head to head · open source
Audacity vs PhotoEditor
Audacity has 18,928 GitHub stars, 2,712 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PhotoEditor has 4,531 stars, 1,051 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Audacity leads on adoption by 318% (18,928 vs 4,531 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; PhotoEditor is written in Kotlin under MIT. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, PhotoEditor 23%. 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 | PhotoEditor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 PhotoEditor if
- You want the PhotoEditor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and PhotoEditor fits your workflow better
About Audacity
Audacity Audacity is an easy to use, multi track audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. More info can be found on This repository is currently undergoing major structural change. We're currently working on Audacity 4, which means an entirely new UI and also refactorings aplenty. As such, the master branch is currently not particularly friendly to new contributors. It is still possible to submit patches to Audacity 3.x; make sure you branch off audacity3 if you choose to do so. Build instructions for 3.x can be found here; build instructions for Audacity 4 can be…
read the full Audacity overview →
About PhotoEditor
PhotoEditor A Photo Editor library with simple, easy support for image editing using Paints, Text, Filters, Emoji and Sticker like stories. Download link Features Drawing on image with option to change its Brush's Color, Size, Opacity, Erasing and basic shapes. Apply Filter Effect on image using MediaEffect Adding/Editing Text with option to change its Color with Custom Fonts. Adding Emoji with Custom Emoji Fonts. Adding Images/Stickers Pinch to Scale and Rotate views. Undo and Redo for Brush and Views. Deleting Views Saving Photo after editing. More FAQ . Lesson Learned from building successful android library…
read the full PhotoEditor overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or PhotoEditor more popular?
Audacity has 18,928 GitHub stars and PhotoEditor has 4,531. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and PhotoEditor free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and PhotoEditor is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and PhotoEditor?
Audacity is written in C++ and PhotoEditor in Kotlin. 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 PhotoEditor?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,928 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose PhotoEditor if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.