What Audacity offers
Audacity edits multi-track audio, imports and exports WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg, supports VST3 and Nyquist plugins, and includes spectrogram and frequency analysis. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and is free.
Alternatives / Pro Tools
1 open-source alternative
1 Best Open Source Pro Tools Alternatives in 2026
Looking for an open source Pro Tools alternative? Only one project we verified fits: Audacity, a free GPL-3.0 audio editor and recorder. It covers recording and editing, but it is not a full professional DAW with MIDI and advanced mixing.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
Best Pro Tools alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Audacity | Free multi-track audio editor | GPL-3.0 |
How we chose these Pro Tools alternatives
We looked for open-source audio editors and recorders. We verified Audacity's license, recent activity, stars, and platforms in its repository. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Important: not a full DAW
Audacity's editing is mostly destructive and it does not offer the deep MIDI, mixing, and surround workflow of Pro Tools, so it suits recording, editing, and podcasts.
License details
Audacity is GPL-3.0.
Maintenance status
Audacity had commits within days of this update and has over 18,000 stars.
Why look for a Pro Tools alternative?
Pro Tools is a proprietary DAW sold by subscription and tied to the music industry's workflows and hardware. Open-source tools avoid subscriptions, but they lack Pro Tools' mixing consoles, MIDI depth, and plugin standards.
audacityteam.org
Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, and Linux with multi-track editing, WAV, MP3, FLAC, and Ogg support, VST3 and Nyquist plugins, and spectrogram analysis. It is released under the GPL-3.0, and its destructive-editing model is simpler than a full digital audio workstation.
18.8K2.7KGPL-3.0Desktop app
Pricing: Free and open source.
- Free with no feature limits
- Runs on all desktop platforms
- Plugin support
- Not a full DAW for mixing and MIDI
- Mostly destructive editing
Compare Pro Tools alternatives
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audacity | Audio editor | GPL-3.0 | Desktop app | Recording and editing |
Which one should you choose?
Want free recording and multi-track editing
Audacity supports multi-track editing, common formats, and VST3 plugins on every desktop OS.