10-bit support and hardware-accelerated H.264 and H.265 encoding and decoding.

This matters most for high frame rate work. If you are a Singapore event videographer capturing slow motion of a corporate gala, a wedding at a hotel ballroom, or a product launch reveal, shooting at 120fps and rendering H.265 efficiently is exactly where Free will start blocking you.

Additional Effects and Advanced Finishing

Finally, Studio adds a set of extra Resolve FX filters, more advanced HDR grading tools, and stereoscopic 3D support.

For most beginners, the HDR and 3D tools are niche, so do not let them sway your decision. The extra Resolve FX, though, quietly expand your creative options when a project needs more polish.

My honest take: verify each feature against Blackmagic’s current documentation before you commit, because the exact tools shift between releases, and only pay for the group that maps to work you actually do.

Who Is DaVinci Resolve Free Best For, and Who Really Needs Studio?

Here is the truth I share with every editor who asks me whether they should pay: most people reading this do not need the paid version yet.

The free version is genuinely capable, so let us break down exactly who thrives on it and who has a real reason to upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Who Free Is Best For

If you are just starting, Free is where you should begin, full stop.

The free version teaches you the same node-based colour grading, the same Fairlight audio panel, and the same editing timeline that a paid user works in every day, so the fundamentals you learn transfer completely.

Free is the right home for these people:

• Students and complete beginners learning desktop editing workflows from scratch, especially anyone using SkillsFuture credits to reskill.
• Social media and marketing editors cutting reels, ads, and campaign videos for clients or their own brand.
• Corporate comms teams producing internal training clips, town hall recordings, and product explainers.
• YouTubers and content creators publishing regular videos in standard resolutions.
• Freelancers who stay comfortably within Free’s limits and want to keep overheads low while building a portfolio.

The key message is simple: you can complete polished, professional-looking projects entirely in Free. I have watched marketing executives at Singapore SMEs deliver client work that looked every bit as sharp as a Studio user’s, purely on the free version.

Who Actually Needs Studio

Studio earns its place when your work demands specific capabilities that Free simply does not unlock.

You have a real case for upgrading if you regularly need any of the following:

• Studio-only AI tools such as the more advanced Magic Mask, voice isolation, and other Neural Engine features.
• Heavy noise reduction for low-light footage, which is a Studio exclusive many colourists rely on.
• Higher resolution or frame rates, meaning work beyond 4K or high frame rate slow motion.
• Certain 10-bit and advanced HDR workflows, plus specific broadcast and post-production integrations.
• Multi-GPU performance on a powerful workstation handling large, demanding timelines.

Notice what I am not saying: I am not telling every professional to buy Studio. Plenty of paid working editors never touch a Studio-only feature.

Here is a decision guide I use with editors in my classes:

Picture a mid-sized agency editor in Singapore weighing the roughly S$375 one-time outlay for Studio. The right question is not whether Studio is better in theory, but whether their actual client deliverables (mostly 4K brand films and social cutdowns) ever hit a Free limitation.

If they do not, that S$375 is better spent elsewhere. If they are constantly denoising night shoots or masking subjects across dozens of clips, Studio pays for itself fast.

Is DaVinci Resolve Studio Worth Paying For?

Here is the honest answer I give everyone who asks me: it depends entirely on whether a paid feature is solving a real problem you are actually hitting, not whether the word “professional” makes you feel more legitimate.

The mistake I see most often, especially among newer editors in Singapore, is treating the S$375 for DaVinci Resolve Studio as an entry fee to being taken seriously. It is not.

Buy It to Remove a Bottleneck, Not to Feel Professional

Studio earns its price when a specific limitation is costing you time or blocking a deliverable.

I would upgrade the moment I found myself repeatedly hitting one of these walls:

• You keep butting against Free’s frame rate ceiling when a client wants slow motion at 60fps or higher.
• You are spending hours manually rotoscoping a subject that Magic Mask could isolate in minutes.
• A brand shoot needs proper noise reduction on footage shot in a dim function room.
• You are collaborating with another editor and need the multi-user database features.

If none of those describe your current work, Studio will sit unused while your money stays locked up. Spend it on a lens, a mic, or a course instead.

Paying Does Not Replace Learning the Craft

Here is the part nobody selling you plugins wants to say out loud: Studio will not make you a better editor.

If you are still finding your footing with cutting rhythm, colour grading, audio levels, and clean delivery settings, every one of those skills is fully learnable in Free. The paid version adds capability, not competence.

I have watched people buy Studio, open the same three tools they always use, and wonder why their edits still feel flat. The gap was never the software.

The Singapore Freelancer Scenario

Picture a freelance videographer in Singapore who mostly does social content and short corporate pieces. Free handles all of it comfortably.

Then a paying client books a product launch and asks for 120fps slow motion and heavy background masking. That is Studio-only territory.

At that point the maths is simple: one paid project justifies the licence, and the S$375 pays for itself before you have finished the edit. You bought Studio because a real invoice demanded it, not because you assumed paid equals professional.

That is the whole principle I want you to hold onto: start on Free, upgrade only when the evidence in front of you says a Studio feature is genuinely blocking your work. Let your projects tell you when it is time, not the marketing.

Is DaVinci Resolve Good for Beginners?

Let me be honest with you: DaVinci Resolve is more complex than the mobile-first tools you may be used to, and pretending otherwise would do you a disservice.

Where an app like CapCut is built around one timeline and a scroll of effects, Resolve packs media management, editing, colour grading, Fusion motion graphics, Fairlight audio, and delivery into a single application.

Those are all separate “pages” you switch between at the bottom of the screen, and each one is a deep discipline on its own.

Why The Pages Feel Overwhelming At First

The challenge for beginners is rarely that any single tool is impossible to learn. It is that Resolve gives you so many tools at once that you cannot tell which ones actually matter for your video.

I have watched this happen. A content marketer at a Singapore SME who had been happily editing reels on her phone opened Resolve for the first time and immediately felt lost.

She was used to trimming clips with a thumb. Suddenly she was staring at a Colour page full of wheels and nodes, a Fusion page that looked like a flowchart, and a Fairlight mixer that resembled a recording studio.

Nothing was broken. She simply did not know where to start or what order to work in.

The Real Skill Is Workflow, Not Memorising Buttons

The thing that turned it around for her was not learning every feature. It was learning a workflow: import and organise footage on the Media page, cut and arrange on the Edit page, do a light colour pass, balance the audio, then export from the Deliver page.

Once she had that order, most of the other tools simply revealed themselves when she needed them, and she could ignore the rest.

So is DaVinci Resolve good for beginners? Yes, but only if you approach it with a structured, workflow-first mindset rather than clicking around every page hoping something works.

For most marketing videos, product clips, testimonials, and social posts, you only need a fraction of what Resolve offers. Knowing which fraction is the whole game.

If you are coming from a phone app, it also helps to understand where you are starting from. You can see how a simpler tool works in this look at how to use CapCut in this beginner video editing guide before you graduate to a full desktop editor.

This is exactly where guided, hands-on learning saves you weeks of frustration. Being shown the right steps in the right order means you spend your time creating rather than guessing.

What You Can Learn Using DaVinci Resolve Free

Here is the part that surprises most people I speak to: you do not need DaVinci Resolve Studio to become a genuinely capable video editor. The free version is more than enough to learn the entire post-production craft, which is exactly why our hands-on DaVinci Resolve course at Equinet Academy is built entirely around it.

Before Day 1: What to Install and Bring

If you plan to join, please install the free version of DaVinci Resolve before the first day so we can dive straight into editing rather than fixing setup issues.

You will also want a laptop with at least 16GB of RAM. DaVinci Resolve is a serious tool that leans on your machine during playback and rendering, so anything less can leave you staring at stutters instead of learning the workflow.

The Practical Skills You Walk Away With

The course is structured around the real post-production pipeline, not scattered tips. You start by organising raw footage sensibly, then learn to interpret a script and scene so every clip has a purpose.

From there, you build editing fluency on the Cut Page, which is designed for fast assembly, before refining your story on the Edit Page where you fine-tune timing and pacing until the cut feels natural rather than choppy.

Audio gets proper attention too, because muddy sound ruins good visuals. You work with dialogue, music, and background audio, balance levels so nothing overpowers the voice, and clean up unwanted noise so a clip recorded in a busy Singapore hawker centre or a home office still sounds professional.

Then comes the polish. You will cover:

• Visual refinement to tidy up and strengthen each shot
• Titles and motion graphics to add context and branding
• Colour correction and grading to set the right mood and consistency
• Reading scopes so your colour decisions are technically sound, not just guesswork
• Export and delivery with quality control checks so the final file is right for its platform

To be clear, this training focuses on the core editing craft that lives inside the free version. It does not teach the Studio-only AI tools, and it does not need to, because the fundamentals here are what actually make you employable or self-sufficient.

Affordable Training on Free Software

The best part for Singapore learners is the cost of upskilling itself. The course carries a full fee of S$999, and it is SkillsFuture-funded, so SSG subsidies bring the net fee down considerably.

You can further offset the balance using your SkillsFuture Credit, PSEA funds, or UTAP if you are an NTUC member. That means you can learn a professional editing workflow on completely free software while paying very little out of pocket.

Free vs Paid Learning Paths for Aspiring Editors

Here is the truth I keep coming back to after years of editing: the skills, not the licence, are what unlock better work. Before you spend a cent on DaVinci Resolve Studio, figure out which of these three paths you are actually on.

New to DaVinci Resolve

If you have never opened Resolve, start on the free version. Full stop. It already gives you everything you need to learn editing fundamentals, mix audio, grade colour, and deliver a finished file.

I always tell first-timers to build one complete project end to end: import footage, cut a rough edit, clean up the sound, do a basic colour pass, then export. That single loop teaches you more than any feature comparison chart.

Once the basics feel natural, a structured course like our Video Editing with DaVinci Resolve programme is the logical next step, so you stop guessing and start editing with intent. That is where knowing how to build a content marketing strategy for your videos starts to pay off, because good edits deserve a plan for who sees them.

Moving From Mobile To Desktop Editing

Plenty of Singapore creators start on CapCut, and honestly, that is a fine place to begin. If you already cut clips on your phone for TikTok or Instagram, you know pacing, captions, and hooks better than you think.

The friction comes when you outgrow the mobile timeline: you want proper multi-track audio, cleaner colour, and export control. Moving to Resolve Free is the natural bridge, keeping your instincts while giving you room to grow.

Our Certified Video Editor programme is built for exactly this jump, combining CapCut and DaVinci Resolve so you carry your short-form speed into a professional desktop workflow.

Experienced Editor Hitting Free-Version Limits

If you are already working in Resolve daily, you know the free version is generous but not infinite. The upgrade case only makes sense when a specific feature blocks a real job.

Common triggers I see include:

• Needing to export beyond 4K, which the free tier caps
• Wanting the AI-powered tools such as Magic Mask or advanced noise reduction
• Requiring proper HDR grading or certain codec support for a client deliverable

Buy Studio only when one of those resolves a genuine workflow need, not because it exists.

Here is where I nudge my Singapore learners: if you are self-employed or upskilling, your SkillsFuture Credit is far better spent on structured training than on software you might not fully use yet. Fund the skill first, and the licence decision becomes obvious once you actually hit the wall.

DaVinci Resolve vs CapCut: Which Learning Path Fits You?

Before you commit to learning DaVinci Resolve Studio (or its free version), it helps to ask a simpler question: does your work actually live on a desktop or on your phone?

Two Tools, Two Very Different Workflows

DaVinci Resolve is desktop-first and built for structured, professional post-production. You get separate pages for editing, colour grading, audio, and delivery, which is brilliant for longer projects but heavier to learn.

CapCut is the opposite. It is fast, mobile-first, and made for short-form social content, so you can shoot, cut, caption, and post from your phone in one sitting.

Neither is objectively better. They serve different outputs.

A Singapore Self-Selection Test

Picture a home-based bakery owner in Toa Payoh filming Reels and TikToks on her phone between orders. She needs speed, trending templates, and auto-captions, not a colour grading suite. CapCut fits her life.

Now picture an in-house editor at an SME in one of the business parks, producing polished corporate explainers and event highlight reels on a laptop for the company website and LinkedIn. That person needs Resolve’s timeline control, audio tools, and clean delivery.

The honest advice I give people is this: choose the tool that matches your real weekly output, not the most powerful one on paper. A phone creator who forces themselves into Resolve often stalls, and a corporate editor who leans only on CapCut hits a ceiling fast.

Picking Your Learning Path

If you are phone-first and mostly making short-form social content, start with a Mobile Video Editing with CapCut course. You will be producing usable content within days rather than wrestling with a desktop interface you may rarely open.

If you want both mobile and desktop capability, whether you are a freelancer, a marketer, or building a content team, look at a Certified Video Editor programme that covers the fuller craft across formats.

When you are deciding, weigh up:

• How and where your videos get published (feed, website, YouTube, client delivery)
• How often you edit, and on what device
• Whether clients or your employer expect broadcast-level colour and audio

If you land firmly on desktop post-production and you are committed to Resolve, the next step is hands-on, project-based Resolve training rather than scattered tutorials. Structured practice is what turns Resolve’s depth from intimidating into a genuine advantage for your work.

Conclusion

If you take one thing away from this guide, let it be this: start with DaVinci Resolve Free.

The free version is not a crippled demo. It is a genuinely complete editor that handles cutting, colour grading, audio mixing, and delivery well enough to produce professional-looking work for real paying clients.

I have watched freelancers here in Singapore edit corporate explainers, social ads, and event highlight reels entirely on the free build, and no client ever asked which licence they used.

So treat DaVinci Resolve Studio as an upgrade you earn into, not a gate you pay to pass. You move up only when a specific feature solves a genuine production bottleneck: faster hardware-accelerated exports on long timelines, higher frame rate delivery, certain noise reduction and tracking tools, or collaborative editing across a team.

When I checked in August 2026, Studio was listed at S$375 in Singapore as a one-time purchase. Prices and bundles change, so always confirm the current figure directly with Blackmagic Design before you buy, especially if a camera bundle might include a licence for free.

Here is the truth after years of teaching editing: the licence does not make the editor. The skills do.

A structured post-production workflow, knowing how to organise footage, cut for pacing, grade for mood, and mix clean audio, is what turns raw clips into polished, client-ready video. That thinking transfers to any tool.

If you want to build those fundamentals properly rather than fumbling through tutorials, the hands-on Video Editing with DaVinci Resolve Course is the logical next step. It is taught entirely on the free version, so you do not need Studio to attend, and it is SkillsFuture-funded, which makes upskilling far kinder on your budget.

Learn the craft first. Buy the licence later, if you ever truly need it.