The best Cardinal alternatives

JUCE

juce-framework/JUCE

JUCE is an open-source cross-platform C++ application framework for desktop and mobile applications, including VST, VST3, AU, AUv3, LV2 and AAX audio plug-ins.

Choose JUCE if…

• you want the more widely starred option (9.1k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase
• you specifically need aax or au

Shares audio, plugin with Cardinal.

clap

free-audio/clap

Audio Plugin API

Choose clap if…

• you would rather work in C than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more recently updated codebase
• you specifically need clap or daw

Shares audio, plugin with Cardinal.

Source code for SonoBus, a real-time network audio streaming collaboration tool.

Choose sonobus if…

• you want the more recently updated codebase
• you specifically need aax or audiounit

Shares audio, plugin with Cardinal.

FunASR

modelscope/FunASR

Open-source speech recognition toolkit for training, inference, streaming ASR, VAD, punctuation, speaker diarization pipelines, and OpenAI-compatible/MCP serving.

Choose FunASR if…

• you would rather work in Python than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (20.9k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares audio with Cardinal.

transformers

huggingface/transformers

🤗 Transformers: the model-definition framework for state-of-the-art machine learning models in text, vision, audio, and multimodal models, for both inference and training.

Choose transformers if…

• you would rather work in Python than C++
• Apache License 2.0 suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (168.5k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares audio with Cardinal.

media-chrome

muxinc/media-chrome

Custom elements (web components) for making audio and video player controls that look great in your website or app.

Choose media-chrome if…

• you would rather work in TypeScript than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more recently updated codebase
• you specifically need audio-player or media-chrome

Shares audio with Cardinal.

claude-hud

jarrodwatts/claude-hud

A Claude Code plugin that shows what's happening - context usage, active tools, running agents, and todo progress

Choose claude-hud if…

• you would rather work in JavaScript than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (29.1k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares plugin with Cardinal.

MusicFree

maotoumao/MusicFree

插件化、定制化、无广告的免费音乐播放器

Choose MusicFree if…

• you would rather work in TypeScript than C++
• GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (28.2k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares plugin with Cardinal.

Qv2ray

Qv2ray/Qv2ray

:star: Linux / Windows / macOS 跨平台 V2Ray 客户端 | 支持 VMess / VLESS / SSR / Trojan / Trojan-Go / NaiveProxy / HTTP / HTTPS / SOCKS5 | 使用 C++ / Qt 开发 | 可拓展插件式设计 :star:

Choose Qv2ray if…

• you want the more widely starred option (16.9k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase
• you specifically need aur or cmake

Shares plugin with Cardinal.

typescript-eslint

typescript-eslint/typescript-eslint

:sparkles: Monorepo for all the tooling which enables ESLint to support TypeScript

Choose typescript-eslint if…

• you would rather work in TypeScript than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (16.5k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares plugin with Cardinal.

filepond

pqina/filepond

🌊 A flexible and fun JavaScript file upload library

Choose filepond if…

• you would rather work in JavaScript than C++
• MIT License suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (16.4k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares plugin with Cardinal.

coredns

coredns/coredns

CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins

Choose coredns if…

• you would rather work in Go than C++
• Apache License 2.0 suits your use better than GNU General Public License v3.0
• you want the more widely starred option (14.4k)
• you want the more recently updated codebase

Shares plugin with Cardinal.