head to head · open source
Audacity vs sherloq
Audacity has 18,642 GitHub stars, 2,675 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sherloq has 3,218 stars, 316 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Audacity leads on adoption by 479% (18,642 vs 3,218 stars). Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; sherloq is written in Perl under GPL-3.0. Audacity has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, sherloq 10%. 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 | sherloq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Perl |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-07-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 316 |
| 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 sherloq if
- You want the sherloq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Perl
- You evaluated both and sherloq 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 sherloq
Sherloq is an open source, Qt based digital image forensic toolset for researchers, students and practitioners who want to run and compare image authentication techniques themselves rather than trust a closed commercial verdict.
read the full sherloq overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Audacity or sherloq more popular?
Audacity has 18,642 GitHub stars and sherloq has 3,218. Audacity has the larger community by that measure.
Are Audacity and sherloq free?
Both are open source. Audacity has no licence declared in this registry, and sherloq is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Audacity and sherloq?
Audacity is written in C++ and sherloq in Perl. 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 sherloq?
Choose Audacity if you want the larger community (18,642 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sherloq if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.