By the strictest/most literal definition yes, it is a DAW. But it does not do what people expect of DAW’s.
* no real time effects playback
* it doesn’t support VSTi’s (long standard and expected)
* no sequences
* can’t use MIDI controllers
It’s a fantastic platform for recording audio and post-processing, it is a terrible music production program, which even the most basic DAW’s can handle.
To make a video comparison, it’d an like an NLE that can’t sync audio/multi cam, has an unintuitive and semi-bloated UI, doesn’t support captions, and can’t support multiple timelines under one project.
I use Audacity like a DAW. Please clarify:
"Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor" [0]
"A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files." [1]
You can use Audacity to record, edit and produce audio files.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacity_(audio_editor)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation