head to head · open source
sharp vs Audacity
sharp has 32,692 GitHub stars, 1,436 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Audacity has 18,477 stars, 2,668 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 77% (32,692 vs 18,477 stars). sharp is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; Audacity is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence. sharp has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Audacity 14%. 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
| sharp | Audacity | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 33K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick sharp if
- You weight community size — 33K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Audacity if
- You want the Audacity feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Audacity fits your workflow better
About sharp
sharp is a high performance Node.js image processing library that converts large images in common formats into smaller, web friendly JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and AVIF files, and it is built for JavaScript developers who need fast, dependency light resizing inside Node.js, Deno or Bun applications.
read the full sharp overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or Audacity more popular?
sharp has 32,692 GitHub stars and Audacity has 18,477. sharp has the larger community by that measure.
Are sharp and Audacity free?
Both are open source. sharp is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Audacity has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between sharp and Audacity?
sharp is written in JavaScript and Audacity 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, sharp or Audacity?
Choose sharp if you want the larger community (32,692 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Audacity if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.