head to head · open source
LosslessCut vs photon
LosslessCut has 44,217 GitHub stars, 2,192 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. photon has 3,897 stars, 189 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. LosslessCut leads on adoption by 1,035% (44,217 vs 3,897 stars). LosslessCut is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0; photon is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. LosslessCut has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, photon 5%. LosslessCut 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
| LosslessCut | photon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 189 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LosslessCut if
- You weight community size — 44K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick photon if
- You want the photon 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 photon fits your workflow better
About LosslessCut
LosslessCut is a cross platform desktop application for lossless editing of video, audio, and subtitle files. Built with Electron and TypeScript, it serves as a graphical interface to FFmpeg, enabling users to perform precise cuts, trims, merges, and track manipulations without re encoding, thus preserving original quality. It targets users who need to rapidly process media files—such as raw footage from cameras, drones, or smartphones—where re encoding would be time consuming and degrade fidelity.
read the full LosslessCut overview →
About photon
photon is an open source Rust library that compiles to WebAssembly for fast image processing in the browser, on Node, or natively, aimed at developers who need to apply image effects from their own applications.
read the full photon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LosslessCut or photon more popular?
LosslessCut has 44,217 GitHub stars and photon has 3,897. LosslessCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are LosslessCut and photon free?
Both are open source. LosslessCut is licensed under GPL-2.0 and photon under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LosslessCut and photon?
LosslessCut is written in TypeScript and photon 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, LosslessCut or photon?
Choose LosslessCut if you want the larger community (44,217 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose photon if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.