Some of the smaller ones come with a hacked version of CorelDraw, and a proprietary controller and software. The one I am getting uses a standard controller that works with RDWorks, or Lightburn. Both can do rudimentary design work, but a decent graphics program is a must if anything serious is to be done. I spent $60 for CorelDraw X8 home and Student. I figured if it doesn't work, my Daughter can still use it to do her creations with. Turns out it can do what I need it to do just fine, and can be installed on 3 PC's.
Lightburn costs $80, and so far is working good, but I haven't tested on the laser yet, because I haven't received it yet. Supposed to be delivered on Wednesday. From everything I have read and watched so far, it should work fine. I tried RDWorks, but it crashes a lot, and the engraving doesn't appear very good, guess you get what you pay for, which is nothing for RDWorks. Lightburn has a 30 day trail, so once I get the laser set up, I can try a few cuts to verify all works before paying for it. I haven't looked deeper into it, but it appears that I can buy a camera set to make it work like a Glowforge, at least that is my impression of what I saw. It's something else to study, but if true, then I will be getting those too. That makes things easier, all I would have to do then is print a part out, stick it on the bed and import it via the camera right into the software, and trace the outline for cutting.