Buyer’s guide · checked 23 October 2026

Choosing SDR software: eight programs compared

Written by the maker of FoxSDR, so read it with that in mind. Every fact about another program on this page was read from that program’s own website, documentation, repository or release page on 23 October 2026, and each one is linked at the bottom. Where a program’s own sources say nothing, the page says “not documented” rather than guessing. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and it will be corrected.

SDR software is the program that turns the raw samples from a software-defined radio — an RTL-SDR dongle, an Airspy, a HackRF, an SDRplay RSP, a USRP — into a spectrum, a waterfall and sound you can listen to. The radio decides what you can hear; the software decides how easy it is to find it, what it can decode, and which computer it runs on. There is no single best SDR software: the right one depends on your radio, your operating system, and whether you only listen or also transmit.

At a glance

Which one fits

• You want to transmit as well as receive. SDRangel transmits on the widest range of radios here; SDR Console transmits on ANAN, Hermes Lite, LimeSDR and Pluto; FoxSDR and HDSDR have simpler transmit stages.
• You are on a Mac. SDR++, SDRangel and Gqrx all publish macOS builds. FoxSDR does not yet; building it on macOS is possible but unproven.
• You own an Airspy. SDR# is Airspy’s own program and ships its drivers.
• You want decoders without hunting for separate programs. SDRangel lists the most built-in decoders; FoxSDR installs its decoders from a catalogue inside the app, with a map for the aircraft and ships they find.
• You want the receiver somewhere else. FoxSDR serves its whole interface to a web browser; SDRangel has a REST API and a headless server; SDR# has SPY Server; SDR Console has SDR Server, for up to ten users of its own client.

FoxSDR

Written from scratch, down to its own radio drivers, and in open beta. Every radio it names has a driver of its own: RTL-SDR (Blog V4 included), HackRF, Airspy R2 and Mini, HydraSDR RFOne, Airspy HF+, Mirics dongles, the RX888 mk2, AOR digital-I/Q receivers, SDRplay RSPs through the SDRplay API, and the ADALM-Pluto, plus its own client for rtl_tcp servers. Anything else SoapySDR can reach, such as a USRP or a LimeSDR, works through SoapySDR. It was developed against an Ettus B200 and an RTL-SDR; the other drivers are proven against the vendors’ reference code or documentation and have not yet met hardware on our bench.

Decoders are plugins, installed from a catalogue inside the app: aircraft (ADS-B and ACARS), DAB and DAB+ radio, ships (AIS), APRS, pagers (POCSAG and FLEX), SSTV, NOAA and GOES weather satellites, Morse, RTTY, FT8, weather fax and more, each labelled with how far it has been tested off the air. An airband monitor plays all of an airport’s control frequencies at once. Stereo FM with RDS is built in, and the whole interface can be served to a browser so the receiver lives where the antenna is. It transmits CW, AM, NFM and SSB on an ADALM-Pluto. It is free for noncommercial use under the PolyForm Noncommercial licence, with a commercial licence for everything else. See everything it does or download it for Windows.

SDR# (SDRSharp)

Airspy’s own SDR software for Windows. It ships drivers for Airspy (R0, R2, Mini and HF+), SpyServer, AOR IQ radios, RFSPACE networked receivers, HackRF and RTL-SDR, and takes .NET plugins through an official SDK. SPY Server, from the same maker, streams a radio to SDR# over a network and runs on Windows, Linux and ARM boards. Decoding such as ADS-B is done by separate Airspy programs rather than inside SDR#. Transmit is not documented. The latest production build on the download page is revision 1921, dated 1 January 2025.

SDR++

Open-source (GPL-3.0) and cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS and BSD, with an Android build in its nightly. The program is made of modules, and it has native modules for a long list of radios including Airspy, Airspy HF+, bladeRF, HackRF, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, RTL-SDR, rtl_tcp, SDRplay and SpyServer. Its own module table marks the SoapySDR module as deprecated and not built in releases. Of its decoders, the METEOR and M17 modules are marked working and shipped. It is released as a rolling nightly build, last refreshed on 23 October 2026 and labelled 1.3.2; the last tagged release was 1.0.4 in October 2021.

SDRangel

Open-source (GPL-3.0), actively developed, and the broadest of the open-source programs here. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS and Android, and an older WebAssembly build, from June 2024, still runs in a browser. It receives through native plugins for most common radios plus SoapySDR, and it transmits on bladeRF, HackRF, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, USRP and XTRX. Its built-in decoders include ADS-B, AIS, APRS, DAB and DAB+, DMR, D-Star, FT8, POCSAG, Navtex, Inmarsat C and RS41 radiosondes, and a headless server is controlled through a REST API. Version 7.27.2 was released on 19 August 2026.

HDSDR

Freeware for Windows, closed source. It talks to radios through ExtIO driver DLLs (32-bit only), which covers RTL-SDR, SDRplay RSPs, Airspy HF+, Perseus, LimeSDR, Pluto, HackRF and many others, and it can use a sound card receiver. It demodulates AM, FM, SSB and CW and has a basic transmit function in SSB, AM, FM and CW; its hardware page notes that HackRF cannot transmit through it. There is no native Linux or macOS version, though its FAQ says it runs under WINE with sound-card or network receivers. Version 2.81a was released on 15 January 2025.

SDR Console (SDR-Radio.com)

A Windows program for receivers and transceivers, actively developed, and Windows-only by stated policy. It supports a long list of radios natively, among them Airspy, ANAN, bladeRF, Ettus, HackRF, Hermes-Lite 2, LimeSDR, Perseus, Pluto, RTL dongles, RX-666/888 and SDRplay. It transmits on ANAN, Hermes Lite, LimeSDR and Pluto, decodes PSK and RTTY, and has an SDR Server for up to ten remote users (receive only). It is free for hobby and education use; commercial use is $125 per seat. The current release is version 3.3, from 5 February 2024, on long-term support; a 3.4 beta, build 4170, followed on 27 August 2026.

Gqrx

An open-source (GPL-3.0) receiver built on GNU Radio, for Linux and macOS; its README points Windows users to radioconda. It reaches FunCube, RTL-SDR, Airspy, HackRF, bladeRF, RFSpace, USRP and SoapySDR devices through gr-osmosdr, and offers TCP remote control and UDP audio streaming. It has a NOAA APT mode and decodes RDS. Version 2.17.7 was released on 27 May 2025.

CubicSDR

Open-source (GPL-2.0+) and cross-platform, with every radio reached through SoapySDR. Its manual says digital modes are a work in progress. The last release with ready-made downloads was 0.2.5 in August 2018; 0.2.7 in February 2022 was a source-only release, though changes are still being merged into its repository.

Sources

Every fact above about another program comes from these pages, read on 23 October 2026.

• SDR#: airspy.com/download, changelog
• SDR++: sdrpp.org, repository and module table, releases
• SDRangel: sdrangel.org, releases, wiki, browser build
• HDSDR: hdsdr.de, hardware, FAQ
• SDR Console: sdr-radio.com, transmit, licence, release notes, download, FAQ
• Gqrx: gqrx.dk, repository, releases
• CubicSDR: repository, manual, releases