head to head · open source
Audacity vs openscreen
Audacity has 18,477 GitHub stars, 2,668 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openscreen has 3,046 stars, 191 forks, 43 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Audacity leads on adoption by 507% (18,477 vs 3,046 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; openscreen is written in TypeScript under MIT. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, openscreen 6%. openscreen was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cross-platform), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | openscreen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 191 |
| 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 openscreen if
- You want the openscreen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and openscreen 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 openscreen
OpenScreen is a free, MIT licensed, GPU accelerated desktop screen recorder and video editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux that turns a raw capture into a polished product demo, aimed at developers, product teams, and technical marketers who need demo video without subscriptions or watermarks.
read the full openscreen overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or openscreen more popular?
Audacity has 18,477 GitHub stars and openscreen has 3,046. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and openscreen free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and openscreen is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and openscreen?
Audacity is written in C++ and openscreen in TypeScript. 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 openscreen?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,477 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose openscreen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.