head to head · open source
filepond vs lightcraft
filepond has 16,388 GitHub stars, 851 forks, 142 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. lightcraft has 12,100 stars, 4,402 forks, 347 open issues and last shipped yesterday. filepond leads on adoption by 35% (16,388 vs 12,100 stars). filepond is written in JavaScript under MIT; lightcraft is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. filepond has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, lightcraft 36%. lightcraft 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
| filepond | lightcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 851 | ⑂ 4.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick filepond if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lightcraft if
- You want the lightcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and lightcraft fits your workflow better
About filepond
FilePond is an MIT licensed JavaScript file upload library for front end developers who need drag and drop, clipboard paste, API driven uploads, and automatic image optimization in one dependency.
read the full filepond overview →
About lightcraft
LightCraft is an open source, clean room reimplementation of Adobe Lightroom written in pure Rust, aimed at photographers who want a native, non destructive photo library and raw editor on their own machine.
read the full lightcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is filepond or lightcraft more popular?
filepond has 16,388 GitHub stars and lightcraft has 12,100. filepond has the larger community by that measure.
Are filepond and lightcraft free?
Both are open source. filepond is licensed under MIT and lightcraft under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between filepond and lightcraft?
filepond is written in JavaScript and lightcraft in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, filepond or lightcraft?
Choose filepond if you want the larger community (16,388 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lightcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.