Ardour
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 4 of 10 digital audio workstations by recommenders
Free, open-source audio workstation people use for recording, writing and music production; common caveats are crashes and a plain, bare-bones interface.
Free, open-source audio workstation people use for recording, writing and music production; common caveats are crashes and a plain, bare-bones interface.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free and open source
“There is also Ardour which is FOSS and would be enough for recording as well as Traktion Waveform”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Native Linux VST plugin directory” “I was a heavy and loyal Cubase user then switched to Ardour when it came out because of OSS.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Ableton Extensions SDK” “It's a highly viable way to sustain a niche FOSS desktop app in 2026.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Building a New Flash” - Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released”
Works for real recording and writing
“There is also Ardour which is FOSS and would be enough for recording as well as Traktion Waveform”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Native Linux VST plugin directory” “it's fairly capable in this sort of workflow now too and will continue to improve over time”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” “I don't see why you couldn't release music with it”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” - Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too”
Enjoyable and inspiring to use
“I chose Ardour as my DAW (digital audio workstation) and have been excitedly working on learning.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” “Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. I use it every day, and I am very happy with it”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” “such an inspiring and useful creative tool”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” - Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense”
- Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released”
Long-running, steadily improving project
“it's fairly capable in this sort of workflow now too and will continue to improve over time”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” “happily using Ardour as a hobbyist since version 5”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” “Ardour is the OG for sure!”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Native Linux VST plugin directory”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Crashes during use
“Unfortunately I was unable to view any of the about information for that program, because it crashed immediately.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense” “it's working OK, I have had a couple of crashes (which I can't figure out how to report)”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Ardour 9.0 Released” Bare-bones and visually unattractive
“they're a little bare-bones, but they do work”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine game testing” “Ardour is disgustingly ugly”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Steam Machine game testing”
Other digital audio workstations people recommend
The four most recommended other digital audio workstations, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reaper by Cockos | 58 | 5 | 92% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Ableton Live | 54 | 20 | 73% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Bitwig Studio | 35 | 3 | 92% | 11 | — | Approved |
| ArdourThis page | 29 | 4 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Logic Pro | 29 | 12 | 71% | 11 | 14 yrs5 owners | Approved |
What people said
32 of the 41 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Ardour and Bitwig will suffice”
“I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level.”
“use Ardour to get sample-accurate synchronization between the two”
“Unfortunately I was unable to view any of the about information for that program, because it crashed immediately.”
“I love and use your software.”
“I'm the original/lead developer of Ardour, a cross-platform DAW”
“Ardour is disgustingly ugly”
“they're a little bare-bones, but they do work”
“Access to the "object model" from Lua is extremely wide-ranging”
“I was a heavy and loyal Cubase user then switched to Ardour when it came out because of OSS.”
“Are these not creative software? Perhaps not industry standard”
“It's a highly viable way to sustain a niche FOSS desktop app in 2026.”
“For how you managed to keep it opensource, alive AND expanding.”
“We have been running Ardour 9 for a while now during band rehearsals.”
“Ardour is top tier software.”
“it's working OK, I have had a couple of crashes (which I can't figure out how to report)”
“why bother when Ardour does it all?”
“There's always been a pianoroll in Ardour since we added MIDI for v3.”
“A piano roll in Ardour?! I feel like the earth just moved.”
“making a truly great product”
“Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. I use it every day, and I am very happy with it”
“It's a great piece of software with an admittedly high learning curve for a novice like myself”
“it's fairly capable in this sort of workflow now too and will continue to improve over time”
“I don't see why you couldn't release music with it”
“happily using Ardour as a hobbyist since version 5”
“I chose Ardour as my DAW (digital audio workstation) and have been excitedly working on learning.”
“in general I'm very happy with how things turned out”
“such an inspiring and useful creative tool”
“Ardour is the OG for sure!”
“There is also Ardour which is FOSS and would be enough for recording as well as Traktion Waveform”
“it works pretty solid for writing”
“Yes, Ardour. It's no more a toy than KiCad or Blender.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.