head to head · open source
Audacity vs basis_universal
Audacity has 18,651 GitHub stars, 2,677 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. basis_universal has 3,116 stars, 347 forks, 128 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Audacity leads on adoption by 499% (18,651 vs 3,116 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; basis_universal is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, basis_universal 11%. Audacity was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Audacity | basis_universal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 347 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Audacity if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick basis_universal if
- You want the basis_universal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and basis_universal fits your workflow better
About Audacity
Audacity is an open source audio editor and recorder written in C++ and distributed under free software terms. It lives in the open source desktop audio editing ecosystem, where it provides a multi track interface for recording and editing audio on Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. The README describes the project as an easy to use audio tool, and the repository contains both the Audacity 3.x line and the in progress Audacity 4 line.
read the full Audacity overview →
About basis_universal
Basis Universal is an open source C++ GPU texture codec system that lets developers encode images, HDR content, and short animations once into a supercompressed interchange file and transcode them on demand to nearly any GPU texture format.
read the full basis_universal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or basis_universal more popular?
Audacity has 18,651 GitHub stars and basis_universal has 3,116. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and basis_universal free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and basis_universal is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and basis_universal?
Audacity is written in C++ and basis_universal in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Audacity or basis_universal?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,651 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose basis_universal if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.