head to head · open source
Darktable vs Kdenlive
Darktable has 13,088 GitHub stars, 1,434 forks, 678 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kdenlive has 5,701 stars, 513 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Darktable leads on adoption by 130% (13,088 vs 5,701 stars). Darktable is written in C under GPL-3.0; Kdenlive is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. Darktable has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Kdenlive 9%. Darktable was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Darktable | Kdenlive | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 513 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Darktable if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Kdenlive if
- You want the Kdenlive feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Kdenlive fits your workflow better
About Darktable
Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and non destructive raw developer. It acts as a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers, and it lives in the open source photography ecosystem as a C project licensed under the GPL 3.0. It manages digital negatives in a database, lets a user view them through a zoomable lighttable, and supports raw development, enhancement, and export to local or remote storage.
read the full Darktable overview →
About Kdenlive
Kdenlive is a free and open source video editor written in C++, released under the GPL 3.0 license, and developed as part of the KDE ecosystem. It builds on the MLT framework for its editing and playback engine, uses Qt and KDE Frameworks 6 for its graphical interface, and draws on frei0r for video effects and LADSPA for audio effects. The project lives within KDE's development infrastructure, with its primary repository hosted on KDE Invent and a GitHub mirror maintained for visibility, and it is distributed through the official kdenlive.org website.
read the full Kdenlive overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Darktable or Kdenlive more popular?
Darktable has 13,088 GitHub stars and Kdenlive has 5,701. Darktable has the larger community by that measure.
Are Darktable and Kdenlive free?
Both are open source. Darktable is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Kdenlive under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Darktable and Kdenlive?
Darktable is written in C and Kdenlive in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Darktable or Kdenlive?
Choose Darktable if you want the larger community (13,088 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Kdenlive if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.