Sonarworks Reviews 10

Very buggy software, very useless support.

I have been in communication with their support, and after weeks of waiting, I've received world-salad, mildly dismissive responses. I provided videos of persistent problems, from two different computers. There has been no suggested fix, and they have, for many weeks, avoided anything resembling a concrete answer. After waiting two weeks, complaining again, they 'finalized' the conversation with: 'Your request for "escalation" has been met. At the moment, there is no further information on this topic. Your support request remains open with us, as once we have any news, we will get back to you.' So- I have deeply buggy software, and a 'well, we'll get around to it someday' vibe, at best from them. If even once they would say 'oh, that's terrible, sorry our product is causing issues, we'll work hard to fix it', I would take them at their word. But too many relatively meaningless, placative messages, have had the effect of adding to the frustration. Terrible experience.

SoundID Reference is a cool idea, but the product decisions make it unusable for me long-term. No Linux support is a hard stop, and being charged for updates on top of that is frustrating. The Windows virtual audio device setup also felt messy and intrusive. I bought a license, but I’m done with it because my systems are Linux now and I’m not going back.

I purchased Sonarworks in July 2019. In March 2021 the software stopped working entirely, despite no changes to my computer.

I contacted support and received no troubleshooting, no suggestions, and no resolution. The only response I received was in April 2022—over a year later—asking me to rate the support I had received, despite the issue never being addressed.

In November 2025 I purchased a new Apple Silicon (M1) Mac. Sonarworks calibration failed, and all calibration libraries were missing. I contacted support again on December 8, 2025. The only response (December 15) stated they were “very busy.” As of December 23, there has been no follow-up, no fix, and no guidance.

This has been a consistent pattern over multiple years: once the software stops working, customers are effectively on their own. For a paid professional audio product, this level of support is not acceptable.

I hope Sonarworks improves their support responsiveness, because the product concept is strong—but reliability and customer service matter just as much.

Very ambitious company, but the results are weak... First, the plug-in, doesn't work properly with silicon mac-it mess up with the Rosetta stone and it's useless in this case. Second-there is not automatic option to bypass it when export-that cause to mistakes. Third-the results are middle compare to other similar app

Screwed over by a company that clearly doesn’t care about good customer relations/loyalty… only securing profit. Stops updates for a relatively new product and renders my purchase unusable. Well have fun, you won’t be getting any further money from me and I’ll be dragging your name through the mud everywhere I can.

I purchased Sonarworks Reference 4 in June 2020 for €300, expecting a solid, long-term solution for room calibration. Imagine my surprise when, just one year later in 2021, support for Reference 4 was discontinued. Now, with macOS Sequoia requiring me to update to keep my iPhone synced, I find that Reference 4 simply won’t run. Sonarworks is effectively holding my paid license hostage unless I either rollback my entire operating system or pay another €53.99 (on 40% discount, regular price is €89.99) for Reference 5.

It’s incredibly frustrating to have invested hundreds of euros in a product that became obsolete well before its time. No warning was given about an impending loss of support; suddenly, my paid software is unusable because of an Apple OS update. I’ve spent hours trying to downgrade to macOS Monterey or find workarounds, only to discover that the only “solution” is to shell out more money.

This business model is unfair to loyal customers. I expect the software I buy to work throughout its supported lifespan, and I do not appreciate being forced into a costly upgrade cycle. Sonarworks, you need to offer a more reasonable path for users whose purchases still seem valid. Otherwise, I will take my business (and recommendations) elsewhere.

Absolute garbage software. Sonarworks Reference 4 used to work perfectly for me, but then they decided that they wouldn't offer M1 support to their paying customer (a bogus decision).

I was forced to pay the upgrade price to get SoundID, even though it had absolutely zero features that were attractive to me. SoundID has pretty much never worked without issues. It freezes and hangs on my Mac without the ability to force quit, it kills my output engine and causes weird whistling noises, and sometimes it doesn't even apply the correction curve even though it SAYS it is (which can be detrimental in my line of work!!!).

I tried to get some help with support but they've been totally useless. I've installed Beta versions per their instructions to no avail, and then they wanted to set up a remote teamviewer session which was almost impossible to coordinate because of the time difference.

I log on today for our session at the AGREED UPON TIME, and the agent has sent me an email claiming that I missed it and clearly he can't do the time difference in his head.... Back to square one

I recently had an experience with Sonarworks. I was encountering issues with Systemwide and decided to contact their customer service. Not only were they extremely prompt and helpful in their responses, but they also went above and beyond the call of duty to assist me with my situation. As it turns out, the problem wasn't caused by Sonarworks; it was actually due to the company that built my new computer. Despite their inability to resolve the issue, it was the Sonarworks customer service representative who suggested the potential problem. It turned out he was correct. I am immensely grateful for their assistance, time, and patience. This has been the best customer service experience I have ever had.
Artjoms K, you are a legend !!

The silliest company ever.
Their soundIDreference app was working properly in trial mode so I decided to buy it. Their clunky licensing procedure instantly made the app crashes on all my computers. I can't reopen it anymore on any computer, I just click on the icon and nothing happens. Tried everything, reinstalling, restarting the mac, etc. Nothing worked. Their customer support replied 7 days after my original support request. I mean, 7 days for an email reply in 2021 (after having paid 249€) is disrespectful and utterly offensive. Other than that, after following their suggested procedure the app gave me the exact same problem and it still doesn't work at all. I can't open it, totally unusable. That's the silliest experience I've ever had. Their licensing feature literally makes an app that was working perfectly totally unusable and they made me waste my time.