The situations
The hobbyist on a domestic Brother or Janome
A few designs a month, gifts, names. Free software is enough: TrueSizer to resize what you buy, Discovery or Ink/Stitch to create. If you want to digitize by hand and learn, Embrilliance Level 1 ($169) is a good one-off investment, on Mac too. Hatch Organizer or Personalizer ($199 to $299) if you are already in the Wilcom ecosystem.
The home embroiderer who sells
A domestic multi-needle machine (Brother PR, Janome MB, Ricoma EM), orders from clubs, schools, Etsy. She has her logos digitized at €20 apiece or spends hours in Ink/Stitch. Here the maths is simple: Hatch Composer ($699) or Broderly Atelier (€19.99 per month) pay for themselves with the first logo. Hatch has better auto-digitizing of photos and 78 fonts; Broderly has complete patches, quoting, batches, and runs on Mac and iPad. Ricoma Chroma ($799 to $2,499 activation then $16 to $41 per month) is best avoided unless your dealer imposes it.
The multi-head garment decoration shop
One or more Tajima, Barudan, SWF, ZSK machines, polos by the hundred, patches, a few jacket backs. Wilcom EmbroideryStudio ($999 to $3,999, or $1,490 per year) is the reference and remains essential for complex digitizing and native industrial formats. For everyday work (logos, text, patches, batches, run sheet, quotes), Broderly Atelier+ (€29.99 per month) does the job on every workstation without a per-seat licence, and guided mode lets an untrained operator prepare a file. Many shops will keep Wilcom on one workstation and Broderly on the others.
The professional digitizer
They sell files, not embroidery. Wilcom Designing, no discussion, possibly Pulse (Tajima DG) if their customers are on Tajima. Broderly will serve them as a quick viewer and a quoting tool, not as their main software.
The price table (September 2026)
| Software | Price | System | For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink/Stitch | Free | Windows, Mac, Linux | Patient graphic designers |
| Embrilliance StitchArtist | $169 to $649 | Windows, Mac | Manual digitizing at your own pace |
| Hatch 4 | $199 to $1,199, or $99/month | Windows 11 | Small businesses, photos |
| Brother PE-Design 11 | ≈ $1,800 | Windows | Multi-machine Brother set-ups |
| Ricoma Chroma | $799 to $2,499 + $16 to $41/month | Windows | Imposed with the machine |
| Wilcom EmbroideryStudio 2026 | $999 to $3,999, or $1,490/year | Windows, dongle | Industrial shops, digitizers |
| Broderly | €0, €9.99 to €29.99/month | Browser, every system | From hobby to shop |
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch software later?
Machine files are universal. Projects (Wilcom EMB, Embrilliance BE, stitchart.json) are not: keep the machine files and the original images.
Is a subscription a trap?
A cancellable subscription is not; a "FlexPay" or a non-refundable activation is more so. Read the "cancellation" line before paying. At Broderly, the Discovery plan is free and the paid plans can be cancelled in one click from "My account", at no cost.
Go further
The studio is free to draw, open and check designs. Your first machine file takes five minutes.
Updated 2026-09-24.