# Audacity 78 Hacker News commenters recommended Audacity and 44 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 4 years (3 owners). **Verdict:** Free, open-source editor people recommend for quick trims, simple post-production and a much improved UI. Critics say it is not a full DAW and struggles with complex mixes. ## Why people recommend it - Much improved, cleaner UI (6 comments): "it's so awesome to have an open source Qt based audio editor on KDE Plasma that does not look like shit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549720)) "they're updating the much dated UX from being stuck in the 90's and are making great strides on the app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49550244)) "especially the new UI that does not look like it was forced through some scrum pipeline" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548850)) - Long-standing, robust, reliable workflow (5 comments): "I was so happy with it. Has been my go to audio editor for, goodness feels weird to say, decades now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49550180)) "I love it, it's an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701)) "I always thought audacity was great, and still prefer its workflow to slow tools or logic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549229)) - Free and easy for simple edits (3 comments): "It was my go-to for light audio work like trimming a sample, for being free and easy to use for exactly that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49561141)) "I just need simple post-production tools after rendering out of my DAW and the old audacity does the trick." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45814005)) "Audacity for audio makes for an incredibly powerful, 100% FOSS media creation stack" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47815642)) - Useful silence and editing features (3 comments): "which also has the necessary controls to measure time between transitions in the waveformms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519570)) "so far audacity is the only one that has a feature to detect silence and label it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48262930)) "The new editing features will be pretty useful for sound design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549310)) ## What people warn about - Telemetry, ownership and online-service concerns (6 comments): "I remember them acquiring Audacity was a huge mess when it happened due to them introducing telemetry. Never used Audacity since then." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49557670)) "the implanted backdoor that was executing a binary coming from Muse groups server, hidden as telemetry and an update check" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809301)) "It is plain unnecessary risk, does not matter that the original author is trusted, still can be hacked." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49550822)) - UI changes seen as derivative or unwanted (3 comments): "Very disappointed to see a program I remembered fondly for its native-feeling interface and functional, wholegrain feeling turned into whatever this is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548989)) "all of these UI improvements are carbon copies from conventional DAWs or video editors, invented 30 or so years ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49555550)) "doesn't have light mode available and the only option to have it is to switch back to the old UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49554770)) - Not a full DAW; limits on complex mixes (3 comments): "it’s still not a proper DAW and suffers from those limitations. It gets very rickety when you go beyond a basic stereo mix." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48262020)) "Half of those are not good enough to inspire creativity in a child, because they are so cumbersome to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47368050)) "I love it, it's an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701)) - Crashes and weak device or Linux support (3 comments): "I've given up on Audacity because it hasn't kept up technically with how a typical home studio Linux system does audio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49553810)) "it’s not very good, crashes often and has been acquired by a company pushing some online subscription" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934438)) "I gave up after 20 minutes of fiddling and used something else that saw the microphone immediately." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49555358)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Tenacity audio editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tenacity.md): 9 recommend - [Audionaut](https://hackerapproved.com/p/audionaut.md): 8 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Audacity", https://hackerapproved.com/p/audacity/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).