VCV rack is pretty awesome, and you can do a lot of things with it that you couldn't with Zupiter. It's much more of a professional tool and as far as I know it's very well-regarded in the modular synth community, and a good way to pick out modules before spending hundreds or even thousands on physical hardware.

However, I think Zupiter is a nice way to get people who've never played with sound synthesis interested, and the sharing feature is one thing that differentiates it from most browser-based music apps out there. You can easily show your friends what you've made, or modify what other people made.

> it's very well-regarded in the modular synth community

Maybe. All but one of the modular synth guys I know are hardware purists. They look down on VCV and even semi-modular synths like the Behringer Neutron. You'd think some of these modular guys were in a cult, heh. (I've always just seen modular synths as just another tool.)

That does sound pretty cultish. I kind of get how VCV takes some of the fun out of modular for them. There's definitely something fun about playing with physical hardware and connecting it together. It's also a way to do something technical that doesn't involve computers. Another angle is that if VCV rack does a good job at emulation, it kind of highlights the foolishness of spending thousands on hardware. That being said, I might be biased. I actually own a Behringer Neutron :O