I was using the stitch era free software until it went "not free" in january. I never really figured it out, it was not easy so I wouldn't pay for it. Been doing some research and it came down to embird or sew what pro. I downloaded the demo of sew what pro and am impressed. it is very easy and I probably will buy it this weekend. It has the modules for the different things also. So you can get what you need as you need it. I think the total for all the modules was around 240.00.