head to head · open source
LosslessCut vs RawTherapee
LosslessCut has 43,838 GitHub stars, 2,173 forks, 300 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. RawTherapee has 4,178 stars, 417 forks, 1,028 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. LosslessCut leads on adoption by 949% (43,838 vs 4,178 stars). LosslessCut is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0; RawTherapee is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. LosslessCut has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, RawTherapee 10%. 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 | RawTherapee | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 44K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 417 |
| 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 RawTherapee if
- You want the RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee 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 RawTherapee
RawTherapee is a cross platform raw photo processing program released as libre software under the GNU General Public License Version 3. It is written mostly in C++ with a GTK+ front end, and it reads raw files through a patched version of dcraw combined with an in house solution that adds support for certain camera models dcraw does not handle and improves the accuracy of certain raw files dcraw already supports. The project lives in the open source photography ecosystem, with its documentation hosted on RawPedia and its community discussion taking place in the RawTherapee section of the pixls.us forum.…
read the full RawTherapee overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LosslessCut or RawTherapee more popular?
LosslessCut has 43,838 GitHub stars and RawTherapee has 4,178. LosslessCut has the larger community by that measure.
Are LosslessCut and RawTherapee free?
Both are open source. LosslessCut is licensed under GPL-2.0 and RawTherapee under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LosslessCut and RawTherapee?
LosslessCut is written in TypeScript and RawTherapee 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, LosslessCut or RawTherapee?
Choose LosslessCut if you want the larger community (43,838 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose RawTherapee if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.