Apple Silicon Plugin Compatibility in 2026: The Complete Status Report

State of Apple Silicon Native Plugins: June 2026

The transition from Intel to Apple Silicon is now in its fifth year. The vast majority of actively developed plugins are native. But there are holdouts, and some developers have handled the transition better than others.

Fully Native (Excellent Support)

These developers have fully native Apple Silicon versions across their entire catalog: FabFilter, Soundtoys, iZotope, Valhalla DSP, Kilohearts, Baby Audio, Newfangled Audio, Goodhertz, DMG Audio, Tokyo Dawn Records, and most smaller indie developers. If your entire plugin collection comes from these companies, you can run your DAW natively without Rosetta.

Partially Native (Check Individual Plugins)

Waves: most plugins are native since V14, but always verify per-plugin. Native Instruments: Kontakt 7+ is native, but some older Kontakt libraries have compatibility issues with the native version. Plugin Alliance: the majority is native, but some older Brainworx plugins still require Rosetta. Arturia: V Collection X and FX Collection 5 are fully native; older versions may not be.

Still Requiring Rosetta (Problematic)

Acustica Audio: Acqua plugins are slowly going native, but many still require Rosetta. EastWest: OPUS player is native, but PLAY (older engine) is not — avoid PLAY instruments on Apple Silicon. Some smaller developers with discontinued products will never update. Antares: Auto-Tune Pro X is native; older versions are not.

How to Check Your Collection

ProducerGrid's Apple Silicon compatibility scanner identifies which of your installed plugins are native, which are running under Rosetta, and which are Intel-only. Use this to build your migration plan. Priority order for replacement: (1) any plugin that crashes under Rosetta, (2) CPU-heavy plugins (native will perform significantly better), (3) everything else at your own pace.