head to head · open source
sharp vs Audacity
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars, 1,447 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Audacity has 18,928 stars, 2,712 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sharp leads on adoption by 73% (32,817 vs 18,928 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 | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 The typical use case for this high speed Node API module is to convert large images in common formats to smaller, web friendly JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and AVIF images of varying dimensions. It can be used with all JavaScript runtimes that provide support for Node API v9, including Node.js ( = 20.9.0), Deno and Bun. Resizing an image is typically 4x 5x faster than using the quickest ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick settings due to its use of libvips. Colour spaces, embedded ICC profiles and alpha transparency channels are all handled correctly. Lanczos resampling ensures quality is not sacrificed for speed. As…
read the full sharp overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is sharp or Audacity more popular?
sharp has 32,817 GitHub stars and Audacity has 18,928. 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 (32,817 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.