One factor to consider is the support you can get on Mixcraft and Reaper. I have experience with Mixcraft support and it was excellent. I did not work with Reaper enough to form an opinion on their support. I found the Mixcraft tutorials and forum to be excellent. I did not try them for Reaper.

But keep in mind, lots of folks have one or the other who also have BIAB (and RealBand). This is a helpful forum and a unique place to get support if your questions are about using BIAB together with a DAW. I think, with no real evidence except reading past discussions, that a lot more people here use Reaper.

The brief upsurge to Mixcraft came at the same time that Cakewalk SONAR looked like it was no longer a choice, so some of those users (including me) started learning Mixcraft (and others). Then many of us (including me) went right back to the new incarnation of SONAR in the form of Cakewalk by BandLab. I did like Mixcraft but would advise you more to strongly consider Reaper if for no other reason than the support you can more likely get here when using it with BIAB.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.