head to head · open source
Audacity vs nomacs
Audacity has 18,477 GitHub stars, 2,668 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nomacs has 3,174 stars, 203 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. Audacity leads on adoption by 482% (18,477 vs 3,174 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; nomacs is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, nomacs 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Audacity | nomacs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 203 |
| 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 nomacs if
- You want the nomacs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and nomacs 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 nomacs
nomacs is a free, open source image viewer written in C++ and released under the GPL 3.0, built for anyone on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac, Haiku, or OS/2 who needs to open and inspect common images as well as RAW and PSD files on the desktop.
read the full nomacs overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Photo & Video Editors projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Photo & Video Editors field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or nomacs more popular?
Audacity has 18,477 GitHub stars and nomacs has 3,174. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and nomacs free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and nomacs is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and nomacs?
Audacity is written in C++ and nomacs 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 nomacs?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,477 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose nomacs if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.