Vextrify vs LightBurn

Pick LightBurn if you run one machine and want the largest device list and community behind you — it is mature, reliable and widely supported. Pick Vextrify if you want to manage several machines, each in its own tab, place designs on the material with a calibrated camera, work natively on a Mac, and prepare photos and logos in the same app. Many shops use both: prep and multi-laser jobs in Vextrify, and LightBurn for a specific machine when they prefer it.

• LightBurn — one mature, widely supported machine controller
• Vextrify — multi-laser, camera-aligned, all-in-one prep
• They are not mutually exclusive

Credit where it is due: LightBurn supports an enormous range of diode, CO2 and Ruida machines, has years of maturity, and a huge community with settings libraries for almost any laser. If your priority is the broadest possible device compatibility for a single machine, or you already rely on LightBurn's exact workflow and macros, it remains an excellent, dependable controller. We do not claim to match its raw device breadth today.

• Widest device and controller support
• Mature, battle-tested single-machine workflow
• Large community and shared settings libraries

Vextrify is a connected suite rather than a single controller. It manages several lasers from one license, each in its own tab; a calibrated camera places each design exactly on the material; a built-in material test grid helps you find your own speed and power; and background removal, contour-to-SVG, vectorizing, photo and relief prep all feed straight into the job. Workpiece detection finds every piece on the bed and places the design on each one. It runs in the browser and natively on macOS, Windows and Linux; it opens LightBurn projects (.lbrn2), material libraries (.clb) and device files (.lbdev), showing a note for anything that cannot be carried over — and still exports clean files for LightBurn when you want them.

• Run several machines, each in its own tab from one license
• Camera placement and workpiece detection on the real material
• Built-in background, contour, SVG, photo and relief prep
• Browser plus native macOS, Windows and Linux apps
• Opens LightBurn projects, libraries and device files

At a glance: device breadth goes to LightBurn; multiple machines, each in its own tab, camera-on-material alignment, integrated image/vector prep, a browser option and native Mac support go to Vextrify. Photo engraving preparation is a first-class workflow in Vextrify rather than an add-on. Both produce clean output, and Vextrify can hand files to LightBurn, EZCAD or Ruida when that suits the job.

• Device breadth → LightBurn
• Multiple lasers → Vextrify
• Camera placement on the material → Vextrify
• Built-in photo / vector prep → Vextrify

If device breadth for a single machine is everything, stay with LightBurn. If you want to scale to several lasers, align on the material with a camera, work on a Mac, and keep image prep and machine work in one place, Vextrify is the better long-term home — and it is free to try in the browser before you commit.

• Single machine, max device support → LightBurn
• Multi-laser, Mac, all-in-one prep → Vextrify