head to head · open source
Audacity vs better-shot
Audacity has 18,479 GitHub stars, 2,667 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. better-shot has 2,303 stars, 137 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Audacity leads on adoption by 702% (18,479 vs 2,303 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; better-shot is written in Swift under BSD-3-Clause. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, better-shot 6%. 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 | better-shot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C++ | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 137 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Audacity if
- You weight community size — 18K 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 better-shot if
- You want the better-shot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and better-shot 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 better-shot
BetterShot is a native macOS app for screenshots, screen recording, and video editing, built for Mac users who want the capture workflow of CleanShot X and Loom without a subscription, an account, or telemetry.
read the full better-shot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or better-shot more popular?
Audacity has 18,479 GitHub stars and better-shot has 2,303. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and better-shot free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and better-shot is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and better-shot?
Audacity is written in C++ and better-shot in Swift. 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 better-shot?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,479 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose better-shot if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.