head to head · open source
Audacity vs postprocessing
Audacity has 18,651 GitHub stars, 2,677 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. postprocessing has 2,874 stars, 251 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Audacity leads on adoption by 549% (18,651 vs 2,874 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; postprocessing is written in JavaScript under Zlib. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, postprocessing 9%. postprocessing 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 | postprocessing | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Custom / other | Zlib |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 251 |
| 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 postprocessing if
- You want the postprocessing feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Zlib license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postprocessing 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 postprocessing
Postprocessing is a JavaScript post processing library for three.js that gives WebGL developers a passes and effects pipeline for applying fullscreen image effects to a rendered scene in real time.
read the full postprocessing overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or postprocessing more popular?
Audacity has 18,651 GitHub stars and postprocessing has 2,874. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and postprocessing free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and postprocessing is licensed under Zlib. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and postprocessing?
Audacity is written in C++ and postprocessing in JavaScript. 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 postprocessing?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,651 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose postprocessing if its feature set, stack or Zlib licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.