plugin vs recording software

I recently installed the trial version of Izotope’s RX software bundle as I sought something that would successfully help curb my seemingly unavoidable mouth clicks. I ran a wav file through it using their declick plugin and the results were nothing short of amazing. Imagine my surprise when I fired up Audacity, as this is what I am most accustomed to using (though still a newb) and saw the izotope’s plugins were usable in Audacity. My question is: Is there a difference in quality/ability using the plugin within Izotope vs Audacity, or is all the heavy lifting being down purely by the plugin? Izotope is rather expensive but works really well. It’s declick plugin still does a good job within audacity too. If I can save money by just using it or another good declick program within Audacity all the better.

AUdacity uses the izotope plug-ins (when you have them available - the plug-ins are doing the heavy- lifting

Audacity does have its own Click Removal effect - see: https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Click_Removal

When I was transcribing my LPs I used Brian Davies’ excellent ClickRepir - costs a little but works wonders - see this sticky thread: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/click-pop-removal-clickrepair-software/1933/1
You do get a 14-dat free-trial …

WC

I didn’t have much luck with Audacity’s click removal. Izotope’s worked great right out of the box. I had read the forum post on the one you mentioned just before posting this question. I will definitely check it out. Thanks.