Best Free Piano VSTs: Soft and Big Piano Sounds That Don’t Cost a Penny

When assembling your home music setup, keeping everything within budget can be tricky, even a source of stress for some of us. Particularly when some of the best piano VSTs can cost hundreds and burn a grand piano-sized hole in your wallet. But what if I told you that there are some excellent piano VSTs out there that don’t cost a single cent, penny, or coin?

A lot of the time, free piano VSTs sound absolutely dreadful. Perhaps you’ve tried the free one that came with your DAW and quickly realised it’s not going to cut it. And as there are quite a few free options out there, it can be painful finding one that isn’t awful. That’s why Headliner is here — we’ve sifted through the options to find the few free piano plugins that are worthy of your music.

While the best free piano plugins aren’t quite a match for the most premium piano plugins from a Vienna Symphonic Library or Spitfire Audio, there are still some brilliant options below if you’re on a budget or not ready to invest yet. Our first entry was used on a Beyoncé song! Worst case scenario, a few just need a deft bit of reverb and EQing to make sure they sound good in a mix or a more convincing when played solo. So, once your strings have been tuned, let’s dive into Headliner’s best free VST piano plugins.

Spitfire Audio LABS - Soft Piano

• Pros: Inspiring for ambient, cinematic, and lo-fi music

• Con: Not ideal if you need a big, bright piano sound

Yes, as teased, despite being a free piano VST, the Spitfire LABS Soft Piano made it into the big budget The Lion King reboot as it is heard on Beyoncé’s Otherside which she wrote for the movie. If it’s good enough for Queen Bey, it must be good enough for the rest of us, right? A caveat to add: Spitfire’s LABS used to be fully free, but you now need to commit to a free trial to use this piano plugin. But, for the rough cost of a Netflix monthly/annual subscription, you’ll have access to loads of other high-quality sample packs also.

Caveat aside, what you’re getting is a piano plugin that is as good as many affordable and even some of the medium-tier-priced piano VSTs out there. The title refers to the felt piano technique that creates the softer, more ambient sound, now ubiquitous thanks to the likes of Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds. It was recorded at Air Edel Studios, London, where the Spitfire team placed a thin strip of felt on the piano strings to soften the blow of the piano hammers. Those not in the know will likely think you recorded a real piano on your track — a pricelessly rare thing you can say about a free piano VST.

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Spitfire Audio - Pianobook

• Pros: Countless unique piano samples from community users

• Con: No universal requirements: some of the samples require Kontakt, others require different players

Before we move on from Spitfire, a very unique prospect you should definitely check out is Spitfire’s community project, Pianobook. Created by Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson, Pianobook is a platform in which piano players around the world can submit their own recordings of their unique and quirky acoustic pianos to be turned into a piano sample pack. In other words, Pianobook is now a fairly endless and hugely varied source of piano VSTs, and thanks to the Spitfire treatment, many of them sound far too good to be free. Of course, you’ll have to do a bit of digging to find the right sound that you’re after, but that lovely community aspect will give you a warm, glowy feeling. It’s been such a success that the project has broadened out to other musical instruments also. No free trail required, it’s completely free.

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Orchestral Tools - Spindle Piano

• Pros: Beautifully sampled intimate sound

• Con: Felted piano sound, not ideal for a big piano sound

More good news and cheer: Spitfire Audio aren’t the only big name in the world of instrument sampling offering a free piano VST, because our next best free piano plugin comes from heavyweights Orchestral Tools. SINEfactory is the company’s series of free instruments, and unlike Spitfire’s LABS, there’s no catch. It’s all completely free.

The previous Soft Piano seems to take all the plaudits in the free piano VST world, but Spindle equally deserves a loud shout of ‘how can this possibly be free?’ In fact, we daresay Spindle is more versatile — while keeping that soft, felted piano sound, it’s a little brighter, meaning it will shine through a little more brightly in mixes and doesn’t require a load of EQing if you need it a little louder.

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Orchestral Tools - Ratio

• Pros: High-quality sampled, versatile Steinway grand piano

• Con: Requires the Orchestral Tools SINEplayer

When free piano VSTs sound bad, it’s often the ones admirably attempting to replicate the big, majestic sound of a grand piano without the adequate budget and tools to do so. It’s not always a recipe for great results. But we’re saying hello again to Orchestral Tools, who certainly have the means and know-how to pull this off. Ratio is a free piano VST that brings grand piano sounds to your DAW without sounding like a lifeless laptop piano plugin. Recorded on the legendary Steinway B grand (the piano of choice for artists such as Earth Wind And Fire, Stevie Nicks, and Prince) and recorded at Sunset Sound in LA, Ratio is also part of SINEfactory and well within its rights to be a paid-for piano plugin. But it’s free — hooray!

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WINNER: Ratio captures the sound of a Steinway B grand piano recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound studio and offers it free in the SINE player. Its detailed sampling and intuitive interface make it an exceptional free piano instrument. - Headliner Awards

Dark Mode - SRM Sounds

• Pros: Stunning piano from a big classical music name
• Cons: Not the obvious choice for genres like pop, house, EDM etc

How about a brilliant, free-to-download piano VST from one of the biggest names in contemporary piano and classical? Celebrated British composer Max Richter brings us Dark Mode. And as the name suggests, it's oozing warmth and dark tones rather than an OTT bright piano sound. Recorded on Richter's own Steinway Concert Grand Piano, he then processed the samples a curated chain of filters and EQs. A piano sound worthy of the artist who kindly created it for us, for free!

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Ivy Audio - Piano in 162

• Pros: Realistic Steinway grand sample; natural, detailed sound.

• Con: May require the full version of Kontakt Player.

And that’s where we leave the big names of the orchestral sampling world behind us. But does that mean this best free VST piano plugins list is done? Absolutely not — our first uncovered gem is Ivy Audio’s Piano in 162. For a free piano VST, 162 sounds really lovely, and is also very versatile, whether you’re looking for film scoring or gentle piano sounds. It can be used in any SFZ sample player, such as the free Plogue Sforzando. Or it can be used in Kontakt 4 or above, but note that it isn’t compatible with the free version of Kontakt.

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99Sounds - Upright Piano

• Pros: Solid, usable upright sound

• Con: Lacks deep sampling detail

Hopefully you’ve already gone into this knowing two things: a) free piano VSTs aren’t feature-heavy and b) they need a bit of tinkering and sound-editing to raise their levels a fair bit. So here’s the great news about Upright Piano from 99Sounds — it has just enough features (without overdoing it) that allow you to get a great piano sound that works for your track. Straight out the box, the piano sound likely won’t make your jaw drop. But, it’s presented a little bit like a synthesiser; spend a few minutes playing around with the envelope, attack, tremolo effect, reverb, and damper, and you can get some fantastic sounds out of this free piano plugin. Want a bright piano sound, or a lo-fi style piano, or a felt piano style sound without necessarily using any extra effects plugins? No problem — just have some fun tinkering.

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Klavir by MNTRA

• Pros: Experimental, unique textures

• Con: Less traditional piano sound

A free piano plugin for the sound experimenters out there! This piano VST packs in so much value, there’s a chance you’ll end up wanting to send the creators money via PayPal. It sounds fantastic if you just want the Czech-made Petrof upright piano it was sampled on, or you can spend joyful hours sculpting new and unique piano sounds that can work in practically any modern or classic genre. There are 15 presets, and a tonne of editing power to get you experimenting with all kinds of crazy, glitchy piano sounds. Not only is this a free piano, it’s essentially a free synthesiser VST as well.

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4Front Piano

• Pros: Extremely low CPU usage; simple, usable sound

• Con: No adjustable parameters

We were not kidding when we said some of these free piano VSTs are low on features — with 4Front Piano, what you see and hear is exactly what you get. The plugin interface quite literally says ‘this plugin has no settings.’ You get what you pay for, hey? The lovely thing about that, though, is you’ll struggle to find a piano plugin with less CPU demands. It’s a hybrid of sample and synthesis technology, and it sounds rather good! Depending on what you’re after, you may wish to throw some reverb, EQ, and any other effects you like on it. But honestly, straight out the box, it’s a nice sounding piano VST despite having one of the most free looking plugin interfaces you’ll ever see.

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Samplescience - Room Piano

• Pros: Great for a charming piano sound

• Con: Don’t expect a Steinway-esque expensive grand piano sound!

Fancy a free piano VST that sounds like a charming old upright piano at your grandma’s house that’s probably overdue a visit from your local piano tuner? Then say hi to Room Piano from Samplescience. This one is a great way to add a touch of lo-fi piano to your music. And at just 60MB, your hard drive will barely notice it. There’s a few nice features like multi-LFO, a highpass and lowpass filter, room reverb, and more. Either download the plugin version, or the Kontakt version (if you have the paid version of Kontakt).

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Monster Piano by MonsterDAW

• Pros: Powerful, cinematic sounds, great for drama.

• Con: Not as subtle as the soft piano VSTs

And last but not least, let’s unleash a monster. As the name suggests, Monster Piano isn’t like the felted, soft piano free VSTs on this list, but it’s nonetheless a versatile and great-sounding piano plugin that you can use across a range of genres. This third version of the piano VST has plenty of presets, and lots of fun editing potential — if you do need a more subtle piano sound, just do a bit of tweaking. Among the many presets, you can get an opulent grand piano sound, ranging to a wild west style honky tonk piano.

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Can I get away with just using free piano VSTs?

If you were hoping for a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I’m afraid there’s a lot more nuance to this question than that. Some will read this and think ‘Well if Beyoncé can just use a free piano VST, so can I!’ However, that example was a pop track; if you needed to write a solo piano passage for a classical track or for film scoring, a paid-for piano VST might be the wisest route.

The answer is largely down to you — listen to the free piano plugins above and try comparing them to their pricier counterparts, and see what you think. A great option is to start out with a free piano VST and eventually upgrade to a paid piano later, especially if you don’t have the budget right now. The most important thing is to bring those sweet piano melodies to your music. Happy tinkling!

Further Reading:

Best Piano VSTs - Virtual Piano Plugins Capable of Taking Centre Stage

The Best Stage Pianos: Professional Piano Performance Keyboards

The Nine Best Digital Pianos: Affordable and Premium Priced Pianos For Your Home