Is Audacity good enough for a serious podcast?

Yes. Audacity handles the core podcast workflow (cutting, noise reduction, compression, export) perfectly well, and plenty of long-running shows are edited entirely in it. You'll feel its limits mainly as your workflow gets more complex: multitrack sessions with many tracks, heavier plugin chains, or wanting a non-destructive edit history.

Is REAPER actually free?

REAPER has a genuinely fully-featured evaluation license that runs indefinitely with an occasional reminder screen, which is why many creators use it for years before(or without ever) paying, but the honest, licensed path for continued professional use is to pay the (low, one-time) license fee once you're relying on it.

Which one should a total beginner start with?

Audacity. Its interface has fewer options to get lost in, and most beginner podcast tutorials (including this site's) use it as the reference tool. Move to REAPER once you outgrow single-track thinking or want a real mixing console workflow.

Comparison

REAPER vs. Audacity

Both are free (or effectively free) to start with, and both can produce a fully professional podcast or music mix. The real difference is how much editing power you need and how comfortable you are with a steeper interface.

Category	REAPER	Audacity
Cost	Free evaluation, low-cost license for continued use	Completely free and open source
Interface	Full multitrack DAW, highly customizable	Simpler, single-window editor
Multitrack mixing	Full mixing console, routing, and automation	Basic multitrack support, more limited routing
Plugin support	VST, VST3, AU, and JS plugins	VST and LV2 plugins, smaller built-in effect set
Editing model	Non-destructive, extensive undo/edit history	Mostly destructive editing on the waveform
Learning curve	Steeper, a real DAW with deep options	Gentle, most people are editing within an hour
Best for	Music production, complex multitrack podcasts, growing studios	Simple podcast editing, quick fixes, absolute beginners

REAPERStrengths

Genuine full-DAW mixing console and routing
Extremely lightweight and fast, even on older hardware
Deep customization, nearly every behavior can be remapped
Scales up to real music production, not just podcast editing

Audacity, Strengths

Zero cost, zero license friction, ever
Extremely quick to learn for basic cut-and-export editing
Built-in noise reduction and normalization cover most podcast needs
Huge community of beginner-focused tutorials

The Verdict

Choose Audacity if you're just starting out, editing a simple two-mic interview show, or want the absolute fastest path from recording to a published episode.

Choose REAPER if you're mixing multitrack sessions with several tracks, want a real plugin chain (EQ, compression, de-essing) on every channel, or expect to eventually move into music production alongside podcasting.

Many editors actually start on Audacity and graduate to REAPER later, nothing about starting with Audacity locks you out of moving up when you need to.

Not sure which DAW fits your specific setup? Try the DAW Picker quiz. Already on REAPER? Editing a Podcast in REAPER walks through a full import-to-export workflow. Starting with Audacity? How to Edit Podcast Audio in Audacity covers the same ground for that tool.

Which one you actually need

Audacity is enough for a large share of podcast work, and saying otherwise does readers a disservice. Recording a voice, trimming it, removing noise, applying compression and exporting a finished file are all straightforward in it, and a great many published shows are made this way.

The dividing line is whether you work destructively. Audacity edits by changing the audio itself, so an effect applied is applied and undoing it later means undoing everything since. REAPER keeps effects as a live chain you can adjust at any point. For a show with a repeatable format that difference is small, and for anything you revise repeatedly it is enormous.

Multitrack work is where the gap widens. Several speakers on separate tracks, music beds, sound effects and per-track processing all become substantially easier in a full multitrack application. If your episodes involve one voice and an intro, that capability sits unused.

Weigh the learning curve honestly against your own hours. REAPER is deeply configurable, which also means its default state suits nobody in particular and getting comfortable takes real time. That investment repays itself if you record weekly for years, and does not if you publish occasionally.

Cost models differ in a way worth understanding. Audacity is free and open source with no conditions at all. REAPER offers a full evaluation and then expects a licence, priced very differently for personal and commercial use. Check the current terms directly, since they have changed over the years and any figure quoted elsewhere may be out of date.

Vocabulary

Destructive editing. Editing that alters the audio data itself, so changes are baked in once applied. Simple to understand and awkward to revise, since reversing a decision means undoing everything after it.

Non-destructive editing. Editing where effects and edits are instructions applied during playback, leaving the original audio untouched. Lets you change any decision at any point without redoing later work.

Multitrack. Working with several separate audio tracks at once, each with its own processing. Necessary for multiple speakers, music and effects, and unnecessary for a single voice.

Plugin format. The standard a processor uses to work inside an application, such as VST or AU. Determines which third-party tools you can use, and differs between applications and operating systems.