NCH's editor packs a lot of effects and batch tools into a light program. The licensing is where you need to read carefully.
WavePad comes from NCH Software, an Australian company with a large catalogue of small, inexpensive utilities. The editor itself is capable and light, the interface uses a familiar ribbon layout that Windows users find comfortable immediately, and the effects list is longer than Audacity's. Our reservations are almost entirely about how it is sold rather than what it does.
The processing toolbox is the selling point. Alongside the usual amplify, normalise, fade and EQ, you get:
It is also undemanding: the download is small, it launches fast, and it runs happily on older machines where Audition would struggle.
This is the part to read twice. WavePad's free edition is licensed for non-commercial home use only. Using it for anything you get paid for, whether a client's podcast, a commercial video or freelance audio work, requires a paid edition. Several features are reserved for the paid versions, and which ones sit behind the paywall has changed over time.
The installer and the program also promote NCH's other applications persistently, and trial prompts appear more often than most people find comfortable. None of it is malicious, but it is a markedly more commercial experience than opening Audacity.
Against Audacity: WavePad has a friendlier interface and better batch tools; Audacity has stronger multitrack support, no licence restrictions of any kind, and an open-source guarantee that it will not change the deal later.
Against Ocenaudio: Ocenaudio is faster, cleaner and free for all uses including commercial ones; WavePad has more effects and far better batch processing.
Against Adobe Audition: no contest on repair quality, since Audition's spectral tools are in a different class, but WavePad's paid editions cost a fraction of a year's subscription and are yours to keep.
Two groups get real value. People digitising a large archive of tapes or records, because the restoration filters plus batch processing are exactly the right shape for that work. And people who want a straightforward Windows editor with a modern ribbon interface and are willing to pay a modest one-off price to unlock it.
Everyone else will be better served by a free tool without licence conditions attached.
A competent editor let down by how insistently it is sold. If the restoration filters or the batch processing solve a specific problem you have, it is worth the paid licence and it will not disappoint. If you are just looking for a general free editor, Audacity and Ocenaudio give you more freedom and no conditions.