Alternatives to Adobe Audition
A professional audio workstation for recording, editing, mixing and restoring audio for video and podcasts. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Adobe Audition
A professional audio workstation for recording, editing, mixing and restoring audio for video and podcasts.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Adobe Audition.
Audacity
A multi-track audio editor and recorder that has been the free default for twenty-five years.
Audacity is free and open source under GPLv3, adds Linux support and needs no Adobe account, but is a destructive editor without Audition's Creative Cloud integration.
REAPER
Full digital audio workstation for multitrack recording, editing, mixing and MIDI.
REAPER replaces the subscription with a one-time licence after an unlimited evaluation, adds Linux support and offers multitrack recording, editing and mixing with deep customisation.
Pro Tools
A subscription digital audio workstation for recording, editing and mixing music and post-production audio.
Pro Tools is also subscription-based, with a session format common in professional studios and higher tiers adding immersive mixing and video tracks.
ocenaudio
A free, cross-platform audio editor built for fast, straightforward editing of audio files.
ocenaudio is a free, closed source editor for quick edits on Windows, macOS and Linux, but it is not a multitrack workstation and has fewer restoration tools.
Tenacity
A fork of Audacity created after the 2021 telemetry row, built to record and edit audio with nothing phoning home.
Tenacity is a free GPL-2.0 Audacity fork with no telemetry or account, running on Windows, macOS and Linux, though development is slow and the interface dated.
Amadeus Pro
Paid multitrack audio editor and sound recorder for macOS with batch processing.
Amadeus Pro is a paid macOS-only editor with multitrack editing, Audio Units effects and batch conversion, sold without a subscription and without Windows support.
Ardour
A full digital audio workstation for recording, editing and mixing, with no subscription and no dongle.
Ardour is an open source GPL-2.0 multitrack DAW for Windows, macOS and Linux, with no subscription but no spectral editing or Adobe workflow integration.
Steinberg WaveLab
Mastering suite with phase scope, multimeter and loudness analysis tools.
Steinberg WaveLab is a paid mastering suite with detailed loudness and phase metering, focused on mastering rather than podcast and video post-production.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Adobe Audition as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Adobe Podcast
Adobe's browser-based tool for recording, transcribing, editing and cleaning up spoken audio.
Adobe Audition moves you to a subscription desktop app for Windows and macOS with multitrack, waveform and spectral editing plus restoration tools beyond speech cleanup.
Fission
A Mac audio editor for trimming, joining and splitting files without quality loss, plus batch conversion.
Adobe Audition adds multitrack, spectral editing and restoration tools on Windows and macOS, but it requires a Creative Cloud subscription and an Adobe account instead of a one-off purchase.
iZotope RX
An audio repair and restoration suite for removing noise, clicks and other problems from recordings.
Adobe Audition combines multitrack, waveform and spectral editing with cleanup and restoration tools, but it is subscription only, requires an Adobe account and fits Adobe video workflows.
Kwave
A KDE sound editor for recording, playing and editing audio files on Linux.
Adobe Audition adds multitrack, spectral editing and restoration tools on Windows and macOS, but it is subscription only and requires an Adobe account.
Steinberg SpectraLayers
Spectral audio editor for noise removal and AI-assisted source separation.
Adobe Audition combines spectral editing and restoration with multitrack and waveform editing, but is subscription only and needs an Adobe account.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Auphonic
A web service that automatically cleans up, levels and loudness-normalizes podcast and other spoken audio.
Descript
A video and audio editor where you edit recordings by editing their text transcript.
Cleanvoice
A web-based AI podcast editor that removes filler words, background noise, mouth sounds and silences.
